I have been a Red Sox fan for my entire life, and this past week Red Sox nation mourned the loss of one of its family, Johnny Pesky. He had been a fixture with the Sox for more than a half century, so he represented one of those vestiges from my earliest childhood memories of the franchise.The right field foul pole in Fenway Park bears the name of Mr. Pesky for reasons that have been disputed over the years; nonetheless, it was formally dedicated as the Pesky Pole for his 87th birthday. After watching this man and his contributions to the Red Sox over the years, I have my own opinion about the Pesky "poll". He loved the game of baseball and his beloved Red Sox, he valued the fans especially the young, but more importantly he remained humble throughout all his success. Those are qualities that make him a Hall of Famer in any one's book!
Great blog! It seems that Johnny Pesky was one of the good guys. Todays athletes should take a page out of his book. J
ReplyDeleteGranpa remembers Johnny Pesky hitting fungos to the outfielders before a home game at Fenway Park when he was in his 70s; in his words, "remarkable but not surprising".
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