John Lackey is universally regarded as a good teammate, and the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher showed why to one of his new teammates. When Lackey was traded from the Boston Red Sox to St. Louis, there was a problem: Lackey’s No. 41 jersey was already being worn by Cardinals reliever Pat Neshek.
Huge Thanks to John Lackey for the incredible gift for changing my uni # pic.twitter.com/SFnuTh2d7x
— Pat Neshek (@PatNeshek) August 20, 2014
Of course, jersey numbers are often for sale and could be had for the right price. Lackey ended up with his coveted No. 41, and Neshek revealed a key piece of the story on Wednesday. Whether it was payment or gift, Lackey ended up giving Neshek an authentic Babe Ruth autographed baseball — complete with the paperwork.Neshek is a huge autograph and baseball card collector (it’s even listed in his Twitter bio), so it’s pretty obvious that Lackey hit a Ruthian home run with the gift (or payment). Mike Cole/NESN
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