Carl Yastrzemski

At 85 years old, Carl Yastrzemski has this physical status:

Carl Michael Yastrzemski (nicknamed "Yaz"; born August 22, 1939) is an American former Major League Baseball player.

In 1989, he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Yastrzemski played for the Boston Red Sox for the entire 23 years (1961-1983).

He was mainly a left fielder, but he also played 33 games as a third baseman and mostly as a designated hitter later in his career.

Yastrzemski is an 18-time All-Star, the owner of seven Gold Gloves, a member of the 3,000-hit club, and the first American League player to have more than 400 home runs.

He is second on the all-time list for games played and third for total at-bats.

He is the Red Sox's all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played, and is third on the team's list for home runs behind Ted Williams and David Ortiz in 1967.

In 2012, Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown for the fourth year, a record not set in the Major Leagues until Miguel Cabrera achieved the feat 45 years later.

Early life

Yastrzemski was born in Southampton, New York, to Carl Yastrzemski, Sr., and Hattie Skonieczny. Both his parents were Polish, and young Carl was bilingual from an early age. Carl, who was raised on his father's potato farm, was a better player than he was, according to his father, who, who maintains, was a better athlete than he was. He graduated from Bridgehampton School in 1957. Yastrzemski also played Little League Baseball and became the first Little League player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He attended Notre Dame on a basketball scholarship (his Long Island high school scoring record was shattered by Jim Brown) for a brief period of time before embarking on his baseball career.

In 1959, Yastrzemski joined the Red Sox club, which sent him to the minor-league Raleigh Capitals, where he led the league with a.377 batting average. For the 1960 season and the post-season, the team traded him to the Minneapolis Millers. In 1966, Yastrzemski, who had been studying business at Notre Dame, fulfilled a promise to his parents by completing his education at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.

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Major League career

Yastrzemski started his major-league career in 1961 and faced former Red Sox pitcher Jerry Casale for his first home run. As he rose to his role as the outstanding Red Sox legend Ted Williams, there was a lot of pressure on him from the start. He was a good replacement at the plate and a far more solid defensive player with a strong arm, as well as a good passer at Fenway Park's left-field wall. Yastrzemski has won seven Gold Gloves and led in assists seven times in 12 years as a left fielder.

While his first two years were considered as solid but unspectacular, he came to prominence in 1963, winning the American League batting championship with a batting average of.321, leading the league in doubles and walks, placing sixth in the Most Valuable Player polls.

Yastrzemski had his best season in 1967 when he took the American League Triple Crown with a.326 batting average, 44 home runs (tied with Harmon Killebrew) and 121 RBIs. In 1967, Yastrzemski's Triple Crown victory was the last major league hitter to win the Batting Triple Crown until Miguel Cabrera (conversely, six different pitchers have since won the pitchers' version). He was voted Most Valuable Player almost unanimously (one voter selected César Tovar of the Twins) and was named Most Valuable Player almost unanimously. His 12.4 WAR was the most since Babe Ruth's 1927 season.

The Red Sox won the American League pennant last day of the season in 1967 (referring to the hit song from La Mancha's musical Man of La Mancha). Yastrzemski hit.513 (23 runs in 44 at-bats) in the last two weeks of the season, finishing one game ahead of the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins in a four-team pennant race. The Red Sox were winning the first two games of the season after losing by one game and leading the Tigers by halftime. With the pennant and home run titles (and, hence, the triple crown) on the line, the team's final two games were against Minnesota. Yaz went 3 for 4 with a home run and 4 RBI in Saturday's game. Kilebrew was also home, but the Red Sox took the lead, 6–4. The teams then advanced to the final game tied for 1st place, with Yaz and Killebrew tied for 44 home runs apiece. In the Red Sox' 5-3 victory, neither player homered, but Yaz went 4 for 4 with 2 RBI in the final game. So Yastrzemski was 7 for 8 with 6 RBI in two games with pennant on the line.

