Truck Day

Taken from Redsox.com By Ian Browne / MLB.com
BOSTON -- Johnny Pesky, who was a star hitter for the Red Sox generations ago and is now the team's most enthusiastic ambassador, played an entirely different role on Friday afternoon.
For a man who has done everything with the club -- from player to manager to broadcaster to coach to front-office executive to instructor -- he had never hit the proverbial ignition button on a season.
That is what Pesky did on a frigid day outside of Fenway Park. The 89-year-old Pesky climbed into a moving truck filled with equipment that is headed to Spring Training and turned on the engine in ceremonious fashion at roughly 2:15 p.m. ET. That truck will arrive in Fort Myers, Fla., by Sunday afternoon, plenty of time to unpack before pitchers and catchers report to camp on Thursday.
Who better than Pesky to serve as grand marshal for what the Red Sox described as a Spring Training equipment truck departure parade?
"It's always exciting to go to Spring Training -- to see the new kids and all that stuff," said Pesky. "I'm kind of anxious to see the new draftees and stuff like that. Our organization has been so good about bringing so many good kids here."
His days of hitting endless fungoes likely over, Pesky will still be in uniform for the Red Sox for yet another Spring Training.
"I'm getting a little too old for some of those fungoes," Pesky said. "I might retire after this year."
Of course, Pesky -- whose No. 6 was retired to Fenway Park's right-field facade last September -- has said similar things before, only to come back again and again. That is how much he loves the game. And the dawn of a new season harkened back memories for Pesky of when it all began for him with the Red Sox.
"I was in Sarasota, [Fla.,] for my first Spring Training," said Pesky. "That was in 1942. I'm an old guy. I was there with Ted [Williams] and Bobby [Doerr] and Dom [DiMaggio] and Jimmie [Foxx]. When I got here, I was very well received."
And Pesky still is.

Pesky was just one of many who gathered outside of Fenway to watch boxes get loaded on to a truck. Dozens of fans came out to witness the symbolic coming of spring, some holding signs, others posing next to the truck.
"It's the start of everything," said Kelly O'Connor, a die-hard Red Sox fan from Arlington, Mass. "You've gone through the offseason. You've just had your insides flayed out dealing with whether we were going to sign [Jason] Varitek or not. Finally, this is the beginning. This is the point from, beyond which, it can't be stopped. It's ongoing. The truck will get down there, everything will happen from here. There will be equipment, there will be players, there will be training, there will be warmups, there will be exhibition games, and then the next thing you know, it will be Opening Day."
As the banner hanging from the truck proclaimed, Opening Day is in 59 days.
But before that, there will be the laid-back period of Spring Training.
"It's always exciting," Pesky said. "You show up down there and the fans are so good. It's a nice atmosphere. They get there early enough to try to get autographs. I'm always available, because I'm not a player."
However, Pesky remains the ultimate representative of the organization he's been associated with for the better part of his life.
"I'm very fortunate to have been with the Red Sox for all these years," said Pesky. "I'm glad my mother picked the Red Sox. When I was a kid, I was in demand. The Cardinals wanted to sign me, the Yankees wanted to sign me, the Tigers wanted to sign me. I thought I was hot stuff."