Yaz!

Baseball Quest

2008-09-30T12:52:00.002-04:00

Baseball players battling each other with magic? You got to be kidding!

And Yaz is one of the guys you have to defeat to win!

Cecil Cooper

2008-08-20T16:09:00.002-04:00

Coop comments.

MILWAUKEE -- The news that Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski underwent triple bypass surgery Tuesday night was a shock to baseball figures around the country, including Astros manager Cecil Cooper, who played with "Yaz" in Boston for six years from 1971-76 ...

"Tremendous competitor," Cooper said of Yastrzemski. "I liken that to a [Craig] Biggio kind of character. He played hard every day -- was very, very competitive. He'd dial up the intensity when he needed to. And a good guy -- you hate for him to be going through what he's going through."

Triple Bypass

2008-08-20T16:05:00.001-04:00

Yaz starting down the road to recovery.

BALTIMORE - One day after being taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with pain and tightness in his chest, Red Sox [team stats] great Carl Yastrzemski underwent successful triple bypass surgery last night, the player’s longtime spokesman said.

According to Dick Gordon, Yastrzemski, who turns 69 Friday, made it through the estimated six-hour procedure -- with two hours of prep time -- without any apparent difficulty and completed surgery shortly after 8 p.m. Gordon did not provide a timetable for Yastrzemski’s recovery, but expressed relief and thanks on behalf of the slugger’s family for the prayers and support.

“Everything’s fine. He had a triple bypass and he’s fine,” Gordon said. “He’s in recovery right now. ”

“He didn’t have a heart attack,” Gordon continued. “He came here (Monday) and, after some tests and some evaluations, it was determined he needed bypass surgery.”

Yaz in Hospital

2008-08-19T15:37:00.001-04:00

Get better soon.

BOSTON (AP) — Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, the last player to hit for the Triple Crown, was hospitalized for tests Tuesday after experiencing chest pains. The Boston Red Sox confirmed the 68-year-old Yastrzemski was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital and was undergoing evaluation and testing. The team said no further information was immediately available on its longtime great.

Asked whether it was serious, Yastrzemski spokesman Dick Gordon said: "Any time you are in the hospital, it's got to be pretty serious."

A Thought for the Day from Yaz

2008-06-05T11:35:00.001-04:00

"I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day and I dream about it at night. The only time I don't think about it is when I'm playing it."

Triple Crown Threats

2008-06-03T13:43:00.001-04:00

My money's on Big Brown.

It's pretty much a three-horse race: Josh Hamilton, Lance Berkman and Big Brown.

Both Hamilton (Rangers) and Berkman (Astros) have more than piqued our interest, although there's still a lot of baseball to play.

Can one of them, please, put a merciful end to major-league baseball's four-decade Triple Crown drought?

The last player to lead his league in batting average, home runs and RBI is now pushing 70. Carl Yastrzemski capped Boston's "Impossible Dream" season of 1967 with baseball's elusive trifecta.

Hamilton -- current Sports Illustrated cover boy -- ranks first in RBI, first in HRs and second in batting average among American League hitters. Houston's Berkman, meanwhile, is tattooing NL pitching at the tune of second in home runs, second in batting average and third in RBI. Big Brown has the easier trip. He needs only to win Saturday's Belmont Stakes to become thoroughbred racing's first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

Carroll Hardy

2008-06-02T11:07:00.000-04:00

In 1961, batting for LF Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox pinch hitter Carroll Hardy bunted for a single in the eighth inning of a 7-6 loss to the Yankees. Hardy would be the only player to pinch-hit for both Captain Carl and Ted Williams.

Spelling Lesson

2008-05-28T11:55:00.002-04:00

From the always entertaining Surviving Grady.

(Hey Red and Denton, when do I get my link?)

Monbo

2008-05-27T11:33:00.004-04:00

Nice story from the Boston Globe on sixties Red Sox pitcher Bill Monbouquette who is battling leukemia.

[Monbouquette] also motivated an immature, young Yaz, who wasn't running out ground balls and was pouting in the outfield. "He made the comment that 'if that ball goes in the corner, I'm not going to hustle after it.' I said, 'If you don't hustle, you better make sure you have your head up when you come in after the inning's over.' I chased him down and said to him, 'Let me tell you something, pal, they've run better players than you out of this town.' I was the senior guy there. I felt it was my duty to do that. He was mad for a while . . . but, boy, in '67, he couldn't do anything wrong. "

Get well, Monbo!