The Red Sox lost three games to three to the St. Louis Cardinals, losing three times to Bob Gibson. In the series, Yaz batted.400 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI. He also received the Hickok Belt as the year's best professional athlete of the year and the Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" Award.

Yastrzemski credited Boston's remarkable season to manager Dick Williams and an infusion of youth, including Rico Petrocelli and Tony Conigliaro, in an article he co-wrote for the October 1967 issue of SPORT magazine. "He got rid of all the personality, made us a team, gave us a reward, and made us want to win," Williams wrote about Williams.

In 1968, Yastrzemski claimed the batting championship for the second time. Because of the competitive advantages pitchers enjoyed between 1963 and 1968 (before the pitcher's mound was reduced), Yastrzemski's.301 record in "The Year of the Pitcher" was the lowest average of any batting champion in major league history; he was the only hitter in the American League to reach.300, led the league in on-base percentage and walks.

Yastrzemski played in both two consecutive 40-home runs seasons in 1969 and 1989, leading the Red Sox to third-place finishes this year and the next. He scored four hits, tying the record, and took the All-Star Game MVP in 1970, despite the fact that the American League lost. Despite playing for the losing team, Brooks Robinson, who played in 1966, is one of two players to win the All-Star Game MVP Award, beating him twice. Yastrzemski's.329 batting average for the season was his best on record, but he came in second, less than.001 behind Alex Johnson of the California Angels for the batting championship. In 1970, Yaz led the league in slugging and on-base percentages, finishing third in home runs. Yaz suffered hand injuries in the early 1970s that severely reduced his power and productivity until they healed. He also sustained a permanent shoulder injury that reduced his output, which caused him to rethink his distinctive batting style. Despite his career of only 61 home runs in the last four years (1971–1974), the Red Sox finished second twice and third in batting, and the top ten in on-base percentage and walks in 1973 and 1974, leading the league in runs scored in 1974.

Yastrzemski was called to pinch-hit in the sixth inning of the 1975 All-Star Game, with two men on base and the American League down 3–0. He tied the score when he wasn't wearing a batting helmet. The three-run homer was the only one scoring in the American League as they lost 6–3.

In 1975, Yastrzemski and the Cincinnati Reds lost their second World Series game, losing four games to three. In Game 7 he was ruled out on a fly out to center, trailing by one run. Coincidentally, he made the final out of the 1978 American League East tie-breaker game with a foul pop to third base. Bucky Dent's most popular homer was featured in this game (although Reggie Jackson's was the eventual winning team). Yastrzemski started the scoring with a home run off left-handed pitcher Ron Guidry, who was having a fruitful year (25 wins, 3 losses, and a 1.74 ERA). It was the only home run by the Cy Young Award winner to be a left-hander all season.

Yastrzemski hit three home runs against the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium on May 19, 1976. He then returned to Yankee Stadium and struck two more, tying the major league record of five home runs in two consecutive games. Yastrzemski, who was then 39, was one of the top players in the league in 1978. Yastrzemski's first American League player with 3,000 career hits and 400 home runs on September 12, 1979, achieving another milestone. In 1982, he was primarily a designated hitter, but early in the season, he was one of the league's top hitters, and he was featured on the front page of Sports Illustrated and appeared in that year's All-Star Game.

Yastrzemski retired at the end of the 1983 season at the age of 44, though he wrote in his autobiography Yaz that he was planning on playing the 1984 season until he was exhausted from a long midseason slump. He also said that if he had known how good Roger Clemens would be, he would have played in 1984 to have a chance to play with him.

