Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 23, 2008
Retiring Numbers

The Boston Globe Extra Bases Blog reports the Red Sox will retire Johnny Pesky's number this weekend:

A team source confirmed to the Globe that the Red Sox will retire Johnny Pesky's No. 6 this weekend, during the final series of the year with the New York Yankees. The official announcement could come as early as today. The Boston Herald first reported on their website this afternoon that the Sox were expected to retire Pesky's number.

The Red Sox will break their traditional requirements for a player's number to be retired: that he is in the Hall of Fame, that he ended his career with the club, and that he played at least 10 seasons for the Red Sox. Pesky is not in the Hall of Fame.

Pesky, who will turn 89 Saturday and still maintains a locker in the Red Sox clubhouse, will join Bobby Doerr (1), Joe Cronin (4), Carl Yastrzemski (8), Ted Williams (9) and Carlton Fisk (27) as players whose numbers have been retired. (The Red Sox created a loophole for Fisk, who ended his career with the White Sox.)

The authors fail to note the biggest break in tradition; all the numbers retire until now are perfect squares or perfect cubes. Why couldn't Pesky have worn 16? Of the future numbers under consideration, only Tony Conigliaro's 25 meets this criteria.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:43 PM | All-Time Greats | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Hey, factorials are cool too...

Posted by: patsen at September 23, 2008 03:15 PM

Six is in fact the first PERFECT number (it equals the sum of its proper divisors: 1+2+3 = 6).

Posted by: THETA Poker at September 23, 2008 04:31 PM

8675309.....

It's about time someone gets their due respect while they're still alive....... for a change.

Posted by: Leco at September 23, 2008 06:22 PM

One comment, Tony C is not in the Hall of Fame, and I do not believe he played 10 years, but regardless you can make an arguement that he belongs up there....though I do not think so

Posted by: JB at September 24, 2008 08:46 AM
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