in august of 2012, johnny pesky passed away at the age of 92. he had been a player, coach, manager, broadcaster and ambassador for the red sox over the span of 70 or so years, and was honored with a memorial patch and a black armband for the remainder of the season.
pesky's number 6, which had been retired by the club a few seasons earlier, was worn by the team on their left sleeves while at home - on both the home whites (as seen on this 2013 topps museum collection dustin pedroia card)
and the red alternates (as seen on this 2013 topps jon lester card)
on the road grays, the red sox wore a black armband in pesky's memory (as see on this 2013 topps craig breslow card)
the angels, who were visiting boston for the first series at fenway following pesky's passing, wore their own version of the patch for the august 21 game only. you can see it in this getty images photo of albert pujols and ervin santana
while pesky was not affiliated in any way with the angels, it was a nice gesture on their part to honor a baseball lifer. in 2013, the angels would do the same with stan musial.
pesky led the american league in hits in his first three seasons as a major leaguer; a streak that was interrupted due to service in the navy during world war 2. he may be best known by baseball fans as the person for whom fenway park's right field foul pole is named, but pesky put together quite a baseball career, and as bud selig said in a statement after pesky died, 'a great american life'.
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