Projo Sports Blog

Boston Red Sox icon Johnny Pesky will have to leave the dugout during games this season because of a major league rule that limits the number of coaches allowed in uniform.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said the team was told by the commissioner's officer it will enforce the rule that limits uniformed personnel in the dugout to players, managers, and six coaches. Francona said the Red Sox received a stern letter from baseball threatening substantial fines.

“They warned us so many times, I think they got tired of it,” he said Friday before the Boston's exhibition game against the Philadelphia Phillies. “I've seen the letters in the past.”

Pesky took the news hard when Francona told him this week.

“I sat down with him and talked with him about, and he was hurt,” Francona said. “I understand. But the rules are what they are.”

The story was first reported Friday by The Boston Globe. Joe Garagiola Jr., a senior vice president in the commissioner's office, did not return a call seeking comment.

“This is a major league baseball rule,” Red Sox spokesman John Blake said. “This is not the Boston Red Sox, and apparently major league baseball is very intent on enforcing the number of people and the various capacities that can be in the dugout this season.”

The rule also applies to non-baseball staff, including interpreters. The Red Sox will be allowed to use Masai Takahashi, a member of the training staff, to translate for Japanese pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, Blake said.

The 87-year-old Pesky has been with the ballclub for 57 years as a player, coach and manager.

He played for the Red Sox from 1942-52, missing three years during World War II, before brief stints with Detroit and Washington. He had a lifetime average of .307 and set the club record with 205 hits as a rookie that stood until Nomar Garciaparra had 209 in 1997.

The right-field foul pole at Fenway Park, which is just 302 feet from home plate, came to be known as “Pesky's Pole” for his ability to turn short line drives into home runs; the team made the name official last year.

Pesky also managed the team in 1963-64 and has served as a coach for decades. The previous Red Sox ownership banished him from the dugout in '97, but that policy was reversed when the group led by John Henry and Tom Werner took over in 2002.

--ASSOCIATED PRESS

---