Page 64 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 57
Yaz attracted a lot of attention playing ball on Long Island. His last couple of years in high school, he played semipro ball for Lake Ronkonkoma, a team based about 60 miles from home. His father played for this team, too, always after work on the farm was done. It was around this time that Carl’s father began to boost him as a hitter more than as a pitcher — even though at a major-league tryout camp for the Milwaukee Braves, Carl faced nine batters and struck out all nine. e younger Yaz had the chance to sign on with a major-league team before he even got out of high school, but Carl’s dad had his eyes set on a sizable bonus and had been prepared to turn down o ers he saw as inadequate. Come his senior year, Carl’s dad told his high school coach that Carl would not be playing football that year — there was too great a risk of injury, and that might hamper his develop- ment as a baseball player.
While Yaz was still a senior in high school, the New York Yankees made a pitch. ough not allowed to sign Yastrzemski to an actual contract until after he graduated high school, Yankees scout Ray Garland was still welcomed into the household to talk hypo- theticals. He traded bonus numbers with Carl’s father, writing $60,000 on a piece of paper at the dining room table. Carl’s dad wrote out $100,000. Garland reacted dramatically, ipping his pencil in the air and hitting the ceiling as he exclaimed, “$100,000? Are you crazy? e Yankees will never pay that.” e Yankees never got the opportunity, despite even owner Dan Topping becoming involved. e elder Yaz told Garland, “Nobody throws a pencil in my house. Get the hell out and never come back.”8 at was it for the New York Yankees.
Red Sox scout Frank “Bots” Nekola had had his eye on Carl since he was a sophomore in high school. He never threw any pencils in the Yastrzemski household, but he wasn’t coming up with $100,000, either, and so Carl’s father sent his son o to college. ey’d elded full scholarship o ers from a number of col- leges, but chose Notre Dame, where he played on a scholarship that was half baseball and half basketball. Yaz completed his freshman year, without playing on
the varsity team, but then the o ers got more serious, even exceeding $100,000. e Red Sox didn’t make the largest o er, but the admiration of the local parish priest for Tom Yawkey counted for a lot, and Yaz’s father wanted him playing for an East Coast team, not too far from home. Yaz signed with the Red Sox in November 1958 for a $108,000 bonus, and their agreement to cover the rest of his college education. Sox GM Joe Cronin then met Yaz for the rst time — and saw a 5’11”, 160-pound kid. He couldn’t help himself, blurting out, “We’re paying this kind of money for this guy?”9 Carl went back to nish up the fall semester at Notre Dame; after signing the six- gure contract, Yaz’s father increased his son’s weekly allowance from $5 to $7.50 a week.10
e rst of many spring training camps was 1959 and Carl was assigned to the Raleigh Capitals in the Carolina League, a Class B team. e team switched him from shortstop to second base. He was struggling at the plate until manager Ken Deal got him in the box and told him to move up on the plate so he wasn’t lunging at balls on the outer half of the plate. He says he batted close to .400 for the rest of the year. After Raleigh’s season was over, he was invited to come to Fenway Park, not to play ball but to look in on the ballclub. Ted Williams greeted him and told him, “Don’t let them screw around with your swing. Ever.”11
Yaz then went on to Minneapolis to join the Millers as they entered the American Association playo s. Researcher Wayne McElreavy notes that, oddly, Yaz was ineligible and there was a protest, but the league did not force a forfeit. e rst time he faced Triple-A pitching, he went 7-for-18 in the six games it took to win the title. And then he traveled to Cuba to play the Havana Sugar Kings for the International League championship. Fidel Castro came to the ballpark, arriving by helicopter and landing near second base. e Sugar Kings won in the seventh game, but it was the last time (until the Baltimore Orioles played an exhibition game in 1999) that an American pro team played in Cuba.
In January 1960, Carl married Carol Casper. In February, they headed to Scottsdale so Carl could