The Boston Herald is reporting today that the Red Sox will break longstanding policy regarding the retirement of uniform numbers, and retire Johnny Pesky's number 6 during a ceremony this weekend at Fenway Park.

The Globe later confirmed the Herald report; both papers attributed their stories to an unnamed team source. The source told the Herald's Steve Buckley that meetings were held last night and again this morning to discuss the team's policy toward retiring numbers, which has long been that a player must be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, have played at least 10 years with the Red Sox, and have finished his career with Boston.

The most notable exception to the rule, of course, was Jackie Robinson, whose number 42 was retired by all major-league clubs in 1997 in recognition of Robinson's breaking the major-league color barrier. But the Sox also made an exception for Carlton Fisk, who finished his career with the White Sox, but had his number retired at Fenway in 2000 after he was hired as special assistant to general manager Dan Duquette.

Pesky, who will turn 89 on Saturday, the day that the Red Sox play a nationally televised home game against the Yankees, does not meet any of the three criteria. He is not a Hall of Famer, he played seven seasons for the Red Sox, and he finished his career with the Tigers and the Senators.

But few have contributed as much to the franchise as Pesky, who remains a fixture at Fenway. He has been manager, broadcaster, coach and special consultant for the team since the end of his playing career.

Just five Red Sox players have had their numbers retired: Bobby Doerr (No. 1), Joe Cronin (No. 4), Carl Yastrzemski (No. 8), Ted Williams (No. 9) and Fisk (No. 27).

As the Globe noted, the move to honor Pesky opens the door for other numbers to possibly be retired at Fenway, including Jim Rice's number 14, Roger Clemens' number 21 and Tony Conigliaro's 25.