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Johnny Pesky

John Michael Pesky (The Needle)
born John Michael Paveskovich

Positions: Shortstop, Third Baseman and Second Baseman
Bats: Left, Throws: Right
Height: 5' 9", Weight: 168 lb.

Born: February 27, 1919 in Portland, OR
High School: Lincoln HS (Portland, OR)
Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent in 1940. (All Transactions)
Debut: April 14, 1942
Teams (by GP): RedSox/Tigers/Senators 1942-1954

Final Game: September 24, 1954
Died: August 13, 2012 in Danvers, MA
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Fine Details  · Last updated Dec 13, 2012 3:17PM
All-Time Rank (among batters): #310. Johnny Evers… #311. Cy Williams… #312. Eric Davis… #313. JOHNNY PESKY… #314. Rafael Furcal… #315. Matt Williams… #316. Roger Peckinpaugh… 

Standard Batting

More Stats

Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1942 23 BOS AL 147 686 620 105 205 29 9 2 51 12 7 42 36 .331 .375 .416 .791 119 258 8 2 22 *6 MVP-3
1943 Did not play in major leagues (Military Service)
1944 Did not play in major leagues (Military Service)
1945 Did not play in major leagues (Military Service)
1946 27 BOS AL 153 703 621 115 208 43 4 2 55 9 8 65 29 .335 .401 .427 .827 125 265 8 3 14 *6 AS,MVP-4
1947 28 BOS AL 155 719 638 106 207 27 8 0 39 12 9 72 22 .324 .393 .392 .785 112 250 10 0 9 *65 MVP-18
1948 29 BOS AL 143 677 565 124 159 26 6 3 55 3 5 99 32 .281 .394 .365 .759 98 206 10 6 7 *5
1949 30 BOS AL 148 712 604 111 185 27 7 2 69 8 4 100 19 .306 .408 .384 .792 104 232 12 4 5 *5
1950 31 BOS AL 127 605 490 112 153 22 6 1 49 2 1 104 31 .312 .437 .388 .825 104 190 13 5 6 *5/6
1951 32 BOS AL 131 573 480 93 150 20 6 3 41 2 2 84 15 .313 .417 .398 .815 112 191 10 2 7 *65/4 MVP-26
1952 33 TOT AL 94 307 244 36 55 6 0 1 11 1 5 56 16 .225 .372 .262 .634 77 64 3 1 6 645
1952 33 BOS AL 25 84 67 10 10 2 0 0 2 0 3 15 5 .149 .313 .179 .492 36 12 1 1 1 5/6
1952 33 DET AL 69 223 177 26 45 4 0 1 9 1 2 41 11 .254 .394 .294 .688 93 52 2 0 5 64/5
1953 34 DET AL 103 342 308 43 90 22 1 2 24 3 7 27 10 .292 .353 .390 .743 102 120 4 2 5 4
1954 35 TOT AL 69 191 175 22 43 4 3 1 10 1 1 13 8 .246 .296 .320 .616 73 56 4 0 2 1 4/6
1954 35 DET AL 20 20 17 5 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 3 1 .176 .300 .353 .653 80 6 2 0 0 0
1954 35 WSH AL 49 171 158 17 40 4 3 0 9 1 1 10 7 .253 .296 .316 .612 72 50 2 0 2 1 4/6
10 Yrs 1270 5515 4745 867 1455 226 50 17 404 53 49 662 218 .307 .394 .386 .780 107 1832 82 25 83 1
162 Game Avg. 162 703 605 111 186 29 6 2 52 7 6 84 28 .307 .394 .386 .780 107 234 10 3 11
BOS (8 yrs) 1029 4759 4085 776 1277 196 46 13 361 48 39 581 189 .313 .401 .393 .794 110 1604 72 23 71
DET (3 yrs) 192 585 502 74 138 26 1 4 34 4 9 71 22 .275 .367 .355 .722 99 178 8 2 10 0
WSH (1 yr) 49 171 158 17 40 4 3 0 9 1 1 10 7 .253 .296 .316 .612 72 50 2 0 2 1

