WHY I THINK JOHNNY PESKY SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
Johnny Pesky was a consistent .300 hitting shortstop in an era of pitching who rarely struck out and scored a ton. He only played for ten years in the MLB, but he kept his potent bat in the Red Sox lineup when slugger Vern Stephens came over to the club in 1948. Not wanting to hurt his team, Pesky moved over to third base and continued his fine fielding ways at the hot corner. Johnny Paveskovich started his career with Boston in 1942 and was an instant success, as he batted .331 and led the MLB in hits and sacrifice hits. He decided to go to war in 1943 and didn’t return to baseball until the war was over. In both 1946 and 1947, he led the Majors in hits and carried a career batting average of .330 into 1948, when he switched to third base. He also legally changed his last name from Paveskovich to Pesky in 1947, because he thought of himself as a pesky hitter. He stayed with the Red Sox through 1951, the season when he and Stephens traded positions, and batted well over .300 three more times with them. He was dealt over to the Tigers in the middle of the 1952 season. He was 33 and most thought that he was through. Pesky had one last great season in 1953, batting .292, and played in 69 games for two teams in 1954 before being released first by the Washington Senators and then by the Orioles. Johnny Pesky was a great hitter, a fine fielder, and a team player. He was much better than the other fine AL shortstop of his time, the Yankees’ Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto. If Rizzuto and his .273 average can make the cut, how come Pesky and his .307 can’t?
LIFETIME STATISTICS
Games career: 1,270 season high: 155 in 1947
At Bats career: 4,745 season high: 638 in 1947 led AL: 621 in 1946, 638 in 1947
Hits career: 1,455 season high: 208 in 1946 led AL: 205 in 1942, 208 in 1946, 207 in 1947
Doubles career: 226 season high: 43 in 1946
Triples career: 50 season high: 9 in 1942
Home Runs career: 17 season high: 3 in 1948 and 1951
Runs career: 867 season high: 124 in 1948
Runs Batted in career: 404 season high: 69 in 1949
Stolen Bases career: 53 season high: 12 in 1942 and 1947
Walks career: 662 season high: 104 in 1950
Strikeouts career: 218 season high: 36 in 1942
Batting Average career: .307 season high: .335 in 1946
On Base Percentage career: .394 season high: .437 in 1950
Slugging Percentage career: .386 season high: .427 in 1946
Sacrifice Hits career: 83 season high: 22 in 1942 led AL: 22 in 1942
Total Bases career: 1,832 season high: 265 in 1946
Fielding Percentage career: .966 season high: .991 in 1953
Double Plays career: 594 season high: 96 in 1946 led AL 3B: 35 in 1948, 48 in 1949
Putouts career: 1,987 season high: 320 in 1942 led AL 3B: 184 in 1949
Assists career: 3,114 season high: 479 in 1946 led AL SS: 465 in 1942 led AL 3B: 333 in 1949
DID YOU KNOW?
-nicknamed “The Needle”, “Needlenose”, and “Mr. Red Sox”
-batted lefthanded and threw righthanded
-was the first AL player to score six runs in a nine inning game
-set the Red Sox rookie record for hits in 1942
-finished second in the 1942 AL batting race (.331) to teammate Ted Williams (.356)
-finished third in the AL MVP Award voting in 1942, fourth in 1946, 18th in 1947, and 26th in 1951
-made the 1946 AL all-star team
-his 53 hits in August of 1946 set the Red Sox one-month record, and was later tied by Dom DiMaggio
-led the AL in plate appearances in 1946 (703)
-outhit Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Stan Musial in the 1946 World Series and also stole a base
-led AL third basemen in games in 1949 (148) and led AL shortstops in 1942 (147)
-set a record by starting his career with three straight 200-hit seasons (since topped by Ichiro Suzuki)
-went 2-for-4 in his MLB debut
-led the AL in singles in 1942, 1946, and 1947
-homered off of Allie Reynolds and Hall of Famer Bob Feller during his career
-went 147-179 (.451) as the manager of the Red Sox
-mentored Hall of Famer outfielders Al Kaline and Jim Rice
-in his honor, the rightfield foul pole in Fenway was officially named “Pesky’s Pole”
-also played 140 games at second base, 101 as a pinch hitter, and five as a pinch runner
-was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995, and his number 6 was retired by the club in 2008
Pesky was way better than Rizzuto as a hitter, I will grant (107 OPS+ to 93), but Rizzuto was way, way, way better as a fielder. According to Baseball Reference, Rizzuto was 116 runs above average, while Pesky was 17, which seems consistent with their reputations.
ReplyDeleteHere's a funny story which I got from the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (paraphrased).Pesky loved playing hockey, and was very good at it, but his baseball managers never approved of it .One time Joe Cronin got a call from a friend in Portland who mentioned he had seen a very good hockey player who looked like Pesky, but his name was Paveskovitch. Cronin sent Pesky a telegram, saying "Pesky, Paveskovith, or whatever your name is, get off the ice and stay off."
For what it's worth, James rates Rizzuto as the 16th best short stop, and Pesky the 20th.
By the way, Johnny Pesky was called Pesky from the beginning of his career, so do you just mean that's when he legally changed his name?
That's a funny story, and I'm a little surprised that I haven't heard it. I meant that he legally changed his name in 1947. So what do you think? Is Pesky in or out for you? What about Rizzuto?
DeletePesky is out, Rizzuto is in. I know a lot of people think Rizzuto of the .273 average doesn't make it, but if not for WWII he would've had 2,000+ hits, and he was just such a phenomenal fielder. Pesky's hitting advantage isn't close to Rizzuto's edge in the field.
DeleteI disagree. I believe that a 34 point advantage in batting average is more substantial than a two point advantage in fielding percentage. Rizzuto did lead his league in more categories than Pesky did, but Pesky could also excel at third base, while Rizzuto played a grand total of two games at other positions. Here's an article that gives Pesky's case and a short comparison between the two.
Deletehttps://hofdebate.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/introducing-johnny-pesky/
I feel a little bad telling this to a Yankees fan but, in my opinion, Pesky was better.