Return of The Mystery Yaz Teammate!

When I first started my Yaz site way back in 1994, I briefly ran a Mystery Yaz Teammate feature. Well ... it's back!

Can you identify this fellow? Leave your guess in the comments section.

Bosox After 40

Yaz is far from the only player to don a Red Sox uniform after his fortieth birthday - although he may be the most prolific. 28 forty-somethings have taken the field for the Old Towne team over the years. Oldest ever was player-manager Deacon McGuire aged 44 years and five months back in Ought Eight.

According to the Worchester Telegram ...

Many of the 40-somethings have been experiments, or players getting a parting gift for a fine career like Ellis Burks in 2004, Gary Gaetti in 2000 and even Eckersley to a large extent in ’98, when he spent two months on the DL. Seaver turned out to be a novelty act because he got injured, and Dawson was only a month past 40 when his Sox career ended.

Ted Williams and Cy Young had the most notable post-40 achievements. In 1908, at 41, Young went 21-11 with two saves and pitched 299 innings. A year earlier, at 40, he won 22 games and hit a home run.

Williams won a batting title in 1958, having turned 40 on Aug. 30 of that year and two years later batted .316 with 29 home runs and a stolen base. He hit 44 home runs after his 40th birthday.

Yastrzemski was remarkable for how long he was able to play at a high level, even if it was not quite the level of his prime. He played 376 games in his 40s and hit 49 home runs.

I was kind of surprised to find that Yaz had out-homered The Kid post-Forty!

Marlboro Red

Sports collector T.S. O'Connor reports from the June 1-3 reunion of the 1967 Boston Red Sox at the Mohegan Sun Casino.

Now, four decades (and several reunions) later, Yaz sits behind a table and dutifully signs for a dedicated legion of admirers, occasionally taking a drag on politically incorrect Marboro Red that he would rest at the edge of the tablecloth between signatures. As an ex-smoker, I closely scrutinize actors in the movies as they fake their way through inhaling; it rarely looks real, though I can hardly criticize an actor for wanting to protect a set of lungs. For Yastrzemski, the act of smoking seemed as natural as that magnificent swing of his, and besides, Yaz is New England royalty, and even if smoking was verboten in those conference rooms, who is going to call him on it?

C'mon, Yaz ... time to kick that habit!

What Would Yaz Do?

Not what A-Rod did.

"It's a little bit both bush and smart, I guess. The third baseman should know where the shortstop is, and you pretty much know the guy's voice. But I would not have done anything like that."