Player Value--Batters

WAR Explained (v2.1): 8+ MVP, 5+ A-S, 2+ Starter, 0-2 Sub, < 0 Repl
Year Age Tm Lg G PA Rbat Rbaser Rdp Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR waaWL% 162WL% oWAR dWAR oRAR Salary Pos Awards
1942 23 BOS AL 147 686 15 0 0 10 10 35 3.8 14 49 5.2 .525 .523 4.1 2.2 39 $ *6 MVP-3
1946 27 BOS AL 153 703 23 -0 0 9 10 42 4.6 18 60 6.4 .530 .528 5.4 2.2 51 $ *6 AS,MVP-4
1947 28 BOS AL 155 719 13 -0 0 -1 9 20 2.1 18 39 3.9 .514 .514 4.1 0.8 40 $ *65 MVP-18
1948 29 BOS AL 143 677 4 4 2 5 0 15 1.5 17 32 3.2 .510 .509 2.6 0.5 27 $ *5
1949 30 BOS AL 148 712 9 5 3 5 0 21 2.1 18 39 3.9 .514 .513 3.4 0.5 34 $ *5
1950 31 BOS AL 127 605 11 2 1 2 0 17 1.6 16 33 3.2 .512 .510 2.9 0.3 31 $ *5/6
1951 32 BOS AL 131 573 14 1 2 2 7 26 2.6 15 41 4.1 .520 .516 3.8 0.9 39 $ *65/4 MVP-26
1952 33 BOS AL 25 84 -5 -2 0 -1 0 -7 -0.8 2 -5 -0.6 .468 .495 -0.5 -0.1 -4 $ 5/6
1952 33 DET AL 69 223 1 1 0 -6 4 -0 -0.1 6 6 0.6 .499 .500 1.2 -0.3 12 $ 64/5
1953 34 DET AL 103 342 3 -2 1 -5 3 0 0.0 9 9 1.0 .500 .500 1.5 -0.2 14 $ 4
1954 35 DET AL 20 20 -1 -0 -0 0 0 -1 -0.1 0 -1 -0.1 .493 .499 -0.1 0.0 -1 $
1954 35 WSH AL 49 171 -8 0 1 -3 1 -8 -0.9 5 -4 -0.4 .482 .495 0.0 -0.2 -0 $ 4/6
10 Seasons 1270 5515 79 9 11 17 44 159 16.4 140 299 30.4 .513 .508 28.4 6.5 282 $
BOS (8 yrs) 1029 4759 83 10 9 31 36 169 17.4 119 288 29.3 .517 .513 25.8 7.2 257 $
DET (3 yrs) 192 585 3 -2 1 -11 6 -2 -0.2 16 14 1.5 .499 .500 2.6 -0.5 25 $
WSH (1 yr) 49 171 -8 0 1 -3 1 -8 -0.9 5 -4 -0.4 .482 .495 0.0 -0.2 -0 $

Postseason Batting

Postseason Gamelog
Year Age Tm Lg Series Opp Rslt G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1946 27 BOS AL WS STL L 7 31 30 2 7 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 .233 .258 .233 .491 7 0 0 0 0 0
1 WS 7 31 30 2 7 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 .233 .258 .233 .491 7 0 0 0 0 0

