O/T: Johnny Pesky passed away today at 92

[Peter_Spaeth]

Of course he was involved in one of the most exciting plays in WS history when Slaughter scored from first on a single -- he always claimed he did not hestitate/hold the ball before throwing to the plate.

[tjb1952tjb]

The only MLB player to lead the league in hits each of his first three seasons...........now that's impressive!!

RIP Johnny Pesky



Only Bobby Doerr remains:

Doerr, a Hall of Fame second baseman and Pesky’s longtime double-play partner, said the two were friends since 1934, when Doerr broke into the Pacific Coast League with the Hollywood Stars and Pesky was the clubhouse boy in Portland.

“He would hang your jockstrap up. He would hang your wet sweat shirt up. That’s kind of how close we were,” the 94-year-old Doerr told the AP from his home in Junction City, Ore. “We got to be good friends. When he got to the Red Sox, we roomed together.

“He was good to play alongside of. He hit a lot of line drives. He could run. He beat out a lot of balls to first base,” Doerr recalled. “When he got a good pitch to hit, he hit it.”
Pesky was often said to have held the ball for a split second as Enos Slaughter
made his famous “Mad Dash” from first base to score the winning run for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Red Sox in the deciding game of the 1946 World Series.

With the score tied at 3, Slaughter opened the bottom of the eighth inning with a single. With two outs, Harry Walker hit the ball to center field. Pesky, playing shortstop, took the cutoff throw from outfielder Leon Culberson, and according to some newspaper accounts, hesitated before throwing home. Slaughter, who ran through the stop sign at third base, was safe at the plate, and the best-of-seven series went to the Cardinals.

“I thought he got rid of it pretty good. There was no fault of Johnny’s on that,” Doerr said.

Pesky always denied any indecision, and analysis of the film appeared to back him up, but the myth persisted.