American Icons

2008-03-06T13:05:00.001-05:00

Carl Yastrzemski has just taken a mighty swing, and he is peering skyward and forward, willing the ball to remain airborne until it sails over the right field fence. His long legs are twisted almost beyond the laws of physics, his red-and-white socks matching the patriotic bunting on the railing behind him.

The image of Boston's beloved Yaz is not a commemorative photo from one of his finest games, but a painting by Lance Richbourg, a veteran painter who combines a well-honed artistic vision with a legacy as the son of a major leaguer.

The painting is featured in Richbourg's show "American Icons," on exhibit through April 12 at the New England College Gallery in Henniker - perfectly timed for those who find themselves mildly obsessed even with news from spring training and its promise of Opening Day and an end to an endless winter.

The Most Underrated Player of the Seventies

2008-03-03T14:08:00.005-05:00

Cardboard Gods thinks it might be Reggie Smith.

He was my favorite Red Sox after Yaz! I was not happy at all when he got dealt to the Cardinals.

1. He was an outstanding hitter. He hit for power and average and drew a lot of walks, posting lifetime batting/on-base/slugging averages of .287/.366/.489, strong numbers that are even stronger when you consider that he spent the prime of his career in pitcher’s ballparks, and all of his career during a pitcher-friendly era. His lifetime OPS+ was 137, better than the career marks not only of Singleton, Simmons, and Murcer, but also of Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and Carl Yastrzemski, to name four Hall of Famers from Reggie Smith's era.

2. He was an outstanding fielder. Murcer also gets points in this area, and though Simmons wasn’t considered a strong defensive catcher he rates special mention for manning that demanding and vital defensive position while still anchoring his team’s offense. The slow-footed Singleton, on the other hand, could not compare to Smith as a fielder. Smith was a Gold Glove-winning centerfielder early in his career, and was an excellent rightfielder throughout his prime. Singleton is very close to Smith as a hitter, and you could argue that he has an edge in offensive contribution to his team simply because he was able to appear in more of his team’s games than Smith, who often struggled with injuries. But Smith’s fielding, in my mind, at least brings him even with Singleton as a player.

Keen Eye

2008-02-28T14:40:00.002-05:00

For much of last season, the left-handed hitting Varitek and the right-handed hitting Varitek were separate entities. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, but simply the all-too-typical world of a switch hitter.

“I was coming close, but mirror images aren’t necessarily realistic,” the Red Sox [team stats] captain said yesterday before taking the field for the team’s final spring training workout at the minor league facility. “I have to treat them like two different human beings. You can talk to one one way, and you can’t talk to the other the same way.”

The problem for Varitek is that for much of last year the two sides weren’t on speaking terms. From the right side he hit .264, compared to .252 from the left. For his career he is 24 points better from the right side.

...

The realization that exact approaches from both sides might not be a possibility first came up early in his career under former Sox hitting coach Rick Down. It was reinforced through the talks and tutelage from ex-Sox third base coach Dale Sveum.

But last year, starting in spring training, the two sides had grown increasingly apart.

“(Carl Yastrzemski) said to me last spring, ‘What’s wrong with your swing, you look like a robot?’ ” Varitek said. “There’s not much more of a keener eye than Yaz, so there must have been something.

The Bargain of 1971

2008-02-17T17:55:00.004-05:00

Yaz made in a year about what A-Rod makes in a week. Rip off!

Carl Yastrzemski became the highest-paid player in baseball history on this date in 1971. With AL-leading totals in runs, total bases, on-base and slugging in 1970, Yaz inked a three-year deal worth a total of $500,000.

The minimum MLB salary for the 2008 season, it should be noted, is $390,000.

Yaz at Flagler College

2008-01-31T13:16:00.000-05:00

Q&A courtesy of the Florida Times-Union.

Q: What has [Red Sox manager] Terry Francona done to make the difference with the team the past four years?

