Background and career
Carl Michael Yastrzemski Sr. ( yə-STREM-skee; born August 22, 1939), nicknamed "Yaz", is an American former professional baseball player who played his entire 23-year career with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He started his career primarily as a left fielder, but also played 33 games as a third baseman. Later in his career, he was mainly a first baseman and designated hitter. Yastrzemski is an 18-time All-Star, the possessor of seven Gold Gloves, a member of the 3,000 hit club, and the first American League (AL) player in that club to also accumulate over 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 list for home runs, behind Ted Williams and David Ortiz. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 in his first year of eligibility. In 1967 Yastrzemski achieved a peak in his career, leading the Red Sox to the American League pennant for the first time in over two decades and being voted the 1967 American League MVP. Yastrzemski also won the Triple Crown that year, something not accomplished again in the Major Leagues until Miguel Cabrera did so in 2012.
Yastrzemski was born in Southampton, New York, to Karol Yastrzemski (anglicized to Carl) and Hattie Skonieczny. Both his parents were of a Polish background, and young Carl was bilingual from an early age. Raised on his father's potato farm, Carl played on sandlot baseball teams with his father, who, he maintains, was a better athlete than he was. Yastrzemski also played Little League Baseball, and became the first Little League player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He graduated in 1957 from Bridgehampton School. During his time there he was a successful three sport athlete participating in football, basketball and baseball. Yastrzemski was a career .512 hitter, he also threw a no-hitter with 18 strikeouts in the 1957 Suffolk Championship baseball game in 1957. He also set the Suffolk County record for most points in a varsity basketball season the same year. During his senior basketball season he set the Bridgehampton scoring record previously held by Jim Brown. He attended Notre Dame on a basketball scholarship briefly before embarking on his baseball career. Yastrzemski, who had studied business at Notre Dame, fulfilled a promise to his parents by finishing his degree at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, in 1966.
Yastrzemski signed with the Red Sox organization, which sent him to the minor-league Raleigh Capitals in 1959, where he led the league with a .377 batting average, winning both the Carolina League Most Valuable Player Award, and Rookie of the year. The organization moved him to the Minneapolis Millers for that post-season, Yastrzemski 7-for-18 as he and Millers beat the Fort Worth Cats four games to three to win the American Association championship. They then played the Havana Sugar Kings for the International League championship but were defeated in seven games. Yastrzemski then went on to play the entire 1960 season with the Millers. Yastrzemski began his Major League Baseball career in 1961. He hit his first home run off former Boston Red Sox pitcher Jerry Casale. Upon assuming the left-field position previously held by Ted Williams, he faced significant public and media attention. During his rookie year, he batted .266 with 11 home runs and 80 RBIs. Yastrzemski later commented on his rookie season, stating, "I started off very slow. I actually think that was on account of Ted. I was trying to emulate him—be a home run hitter and not be myself: just an all-around player. I could never be a Ted Williams as far as hitting was concerned." Williams later watched Yastrzemski during batting practice that season and told him he had “a great swing and to just go out and use it." Yastrzemski's play improved in 1962, when he posted a .296 batting average with 19 home runs, 43 doubles, and 94 RBIs. While his first two years were viewed as solid but unspectacular, he emerged as a rising star in 1963, winning the American League batting championship with a .321 average. He also led the league in doubles (40) and walks (95) and finished sixth in Most Valuable Player voting. Additionally, Yastrzemski was selected to his first All-Star Game and won his first Gold Glove Award. His numbers declined slightly during the 1964 season; he recorded a .289 batting average, hit 15 home runs, and drove in 67 RBIs. He also hit a career-high nine triples that year. During the 1965 season, Yastrzemski hit for the cycle on May 14 in a 12–8 Red Sox loss to the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park. He went 5-for-5 with two home runs and one walk, becoming the 13th player in Red Sox history to hit for the cycle while also tying a team record with 14 total bases. This performance raised Yastrzemski's batting average to .304. However, two days later, during the second game of a doubleheader against the Tigers, he was injured while attempting to break up a double play when Jake Wood struck him in the back with his knee, leaving Yastrzemski with a cracked rib and a bruised kidney. The injury forced him to miss several games, and when he returned his average had fallen below .300. He quickly rebounded with a strong stretch from June 9 to June 28, batting .425 during that span. Not long after raising his average again, Yastrzemski suffered another setback when he pulled a leg muscle, causing him to miss 13 games and preventing him from appearing in the All-Star Game. Once back in the lineup, he resumed hitting well, carrying a .332 average as late as August 27. He ultimately finished the season batting .312 while also leading the league in on-base percentage (.395), slugging percentage (.536), and OPS (.932). However, Minnesota's Tony Oliva passed him late in the season, leaving Yastrzemski in second place for the league's batting title. At the end of the year, he was selected for his second Gold Glove Award. Yastrzemski also led the league in doubles with 45 in 133 games. Since the start of the Modern Era in 1901, only five players—Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker-2x, Bob Meusel, Frankie Frisch and Ben Chapman have had as many doubles in few games. In 1966, Yastrzemski averaged .278, hit 16 home runs, 80 RBIs, and led the league in doubles for a third time with 39. He was also selected for his third All-Star game. During that year's offseason Yastrzemski spent his time working out to improve his stamina and gain extra muscle.