Standard Fielding

More Stats

Adv Fielding w/ run summary
Year Tm Lg Age Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% Rtot Rtot/yr RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG Awards
1942 BOS AL 23 SS 147 147 144 822 320 465 37 94 .955 5.34 .949 5.01 MVP-3
1946 BOS AL 27 SS 153 153 147 800 296 479 25 96 .969 5.07 .954 4.97 AS,MVP-4
1947 BOS AL 28 SS 133 134 131 658 251 391 16 90 .976 4.83 .964 5.13 MVP-18
1947 BOS AL 28 3B 22 21 21 64 25 38 1 7 .984 2.86 .959 3.01 MVP-18
1948 BOS AL 29 3B 141 141 139 446 121 303 22 35 .951 3.01 .958 3.04
1949 BOS AL 30 3B 148 148 146 533 184 333 16 48 .970 3.49 .960 3.15
1950 BOS AL 31 3B 116 116 115 1018.1 428 160 257 11 29 .974 3.69 3.59 .960 3.25 3.20
1950 BOS AL 31 SS 8 7 7 69.0 57 23 32 2 7 .965 7.17 6.88 .961 5.05 4.96
1951 BOS AL 32 SS 106 100 99 917.0 566 204 340 22 74 .961 5.34 5.13 .961 5.20 5.17 MVP-26
1951 BOS AL 32 3B 11 10 9 97.0 37 14 19 4 2 .892 3.06 3.00 .950 3.17 3.15 MVP-26
1951 BOS AL 32 2B 5 6 6 53.2 16 5 11 0 3 1.000 2.68 3.20 .978 5.72 5.68 MVP-26
1952 TOT AL 33 SS 43 38 29 323.0 193 81 103 9 26 .953 5.13 4.28 .962 4.94 4.94
1952 TOT AL 33 3B 22 19 13 166.1 55 18 33 4 0 .927 2.76 2.32 .953 3.29 3.29
1952 BOS AL 33 3B 19 17 11 148.1 48 16 28 4 0 .917 2.67 2.32 .953 3.29 3.29
1952 BOS AL 33 SS 2 0 0 7.2 5 3 2 0 1 1.000 5.87 2.50 .962 4.93 4.95
1952 DET AL 33 SS 41 38 29 315.1 188 78 101 9 25 .952 5.11 4.37 .962 4.94 4.94
1952 DET AL 33 2B 22 5 5 90.0 65 27 36 2 12 .969 6.30 2.86 .978 5.57 5.57
1952 DET AL 33 3B 3 2 2 18.0 7 2 5 0 0 1.000 3.50 2.33 .953 3.30 3.30
1953 DET AL 34 2B 73 67 62 606.1 352 166 183 3 49 .991 -5 -10 5.18 4.78 .979 5.60 5.57
1954 WSH AL 35 2B 37 35 31 297.2 187 92 91 4 22 .979 -3 -14 5.53 4.95 .976 5.37 5.33
1954 WSH AL 35 SS 1 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 5.40 5.00
7 Seasons SS 591 579 557 1310.0 3096 1175 1810 111 387 .964 0 0 5.38 5.05 .957 5.13 5.05
6 Seasons 3B 460 455 443 1281.2 1563 522 983 58 121 .963 3.52 3.27 .959 3.25 3.13
4 Seasons 2B 137 113 104 1047.2 620 290 321 9 86 .985 -8 -10 5.25 4.46 .978 5.54 5.51
10 Seasons TOT 1188 1147 1104 3639.1 5279 1987 3114 178 594 .966 -8 -3 4.69 4.29 .960 4.58 4.36
Lg Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% Rtot Rtot/yr RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG Awards
Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.
View Complete Notes on Fielding Data
Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.
  • Pre-1948 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
  • From 1948 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1948 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
  • CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1918 on.
  • Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1948 to 1973 and complete from then on.
  • Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1918) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
  • Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
  • For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1948 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
  • For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Hall of Fame
1960 BBWAA ( 0.4%)

All-Star Games
1946 (SS)

MVP (yr lg (rk, shr))
1942 AL (3, 43%)
1946 AL (4, 42%)
1947 AL (18, 3%)
1951 AL (26, 1%)
0.89 Career Shares (285th)

Wins Above Replacement† s c a p y
1942 AL  5.2 (6th)
1946 AL  6.4 (5th)

WAR Position Players† s c a p y
1942 AL  5.2 (5th)
1946 AL  6.4 (2nd)
1947 AL  3.9 (10th)

Offensive WAR† s c a p y
1942 AL  4.1 (8th)
1946 AL  5.4 (4th)
1947 AL  4.1 (6th)

Defensive WAR† s c a p y
1942 AL  2.2 (3rd)
1946 AL  2.2 (3rd)
1951 AL  0.9 (7th)

