A sad day in Red Sox Nation As Johnny Pesky passes away at age 92.

The Boston Red Sox lost both a great man and one of its greatest links to the team's past with Monday's sad news that Johnny Pesky had passed away at age 92.

Pesky as a Red Sox rookie in 1942. (AP)

The Boston Globe estimates that Pesky — whose No. 6 was retired by the Red Sox in 2006 — was associated with the team in some way for 61 of his 73 years in baseball, starting with his free agent signing in 1940 and going through several decades as a beloved ambassador, coach,  broadcaster and spring training instructor. He drew some of the biggest cheers when his presence was announced at Fenway every opening day and his willingness to always accomodate both fans and media won him a wide array of admirers, even if many generations of fans hadn't even been alive to watch him play.

Johnny Pesky in 1952. (AP)

Pesky was certainly a heck of a player if you did get the chance to see him, though. A career infielder who lost three seasons due to military service, Pesky posted a career line of .307/.394/.386 over his 10-year career with the Red Sox, Tigers and Senators. He was one of the four Red Sox players chronicled in David Halberstam's "The Teammates" and his death leaves Bobby Doerr as the lone surviving member of that quartet. (Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio were the other two.)

Pesky at Fenway's 100th anniversary in April 2012