BLOOMFIELD, Conn.  “Hi ya, young fella.”

Babe Ruth greeted Arthur Giddon as he did most 13-year-olds, even those in uniform. Giddon chatted with the Babe for a moment but tore himself away because he had a job to do. It was 1922, and as a Boston Braves bat boy, Giddon had to break out the bats, polish some spikes and otherwise outfit his players for that afternoon’s game at Braves Field.

Eighty-seven years later, on Saturday, Giddon will reprise his role for his now-beloved Red Sox  as a special 100th birthday present, he will serve as the team’s honorary bat boy prior to the game against the rival Yankees. The same hands that delivered bats to Billy Southworth and softened Rube Marquard’s glove will do the same for Kevin Youkilis and Jon Lester.

Now at bat boy for the Red Sox: No. 100, Big Pappy.

“I’m going to do whatever they tell me to do, like any good bat boy,” Giddon said in his home in Bloomfield, a suburb of Hartford, before referring to the Boston leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury. “I’m hoping that after Ellsbury gets the first hit I can go out and grab his bat, but I don’t think they’re going to allow me to do that.”

Sure enough, liability issues will keep Giddon, however sprightly and willing, from serving as a bat boy during the game. But the Red Sox and Manager Terry Francona are delighted to have him help out during batting practice.