Batting Average s c a p y
1942 AL  .331 (2nd)
1946 AL  .335 (3rd)
1947 AL  .324 (3rd)
1949 AL  .306 (8th)
1951 AL  .313 (6th)
Career  .307 (139th)

On-Base% s c a p y
1946 AL  .401 (4th)
1947 AL  .393 (7th)
1948 AL  .394 (9th)
1949 AL  .408 (9th)
1950 AL  .437 (3rd)
1951 AL  .417 (6th)
Career  .394 (80th)

On-Base Plus Slugging s c a p y
1946 AL  .827 (9th)

Games Played s c a p y
1946 AL  153 (3rd)
1947 AL  155 (3rd)

At Bats s c a p y
1942 AL  620 (6th)
1946 AL  621 (1st)
1947 AL  638 (1st)
1948 AL  565 (10th)
1949 AL  604 (6th)

Plate Appearances s c a p y
1942 AL  686 (4th)
1946 AL  703 (1st)
1947 AL  719 (2nd)
1948 AL  677 (5th)
1949 AL  712 (2nd)

Runs Scored s c a p y
1942 AL  105 (6th)
1946 AL  115 (2nd)
1947 AL  106 (3rd)
1948 AL  124 (3rd)
1949 AL  111 (5th)
1950 AL  112 (8th)
1951 AL  93 (6th)

Hits s c a p y
1942 AL  205 (1st)
1946 AL  208 (1st)
1947 AL  207 (1st)
1949 AL  185 (4th)

Total Bases s c a p y
1942 AL  258 (8th)
1946 AL  265 (6th)
1947 AL  250 (5th)

Doubles s c a p y
1946 AL  43 (3rd)
1949 AL  27 (9th)

Triples s c a p y
1942 AL  9 (10th)
1947 AL  8 (10th)
1949 AL  7 (9th)

Bases on Balls s c a p y
1948 AL  99 (5th)
1949 AL  100 (8th)
1950 AL  104 (3rd)
1951 AL  84 (6th)

Stolen Bases s c a p y
1946 AL  9 (9th)
1947 AL  12 (3rd)

Singles s c a p y
1942 AL  165 (1st)
1946 AL  159 (1st)
1947 AL  172 (1st)
1948 AL  124 (8th)
1949 AL  149 (2nd)
1950 AL  124 (8th)
1951 AL  121 (8th)

Adjusted OPS+ s c a p y
1946 AL  125 (10th)

Runs Created s c a p y
1942 AL  96 (8th)
1946 AL  104 (5th)
1947 AL  98 (3rd)

Adj. Batting Runs s c a p y
1946 AL  24 (9th)

Adj. Batting Wins s c a p y
1946 AL  2.5 (9th)

Times On Base s c a p y
1942 AL  249 (9th)
1946 AL  276 (2nd)
1947 AL  279 (2nd)
1948 AL  264 (6th)
1949 AL  289 (3rd)

Offensive Win % s c a p y
1946 AL  .679 (7th)

Hit By Pitch s c a p y
1948 AL  6 (4th)
1949 AL  4 (7th)
1950 AL  5 (9th)

Sacrifice Hits s c a p y
1942 AL  22 (1st)
1946 AL  14 (3rd)

Caught Stealing s c a p y
1946 AL  8 (5th)
1947 AL  9 (6th)
1953 AL  7 (6th)

AB per SO s c a p y
1946 AL  21.4 (6th)
1947 AL  29.0 (4th)
1949 AL  31.8 (4th)
1951 AL  32.0 (3rd)
Career  21.8 (89th)

Outs Made s c a p y
1942 AL  452 (10th)
1946 AL  443 (4th)
1947 AL  459 (5th)
1949 AL  440 (9th)

Base-Out Runs Added (RE24)† s c a p y
1949 AL  27.17 (7th)

Win Probability Added (WPA)† s c a p y
1949 AL  2.8 (7th)
1951 AL  3.1 (4th)