Yastrzemski enjoyed his best season in 1967, when he won the American League Triple Crown with a .326 batting average, 44 home runs (tied with Harmon Killebrew), and 121 RBIs. Yastrzemski's Triple Crown win in 1967 was the last time a major league hitter won the Batting Triple Crown until Miguel Cabrera in the 2012 season (conversely, six different pitchers have since won the pitchers' version). He was voted Most Valuable Player almost unanimously (one voter chose César Tovar of the Twins). His 12.4 WAR was the highest since Babe Ruth's 1927 season. 1967 was the season of the "Impossible Dream" for the Red Sox (referring to the hit song from the musical Man of La Mancha), who rebounded from a ninth-place finish a year before to win the American League pennant (their first since 1946) on the last day of the season. With the Red Sox battling as part of a four-team pennant race, Yastrzemski hit .513 (23 hits in 44 at-bats) with five home runs and 16 runs batted in over the last two weeks of the season, and the Red Sox finished a mere one game ahead of the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins. The Red Sox went into the final two games of the season trailing the Twins by one game and leading the Tigers by one-half game. Their final two games were against Minnesota, with the pennant and home run title (hence, the triple crown) on the line. In the Saturday game, Yastrzemski went 3 for 4 with a home run and 4 RBI. Killebrew also homered, but the Red Sox won, 6–4. Thus, the teams went into the final game tied for first place, and Yastrzemski and Killebrew were tied with 44 home runs apiece. In the final game, neither player homered, but Yastrzemski went 4 for 4 with 2 RBI in a 5-3 Red Sox win. In the two games with the pennant on the line, Yastrzemski was 7 for 8 with six RBIs. The Red Sox lost the World Series four games to three to the St. Louis Cardinals, losing three times to Bob Gibson. Yastrzemski batted .400 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI in the series. After the season, he fell one vote shy of a unanimous MVP award. He also won the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" Award. In an article he co-wrote for the November 1967 issue of SPORT magazine, Yastrzemski credited Boston's remarkable season to manager Dick Williams and an infusion of youth, including Rico Petrocelli and Tony Conigliaro. Of Williams, Yastrzemski wrote: "He got rid of all the individuality, made us into a team, gave us an incentive, and made us want to win."