He's a ballplayers' manager. He rolls with everything and never gets upset. I think he brings a lot of calmness to the team and has done a tremendous job. Two World Series [titles] in four years ... how can you do any better?

Q: What's the recent success by the Red Sox meant to the fans?

After the first one, they kind expect it. I expect another one next year.

Q: What's the most difficult part of winning a Triple Crown, especially in this era?

Putting all three together is very tough. Winning the home runs and RBI [titles], that kind of happens. Mixing in the batting average is the most difficult part.

Q: What's your take on the Mitchell Report and the issue of performance-enhancing substances in baseball?

I think we just have to wait and see. In the minor leagues, they've been testing for quite a while, and I work with minor-league hitters, and I don't see any evidence of that with the kids in the minors. The whole thing has been kind of surprising, but let's just wait and see.

Q: How much did you work out and what kind of supplements, if anything, did you take during your career?

I took vitamins, sure. ... It was a different era. I used to work out, take two weeks off, work out some more during the winter, and if you were lucky, you only put on about three or four pounds before spring training.

Q: Do your records and those of other players in your era mean more, now that it has been discovered that so many of the top hitters in the game in recent years used performance-enhancing drugs?

Records are funny. A good friend of mine, Dwight Evans, worked hard for 20 years, and retired 28th on the [career] home run list. He's now in oblivion. I can't comprehend hitting 70, or even 60 home runs. When I hit 44, that was tremendous. Maybe if I had played in Yankee Stadium, I could see myself hitting 50 or 55 home runs, but 60 or 70? I can't comprehend that.

Roof Shot!

2008-01-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

Occasionally you'll hear a conversation from the row behind you at Fenway Park that goes like this:

"Hey Sully, did anyone ever hit a ball over those retired numbers out on the face of the right field roof?"

"Aw, shu-wah, Sully II, Jodge Brett did it twice, and ah cahse, Teddy Bahlgame used to do it about every utha night, pal."

And you think to yourself, "nobody could ever reach that roof. If anyone ever had, surely we would have heard about it from some real source."

A few months ago, though, I read something on-line about Carl Yastrzemski once hitting the facade of the right field roof.

This dude, who claims to have been there, said:

the Sox tore into the Yankees to set a three game record of sixteen homeruns. Sixteen. Fan-tastic! One of them a Yaz bomb down the right field line off the facade. To this day it’s the highest home run I’ve ever seen. Ever.

And someone on this board said:

Carl Yastrzemski is the only person to ever hit the grandstand facade in RF - the ball was still going up when it hit. He just missed becoming the first to ever hit one out of Fenway to right.

The first guy says it was a high fly. The second guy says it was still going up, which would mean the ball would've probably gone at least 700 feet, so I tend to think that's bullshit. In fact, I didn't believe either person, as, again, how could this fact have avoided me? I asked some other big Sox fans who are older than I am, and they'd never heard of this either.

Solve the mystery of whether Yaz ever really did hit a ball off the roof of Fenway with "A Red Sox Fan in Pinstripe Territory".

Devereaux Meadows

2008-01-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

A northeast Raleigh land grab could lead to the development of offices and shops on a downtown tract that was once known for the development of baseball players.

The city paid Jack Parker Corp. of New York $11.9 million for 39 acres off Raleigh Boulevard, northeast of the intersection of U.S. 1 and Interstate 440.

The land would be instrumental in freeing up another piece of dirt: the former site of the Devereaux Meadow ballpark, where area college and minor league players such as Carl Yastrzemski stopped on the way to big-league stardom.

That narrow 16.8-acre site runs along the western edge of Capital Boulevard to the northern edge of Peace Street. It's a few blocks east of downtown's bustling Glenwood South entertainment district.

In 1980, years after the last pitch had been thrown at Devereaux Meadow, the city moved its fleet of garbage trucks to the site. The trucks are still there, along with street plows and a maintenance garage.

Yaz played at Devereaux Meadows with the Raleigh Capitals of the Carolina League. They say he hit a ball out of the park and into traffic on Downtown Blvd. The field was torn down in 1979.

Pot Pie with Pesky

2008-01-03T13:00:00.000-05:00

Johnny Pesky can still remember his favorite dish from the original New Hampshire Baseball Dinner in Manchester, a winter tradition started in 1947 by Leo Cloutier, former New Hampshire Sunday News sports editor.

