Those Pesky Autographs

This is my third Johnny Pesky autograph.  Pesky is one of my favorite all-time players and one of the team's most underrated stars.  Pesky always did whatever was best for the team, hitting second and moving runners, moving to third when Boston acquired Vern Stephens, and so much more.  He also spent years in Boston after his playing career was over, whether as a coach, manager, or even just a roving minor league instructor.  Pesky deserved to have his uniform number retired due to his tireless efforts to work with the team.

This is a particularly interesting card since it is a cut autograph.  Pesky died recently so it is not possible for him to sign new cards.  This is obviously cut from a check he wrote.  It is an extremely interesting concept.

Well, I figure I will use this opportunity to segue into a topic that does not come up often on this blog anymore, a book:

Some time ago I was on a big kick about finding books about the Red Sox, and in particular focusing on underrepresented topics.  So when I saw a biography about Johnny Pesky, I decided to jump on it.  Pesky was featured in David Halberstam's The Teammates, but this was the first book focused entirely on his career that I came across.  Pesky was a very interesting player, leading the league in hits each of his first three Major League seasons, and spending some time in service of the U.S. in World War II.  He was a very good player and an excellent #2 hitter.  The book is interesting enough, but it is not terribly in-depth.  It is a quick and easy read and covers the major portions of his life and career.  It is just not as detailed as some books I have read, in particular the ones about Ted Williams.  I liked it fine, but it did not feel truly complete to me.  The book was also written before Pesky's death, so it truly was not complete in that sense.  The author Bill Nowlin has written a number of books about baseball, and in particular the Red Sox.  I am jealous of his career.  I would love to do something like that.

R.I.P. Johnny Pesky

Mr. Red Sox has passed away recently at the age of 92.  He was a great player for the team in the 1940's and 1950's and he kept coming to Spring Training even up to this year.  Pesky will be missed.

Hall of Fame Worthy? Pt. 1: Johnny Pesky

The Hall of Fame has inducted many players who were borderline choices, and many players who deserve induction have been on the outside looking in. I want to look at some players to determine if they deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.

JOHNNY PESKY
Johnny Pesky was one of the key members of the Red Sox during the 1940's. The shortstop and third-baseman was an excellent contact hitter and as at least decent in the field. But, is Pesky worthy of Cooperstown induction?

Pesky had virtually no power, but hit for high averages and got on base at an extremely impressive clip. Pesky also accumulated more than 200 hits in each of his first three seasons which book-ended some WWII service time. Pesky had one of the all-time great rookie seasons for a shortstop, going .331/.375/.416 with 205 hits to lead the league.

He was an All Star for the only time in 1946 and lead the league again in hits and at-bats in 1946 and 1947. Pesky continued to perform at a high level for a couple more years in Boston but then bounced around the league for a few years before calling it a career. Later, he went on to be a manager, broadcaster, and several other positions with the Red Sox.

THE VERDICT:
Pesky's peak was fairly brief and he was basically finished after 1953. The three years of military service could have made this a more difficult decision, but the fact of the matter is that Pesky was not good enough for long enough to be a Hall of Famer.

10-10-10-10 Seasons in Red Sox History

I was curious about some of the big power/speed seasons in Red Sox history, I will have a post about 20/20 seasons soon (Boston has not had a 30/30 season), so I did some more research. Today however, I was more interested in how many players have had a season in which they had ten or more doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases. The triples part is the hard part. You have to have decent power to drive the ball and speed in order to move all the way to third base. So, I formulated a hypothesis as to which players I would see and then did the research.

First Trivia: There are two players that had two such seasons. Who are they?

My hypothesis: I expected to see Nomar Garciaparra, Jackie Jensen, one of the three of Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, or Johnny Pesky, Tris Speaker, and at least one other Dead Ball Era player.

The Results:
Nomar Garciaparra (2003): 37 doubles, 13 triples, 28 home runs, 19 stolen bases.
Johnny Damon (2002): 34 doubles, 11 triples, 14 home runs, 31 stolen bases.
Nomar Garciaparra (1997): 44 doubles, 11 triples, 30 home runs, 22 stolen bases. And it was his rookie year.
Jackie Jensen (1956): 23 doubles, 11 triples, 20 home runs, 11 stolen bases.
Bobby Doerr (1940): 37 doubles, 10 triples, 22 home runs, 10 stolen bases.
Billy Werber (1934): 41 doubles, 10 triples, 11 home runs, 40 stolen bases. Largely forgotten great player in the 1930's.
Tris Speaker (1912): 53 doubles, 12 triples, 10 home runs, 52 stolen bases.
Jake Stahl (1910): 19 doubles, 16 triples, 10 home runs, 22 stolen bases. Ah, the Dead Ball Era.
Buck Freeman (1902): 38 doubles, 19 triples, 11 home runs, 17 stolen bases.
Buck Freeman (1901): 23 doubles, 15 triples, 12 home runs, 17 stolen bases.

Trivia Answer: As you can see both Nomar Garciaparra and Buck Freeman did it twice.

Results: It's pretty rare to see these seasons. Most players do not hit a lot of triples. It's weird that there were four seasons in the first twenty years of the franchise's existence, then after 1956, there was not another one for over forty years. Garciaparra was an incredible player in his rookie season. My hypothesis was correct, although I did not guess that it would be 1956 that Jensen did it. Also, I was surprised that Doerr was the only player who did it. Pesky did not have much power, but I thought he may have hit ten home runs. I am very surprised that DiMaggio did not do it. Four Dead Ball Era players is surprising.