No player has had a longer playing career than 23 seasons, including Baltimore's Brooks Robinson. His final season records show 3,308 games played (second all-time and the most with a single team), 6,419 runs, 646 doubles, 454 home runs, 1,844 RBIs, and a batting average of.285. He had 1,845 walks in his career and 1,157 extra base hits. Yastrzemski was the first player to reach over 3,000 hits and 400 home runs exclusively in the American League (Cal Ripken Jr.'s feat). He was voted to the All-Star Game 18 times. Yastrzemski won three American League batting titles during his career. In addition,, he trails only Ty Cobb and Derek Jeter in hits collected with a single team, and only Cobb, Jeter, and Tris Speaker in hits earned in the American League. In addition to Yastrzemski's all-time leader in hits, doubles, and RBIs, he also plays for Fenway Park. He was the all-time leader in plate appearances at the time of his retirement, since Pete Rose had been debating him.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989, his first year of eligibility, with the help of 94% of voters. He is one of the few members of the Hall of Fame to replace another Hall of Famer in a direct manner. He wore uniform number 8 throughout his Red Sox career. After Yastrzemski was elected to the Hall of Fame on August 6, 1989, the Red Sox retired this number. Yastrzemski finished 72nd on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999. He was named a finalist to the Major League All-Centure Team the previous season. Yastrzemski was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, prior to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. With the 1990 Class of 1990, he was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island in the Baseball Category.

Yastrzemski was known for his batting technique, holding his bat at a high level, giving his swing a big, striking arc (unexpectedly so for a well-known "fastball hitter"), and more power at the plate. He adjusted his position and kept the bat lower in his later years. He said in his autobiography that he suffered with a fractured left shoulder for the first eight years and that this injury had diminished his home run capability. He could have hit home runs to all fields before that, but afterward, his home run power was mostly focused on pulling the ball. He no longer held the bat high and took several batting stances to adjust to the injured shoulder. He said he needed to change the way he swung with each new position. He never came close to hitting 40 home runs for the second time ever. He was also known for altering his batting helmets by enlarging the right earhole (for warmth) and deleting a portion of the right earflap (for improved viewing the ball as it was pitched).

"Yaz" stood out for his cagey approach to the game. With his left-field play, he discouraged opposing base runners. On fly balls headed for Fenway's Wall, he lined up as if about to make the catch just in front of the wall, patiently waiting for the last possible moment before turning around to play the carom. Base runners will be forced to wait an extra second, and if they tried anyway, their deft handling of the bounce and precise throwing arm would have to cost them. Yastrzemski found a strange way to elicit a throwing error when running the basepaths himself. As is normal, he was disengaged at second base and did not immediately go for the dugout. Opponents had been protracted in an effort to tagging out another runner in a rundown or "pickle," but opponents were stunned to learn that a Red Sox player round third and heading for home shortly. A panic throw to the catcher far missed the mark, allowing Yastrzemski to score but also allowing the runner behind him to advance.

"The man they call Yaz" was a song on the Red Sox's 1967 debut, aptly named The Impossible Dream, and "thought 'Yastrzemski' is a long name / It fits perfectly in our Hall of Fame." In Ben Wrightman's apartment (played by Jimmy Fallon) in the 2005 film Fever Pitch, the song can be heard and the album cover can be seen. Lindsay Meeks (Drew Barrymore), Ben's girlfriend who is still familiar with the Red Sox's triumphs and tribulations, is unable to properly pronounce Yastrzemski's name, and must be corrected by the locals: "Ya-STREM-ski!" says the film's title. If the couple's unborn child is a girl, he will be named "Carla Yastrzemski Wrightman" in the film's final scene.

Tommy John was one of the worst pitchers for him to beat in Yastrzemski's opinion. This surprised John, who remembered Yastrzemski's hits him when he was with the White Sox (1965-51). John said that Yastrzemski must recollect his time with the Yankees, beginning in 1979, when John fared better in their matchups.

The 2004 World Series championship banner was raised over Fenway Park by Johnny Pesky and Yastrzemski. He is now a roving instructor for the Red Sox, and has been lauded for tossing out the ceremonial first pitch for Game 1 of the 2004, 2013, 2013 World Series. At Massachusetts General Hospital in August 2008, Yastrzemski underwent successful triple bypass heart surgery. On September 23, 2013, the Red Sox paid tribute to him with a statue outside Fenway Park.

Career regular season statistics

Yastrzemski ranks first on the all-time lists for Major League Baseball, second for games played, third for at-bats, eighth for hits, ninth for extra-base hits, and 14th for RBIs through the 2017 season.

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