The Man They Call Yaz

I begin this venture with a story of Carl Yastrzemski. The son of a Long Island potato farmer this man, of Polish decent, was the epitome of the meaning of the term work ethic. I am not here to chronicle his career, (peek into baseballreference.com for that) nor am I here to analyze his stats and numbers. Rather in this entry I will try to explain how enormously clutch he was as a player.

The Boston Red Sox tale of their "Impossible Dream" season of 1967 is well documented and chronicled. The "Cardiac Kids" came from ninth place the year before and captured the American League pennant, by a single game, the last weekend of the season by sweeping the mighty Minnesota Twins in a two game set at Fenway. Yaz went seven for eight, hit his 44th home run of the year, had 6 RBI and scored twice, that last weekend of the season. In fact for the entire month of September and into Oct 1st, Yaz hit .417 with 8 homers and 24 RBI. The Sox went 16-11 through that stretch. More incredibly is the fact that he closed out the season with a 10 game hitting streak in which he hit .541 (20-37) with 4 home runs and 14 RBI. The Red Sox manager during that season was the Hall of Famer Dick Williams. Dick is 81 years old and he will tell you to this day that in all his years both in and watching baseball, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 was the greatest player he ever saw!!!

It is difficult to assess one's "clutchness" if you will. We all know what it is, yet it is difficult to quantify. We can look at certain numbers, the sabermetriticians have created a whole new world of analyzing and calculating "the numbers". Those of us not so adept, need no numbers. All we need know is when our club is in a tight spot and the opposition is at the plate, who do we NOT want to step in the batter's box? It's as simple as that. Do the fans of Yankee opponents want to see Derek Jeter at the plate in a key spot? Of course not. How about those Cub fans sitting at Wrigley on a nice sunny afternoon. Do they want Pujols stepping in with two on in the top of the 8th and their beloved Cubbies ahead 4-2? I doubt it!! Or how about the 2004 Red Sox and that David Ortiz fellow. You remember him. All "Large Father" did then was pick up the Red Sox and their nation and placed it on his shoulders to carry them from their 86 year residence in the pit of despair!

All formidable examples. All with the numbers to back it up. However I will say that there never has been a player in my 50 years of watching baseball who can eclipse the clutchness that was Yaz in 1967! During the 1990s my son, began playing Little League. A devotee of the game, even at a young age he possessed a marvelous interest and curiosity regarding baseball history. When he was nine years old he asked me "dad, how good was Yaz"? I explained it thus.

When the Red Sox defeated the Twins on Saturday Sept 30, 1967, it created a deadlock atop the American League. The whole season was about to come down to one game on Sunday. At midnight, my dad and I headed into Boston. We went to mass (it was Sunday after all) at 3 AM on Arch St in Boston and headed on over to Fenway and the ticket booth. There were only four people in line in front of us and and when the windows flew open, WE GOT TICKETS!!!! We went into the park as soon as it opened. I can still smell the cigar smoke and feel the electrical charge that hovered over that marvelous ball yard. Making our way to a couple of seats about halfway up the third base grandstand we chose two, sat down and miraculously we were there when the game began. Was it possible that we would sit here the entire game? Unfortunately no, the true patrons arrived after the top half of the first inning. Moving to the standing section behind the grandstand, I shimmied up a pole and made my way out onto the stanchions in the third base roof, I wrapped myself around a girder and hunkered down to watch history.

The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an error by George Scott, the Red Sox Golden Glove first baseman. They stretched it to 2-0 in the third on another error. This time by of all people Yaz! Was it possible that fate would deal the cruelest of blows? Errors by the two best defensive players on the team would lead to the undoing of this most wondrous of seasons?

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth. Pitcher Jim Lonborg led off with a bunt single. That was followed by singles from Jerry Adair and Dalton Jones and with the bases loaded Yaz strutted to the plate. His left hand tugged at his belt as he stepped in to the box, bat cocked high above his head, he glared out at the Twins hurler Dean Chance. Chance's first pitch was a fastball down and in for ball one. His next fastball caught a little bit too much of the plate and the mighty Yaz uncorked his swing.

Those who teach players how to hit a baseball will tell you that the prefect swing and the prefect connection between baseball and bat will drive a pitched ball right back up the middle. Well Yaz's swing sent Chances fastball on a line over the left part of the second base bag. In fact, he had hit the ball so cleanly, it barely made a sound and as Lonborg and Adair came around to score, the game was tied. Yet I must say, there was a twinge, ever so slightly, but a twinge none the less, of disappointment for Yaz had not homered. Think about that! A perfectly hit baseball which was his third hit of the day, his fifth hit in a row and it tied the score in the biggest Red Sox game in 21 years. Yet you truly expected him to hit a homer! THAT IS HOW GOOD YAZ WAS IN 1967!

My nine year old son understood what I was saying. He got it. It provided a measure of just how clutch was "The Man They Call Yaz"!!! Eleven years later, in 2004, that little boy was now 20 and he watched the wonder that was David Ortiz. He was away at college and we talked often during the Red Sox miracle of "04". In game four of the Yankees series, Ortiz had homered in the 12th to keep the Red Sox alive and less than 24 hours later "Papi'" singled in the bottom of the 14th bringing the series to 3 games to 2. He called me after that game and asked, "Dad, is he close to Yaz in 67?" Yea Boom, close!