Base-Out Wins Added (REW)† s c a p y
1949 AL  2.6 (7th)

Assists† s c a p y
1942 AL  465 (1st)
1946 AL  479 (3rd)

Errors Committed† s c a p y
1942 AL  37 (3rd)
1951 AL  26 (4th)

Def. Games as 3B s c a p y
1948 AL  141 (5th)
1949 AL  148 (1st)
1950 AL  116 (4th)

Putouts as 3B s c a p y
1949 AL  184 (1st)
1950 AL  160 (3rd)

Assists as 3B s c a p y
1948 AL  303 (2nd)
1949 AL  333 (1st)
1950 AL  257 (4th)

Errors Committed as 3B s c a p y
1948 AL  22 (1st)
1949 AL  16 (3rd)
1950 AL  11 (5th)

Def. Games as SS s c a p y
1942 AL  147 (1st)
1946 AL  153 (2nd)

Putouts as SS s c a p y
1942 AL  320 (2nd)
1946 AL  296 (2nd)

Assists as SS s c a p y
1942 AL  465 (1st)
1946 AL  479 (2nd)

Errors Committed as SS s c a p y
1942 AL  37 (3rd)
1946 AL  25 (5th)
1951 AL  22 (4th)

Range Factor/9Inn as 3B† s c a p y
1950 AL  3.69 (1st)

Range Factor/Game as 3B s c a p y
1948 AL  3.01 (3rd)
1949 AL  3.49 (1st)
1950 AL  3.59 (1st)

Fielding % as 3B s c a p y
1949 AL  .970 (3rd)
1950 AL  .974 (2nd)

Range Factor/9Inn as SS† s c a p y
1951 AL  5.34 (3rd)

Range Factor/Game as SS s c a p y
1942 AL  5.34 (2nd)
1946 AL  5.07 (4th)
1951 AL  5.13 (3rd)
Career  5.05 (62nd)

Fielding % as SS s c a p y
1942 AL  .955 (3rd)
1946 AL  .969 (2nd)
1947 AL  .976 (3rd)
1951 AL  .961 (4th)

             

† Statistics like WPA, REW and RE24 are computed from play-by-play data which is only complete from 1974 to the present. From 1948-1973, the data is incomplete, though for most seasons only less than 20 games per season total are missing. Please see our page on data coverage for a full view of the data used to create these leaderboards.

Hall Of Fame Statistics

Player rank in (·)

Black InkBatting - 11 (217), Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray InkBatting - 79 (306), Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame MonitorBatting - 71 (271), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame StandardsBatting - 33 (253), Average HOFer ≈ 50
JAWS Shortstop (50th), 30.4 career WAR/29.9 7yr-peak WAR/30.2 JAWS
Average HOF SS (out of 21) = 63.1 career WAR/41.1 7yr-peak WAR/52.1 JAWS

Similarity Scores

Explanation of Similarity Scores
Similar Batters 
 View Similar Player Links in Pop-up
 Compare Stats to Similars
  1. Woody English (933)
  2. Johnny Temple (912)
  3. Dave Cash (900)
  4. Sparky Adams (899)
  5. Bucky Harris (892) *
  6. Glenn Beckert (892)
  7. Bobby Avila (886)
  8. Ron Hunt (884)
  9. Fred Dunlap (884)
  10. Cecil Travis (883)
* - Signifies Hall of Famer
Most Similar by Ages 
 View Similar Player Links in Pop-up
 Hold mouse over #'s to see names
  1. Gene DeMontreville (974)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  2. Al Dark (929)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  3. Al Dark (920)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  4. Fresco Thompson (934)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  5. Fresco Thompson (927)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  6. Johnny Temple (913)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  7. Fred Dunlap (923)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  8. Johnny Temple (918)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  9. Johnny Temple (914)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  10. Johnny Temple (912)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
* - Signifies Hall of Famer

Transactions

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Viewed 64,408 times through December 13, 2012.
Name and misspellings: The John Needle Michael jonny jonnie johny Johnny johnnie johney john johhny Pesky

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