Boston Sox Journalism

Carl Yastrzemski left his mark in baseball asone of the elite hitters of his generation. The eighteen-time All-Starbecame one of the greatest of all the Red Sox despite having to fill the shoes of one of the greatest in history, Ted Williams, in left field.

Yaz may not have been Ted Williams, but who has? Today I am going to discuss the career of a true Red Sox legend.

Carl Michael Yastrzemski was born on August 22, 1939 in Southampton,New York. The family later moved to Bridgehampton, New York when Carlwas young, and he was raised on his father's potato farm. Yastrzemskiwas always known as a hard worker for his father and during hischildhood, he played a lot of "sandlot" baseball.

But as a child, Yastrzemski grew up with a great round ball talent as well and attended Notre Dame on a basketballscholarship. He also had a passion for baseball, and Yastrzemski decided to sign with the Boston Red Sox after being drafted in college.

When Yaz signed with Boston, he was sent to their minor league facility in Raleigh, North Carolina. There he led the league in battingaverage and quickly went through the minor leagues.

When called up to the Red Sox in 1961, Yastrzemski was given high expectations as he was supposed to be the next Ted Williams in leftfield. Though he did not meet those expectations in the first two seasons, Yaz had shown his true potential in his third year after finishing in the top ten in MVP voting while winning a batting title.

During the best year of Yaz's career, he won the Triple Crown in1967 as part of the 1967 "Impossible Dream Team", one of the mostfamous turnaround stories in sports' history. After eight starightlosing seasons, the Sox won an incredibly exciting four-team scramble for the pennant, sweeping the Minnesota Twins to win the AL by one game over the Detroit Tigers.

Though Yastrzemski and the '67 Sox did not win the World Series, they did make it to the Series for the first time since 1946.

From 1967 to 1974, Yaz won the batting championship in1967 while hitting over 40 home runs (44) for first time in his careerin 1969. Over the rest of his career, Yastrzemski was one ofthe premiere hitters for Boston.

By the end of his career, Yaz could boast a long list of accomplishments. He finished up with 3,419 hits, 452 home runs, 1,844RBI, and 1,845 walks.

After his retirement at the age of 44 in 1983, Yastrzemski held the major league record for the longest stint with a single team after being on the Boston Red Sox for 23 seasons, tied with Brooke Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles.

Yastrzemski was an 18-time All-Star, a seven-time Gold Glove winner,and had won an MVP and a Triple Crown (1967). Yaz is known throughout baseball as one of the greatest of all-time, and he is was ranked No.72 in Baseball America's Top 100 Players list.

On his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot, Yaz easily waltzed into the Hall after recieving over 90 percent of the votes. He had hisnumber (8) retired by the Boston Red Sox that year as well.

Yaz was known for his great attitude towards the game, his outlookon life, and his passion for baseball. He was also known for his very unique batting stance which led many people wondering on how he had hit so well in 20-plus years of baseball.

Carl Yastrzemski is one of the most recognizable names in sports andis highly regarded by most everyone. Yaz was a great man and an evengreater player.

Facts credited to Wikipedia.org as well as Carl Yastrzemski'sofficial website. This is a DJ Rallo original article, but facts can befound at those websites.