In 1968, Yastrzemski hit 23 home runs and drove in 74 RBIs. He led the league in OPS with .922 and in walks with 119, and once again won the batting championship with a .301 average. Because of the competitive advantages pitchers enjoyed between 1963 and 1968 (before the lowering of the pitcher's mound following the 1968 season) Yastrzemski's .301 mark in the "Year of the Pitcher" is the lowest average ever recorded by a batting champion in Major League history. He was also the only hitter in the American League to bat .300 that season against such formidable pitching and led the league in on-base percentage and walks. That year, Yastrzemski also secured his fourth Gold Glove Award and made his fifth All-Star Game appearance. In 1969, Yastrzemski had the first of two consecutive 40-home-run seasons as he helped lead the Red Sox to a third-place finish that year and the next. He drove in 111 runs that season, finished with a .255 batting average, and won his fifth Gold Glove Award. In the 1970 All-Star Game, he collected four hits, tying the record, and was named the game's MVP despite being on the losing team. He is one of only two players to win the All-Star Game MVP Award while playing for the losing team, the other being Brooks Robinson in 1966. That season, Yastrzemski led the league in slugging percentage .592, OPS 1.044, and total bases 335. His .329 batting average that year was a career high, though he finished second in the batting race behind the California Angels’ Alex Johnson by less than .001. In 1970, Yastrzemski also led the league in slugging and on-base percentage while finishing third in home runs. That year, he recorded a career-best 23 stolen bases, making him only the second player in Red Sox history to hit 20 or more home runs and steal 20 or more bases in a single season, the first being Jackie Jensen. In the early 1970s, Yastrzemski suffered hand injuries that significantly reduced his power and productivity until he recovered. He also sustained a permanent shoulder injury that further diminished his power and forced him to change his distinctive batting stance. During the 1971 season, Yastrzemski hit 15 home runs, drove in 70 RBIs, and finished with a .254 batting average. He also won his sixth Gold Glove Award. In February of that year, Yastrzemski signed a three-year contract extension with the Red Sox reportedly worth $500,000, making him the highest-paid player in professional baseball history at the time. In 1972, Yastrzemski hit 12 home runs and finished with a .264 batting average. Yastrzemski finished in the top 10 in batting average (.296) and ranked in the top three in both on-base percentage (.407) and walks in 1973 (105). He also hit 19 home runs and drove in 98 RBIs. Yastrzemski volunteered to take over as the Red Sox's third baseman in August 1973 following the departure of Rico Petrocelli from the lineup, and he finished the season at that position.[34] In 1974, he led the league in runs scored with 93. He also batted over .300 for the sixth and final time in his career and hit 15 home runs. Despite his hand injuries, he hit 61 home runs from 1971 to 1974 as the Red Sox finished second twice and third twice.
In the 1975 All-Star Game, Yastrzemski was called upon to pinch-hit in the sixth inning with two men on base and the American League trailing 3–0. Without wearing a batting helmet, he hit Tom Seaver's first pitch for a home run to tie the score. The three-run homer accounted for the only runs the American League scored that night, as they ultimately lost 6–3. During the regular season, Yastrzemski batted .269 with 14 home runs and 60 RBIs; however, he excelled during the postseason. In the American League Championship Series against Oakland, he went 5-for-11 with a home run and two RBIs. Yastrzemski scored 11 runs and batted .350 during the 10 postseason games. However, he and the Red Sox suffered another World Series loss in 1975, falling to the Cincinnati Reds four games to three. He made the final out in Game 7 on a fly ball to center field while the Red Sox trailed by one run. Coincidentally, he also made the final out of the 1978 American League East tie-breaker game, popping out in foul territory to third base. That game featured Bucky Dent’s famous home run (although Reggie Jackson’s homer ultimately proved to be the winning run). Earlier in the game, Yastrzemski opened the scoring with a home run off left-handed pitcher Ron Guidry, who was having a career year (25 wins, 3 losses, and a 1.74 ERA). It was the only home run the Cy Young Award winner allowed to a left-handed hitter all season. On May 19, 1976, Yastrzemski hit three home runs against the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium. He then went to Yankee Stadium and hit two more, tying the major league record of five home runs in two consecutive games. He finished the year batting .269 with 21 home runs. On July 14, 1977, Yastrzemski recorded his 2,655th hit off Cleveland's Al Fitzmorris, surpassing Ted Williams for the most hits in Red Sox history. That year, Yastrzemski batted .296, hit 28 home runs, and won his seventh and final Gold Glove Award, after tying an MLB record with 1.000 fielding percentage during the season. Over 12 seasons as a left fielder, Yastrzemski won seven Gold Glove Awards and led the team in assists seven times. In 1978, Yastrzemski, then 39, was one of the five oldest players in the league. That year, he batted .277 and hit 17 home runs. On July 24, 1979, Yastrzemski hit his 400th career home run off Oakland's Mike Morgan, breaking a 3–3 tie in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Red Sox went on to win 7–3. On June 16, he recorded his 1,000th extra-base hit. On September 12, 1979, Yastrzemski achieved another milestone when he collected his 3,000th career hit off New York's Jim Beattie. This made him the first American League player with 3,000 career hits and 400 home runs. He finished the year with a .270 batting average and was selected to his 15th consecutive All-Star Game. In 1980, Yastrzemski batted .275 and hit 15 home runs; however, he missed the All-Star Game for the first time since 1965. The 1981 season saw Yastrzemski bat .246 with seven home runs. In 1982, playing primarily as a designated hitter, an early-season hitting streak placed him among the league's leading hitters. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and also played in that year's All-Star Game. That season, he batted .275 and hit 16 home runs.
