Boston Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky stopped by Elder Services' annual RiverWalk/6K Run yesterday afternoon to sign autographs and pose for photographs with the 100 or so people who raised money for the Lawrence nonprofit group. The 88-year-old enjoyed meeting the crowd, joking about his age and flirting with a longtime fan who shares the same birthday, asking if she wanted him to sign her jersey over her heart. No. 6 took a break from signing hats, balls and even a bobblehead doll of himself leaning against the famous "Pesky's Pole" at Fenway to talk about the Sox.

How do you feel about the salaries of today's players?

It's remarkable. It's wonderful. I'm only sorry I'm not in this era. We had some great players and they got top dollar ... it was a different era and a different type of life. But coming to Boston was the best thing that ever happened to me. Boston has been very good to all of us.



Has the steroids scandal hurt the image of the game?

We didn't understand about steroids when we played. We just used aspirin. We didn't need performance drugs or anything like that, I don't think. Perhaps some did, but I don't recall any of us doing it. It's not the right thing.

Would this series be more dramatic if the Red Sox were playing the Yankees?

No. In 2004, the Yankees beat us three in a row and then we beat them four in a row, then we beat the Cardinals four in a row and then we were the world champions ... and there's my ring.

Can this year's Red Sox win it all? Why?

Of course. We had a terrible night last night (Saturday), but maybe we got it out of our system. I still think we're going to win it.

70 years later, memories of baseball bets persist

It was the fall of 1947, and Red Sox fans were still suffering from the year before.

They fell into shock when their beloved Sox lost the deciding seventh game of the 1946 World Series by a single run to the St. Louis Cardinals. The next year the Red Sox finished in third place, but some baseball fans in Haverhill still found a way to smile through the continued losing.

The hated New York Yankees had finished first and the Cleveland Indians fourth, settling a bet between two Haverhill men. Yankees fan Frank Forte and Cleveland fan Petey Welch had a friendly bet over which of their teams would take first place. But instead of Welch having to buy Forte a beer or dig into his pocket and hand over a couple of bucks, he rolled up his sleeves and tested his strength.

A crowd gathered outside of the old Lebro's Cafe on Locust Street in Haverhill as Welch pushed Forte around in a wheelbarrow, with each man wearing a sign explaining his bet. In those days, only the first-place team in the American League went on to the playoffs - directly to the World Series against the National League's top team.

With a strange twist, history is repeating itself 60 years later. Cleveland and New York again were the subject of bets between their fans as the two teams met in the first round of this year's playoffs, but this time the Yankees lost.

And the Red Sox, having won their first-round playoff series earlier this month, are now facing Cleveland to play for the right to go to the World Series.