Page 65 - 1975 BoSox

58 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
train with the big league ballclub. Carl lockered right next to Ted Williams, but Ted rarely spoke to him. e main thing Carl learned from 41-year-old Teddy Ballgame was how hard he prepared himself to play ball. e Red Sox had had Pete Runnels at second base (Runnels would win the batting title in 1960), so they sent Carl back to the minors for one more year, the purpose being to train Yaz to play left eld and get him ready to take over for Williams, the expecta- tion being that Williams would probably retire after the 1960 season. Yastrzemski batted .339 for Minneapolis, just missing out on the title by three points, and began to show some skill in the out eld, recording 18 assists.
Ted Williams retired. Both the baton and the burden of replacing the great slugger were passed to Carl Michael Yastrzemski. Opening day 1961 was April 11, at Fenway Park, and there was Yastrzemski playing left eld and batting fth. Replacing Williams in left eld and in the hearts of Boston Red Sox fans was a Herculean task for any player, let alone a 21-year-old with two years of professional baseball experience. Williams was a larger-than-life gure on and o the eld, and had played for the Red Sox since 1939. Yaz singled to left his rst time up, but ended the day 1-for-5. His rst and second homers came in back- to-back games on May 9 and 10, but all in all, he struggled at the plate. “I started o 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.”12 When Yaz struggled, the Sox asked Ted to interrupt his shing and come pay a visit. Williams complied, visited, and watched Yaz take extra batting practice. He told Yaz he had a great swing and to just go out and use it. “I think what dawned on me was that there can be a great swing that is not a home run swing at the same time.”13
Yaz batted .266 in his rookie year, with 11 homers and 80 RBIs, a good rst year once he’d gotten back on track. ere was no sophomore slump: Yastrzemski
boosted his totals to .296, with 19 homers (and 43 doubles) and 94 RBIs. His third year, he made the All-Star team for the rst time, and improved dramati- cally again, to win the American League batting championship with a .321 mark. He led the league in base hits, doubles, walks, and on-base percentage. All the while, Yastrzemski was improving in left eld, honing the solid defensive play that he is remembered for today.
He continued to add to his totals, again making the All-Star team in 1965 and 1966. In 1965, he accom- plished one of the rarest of hitting feats — Yaz hit for the cycle in the May 14 game, with an extra home run thrown in for good measure. Later that year, Yaz even faced Satchel Paige, who had come back to pitch one last time at age 59. Paige threw three innings and gave up only one hit — to Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz’s rst six seasons in the major leagues had established him as one of the star players in the game. But his 1967 season would propel Carl Yastrzemski to a place among the elite players in the history of the game.
“One of the big di erences in 1967,” Yaz recalled, “is that I was able to work out the preceding winter. In earlier years, I was nishing up my college work. But I had completed my degree at Merrimack College so I had time to focus on my conditioning. I reported to spring training in great shape.”14
By the time the 1967 All-Star Game rolled around, Yaz was among the top ve in the American League in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. e Red Sox were only six games out of rst place at the All-Star break, and it was clear that the team had as good a shot at the American League pennant as anyone.
e 1967 Red Sox held New England fans spellbound all summer and into the fall, as they battled for rst place in the most exciting pennant race in American League history. eir thrilling win over the Minnesota Twins on the last day of the season touched o one of the great celebrations in Boston history. While a di erent Red Sox hero seemed to emerge daily, the one constant was Yaz.