"Chicken pot pie, and it was delicious," Pesky said. "I used to go up there every year with (former Boston infielder) Eddie Pellagrini, and we had a great time."

The 88-year-old Pesky -- just call him Mr. Red Sox -- is the latest name on the guest list for the 2008 Granite State Baseball Dinner, hosted by the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Jan. 11.

Pesky will join Cy Young Award winners Chris Carpenter and Pat Hentgen, along with Jim Rice, Rico Petrocelli, Rich Gedman and many others at the Manchester National Guard Armory, site of the happening dinner a half-century ago.

"We used to have 1,000 people in there. Fans in New Hampshire always think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread," Pesky said.

More than 600 tickets have been sold at $60 apiece -- and plenty of tickets are still available. Proceeds benefit the Fisher Cats Foundation and the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth.

Pesky, a shortstop for the 1946 American League champs, remembers attending the famous baseball dinner with Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie Mays and other greats. Vida Blue, Bob Feller, Carlton Fisk, Jackie Robinson and Pete Rose are just some of the names.

"You need a book to remember some of the guys who've been there through the years," Pesky said. "Leo really started something. He did a hell of a job."

Eight

2008-01-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

The number "8" has a rich heritage. Many choose it as their favorite numeral. Perhaps it's the elegant shape of the thing.

Eight wears a lot of meanings, some of them conflicting. It's a lucky number in China, but if you're "behind the eight ball" here, you're in trouble.

Because the figure eight is a loop, the number is sometimes used as a code word for crazy, as in loopy, and a "Section 8" in the army is a discharge for being mentally unfit. However, in Tarot, card No. 8 means "strength," and when laid down on its side, the number 8 represents "infinity" in the world of physics. Chess, with its eight pawns and eight-by-eight squares on the board, is widely regarded as the ultimate game.

The numeral 8 was originally written in ancient India in the shape of an H, which happens to be the eighth letter of our alphabet.

The word for eight comes from the Greek and Latin root "octo," prompting one to ask why then is October the tenth month of the year? It used to be the eighth month in the Roman calendar, but got moved when we changed to the Gregorian calendar. The root is otherwise in tact: An octagon has eight sides and octopus eight tentacles. An octave is more complicated.

Some other random "8" facts:

--We recognize eight planets, after Pluto was removed from that status in 2006.

--Eight is the atomic number for oxygen.

--A cup contains eight fluid ounces, a gallon eight pints and a mile eight furlongs.

--Yogi Berra, Cal Ripken, Carl Yastrzemski and Kobe Bryant all wore it.

As for the past, all kinds of exciting things happened in '08 years:

The New Year's ball first dropped in Times Square exactly 100 years ago. In 1808, the United States banned the importation of slaves, even though their emancipation would not take place for another 55 years. In 1708, Queen Anne becomes the last English monarch to veto an Act of Parliament. In 1608, Jamestown burned to the ground, a year after its founding. In 1508, Michelangelo began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Beyond that, reliable dates are a little sketchy.

Dick Williams To The Hall of Fame

2008-01-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Dick Williams, manager of the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox, was one of five people elected by the Veterans Committee to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in balloting results announced yesterday.

Williams took those Red Sox to the World Series and later won two championships with the A's in the early 1970s.

Williams was considered one of the game's toughest managers, and while his stern approach wouldn't go over well in today's game, he seemed perfectly suited for the young '67 Sox. Carl Yastrzemski, who won the Triple Crown under Williams in 1967 but was benched and fined by him in 1969 for not running out a tapper to the mound, congratulated Williams in a statement released by the team.

"It was an honor to play for him," said Yastrzemski.

Williams remembered his days in Boston fondly.

"I had managed their Triple A team for two years at the top level and I got to come up and manage the big league team on a one-year contract the next year," he said. "We were 100-to-1 odds to win it.

"I had a Hall of Fame left fielder, and he was the last Triple Crown winner. I had Jim Lonborg and a lot of good extra players.

"I'm sure I made some people mad. I demanded perfection and I might have stepped on some toes, but I'm sure none of them turned away their World Series checks."

Hot Potato

2007-11-08T15:03:00.000-05:00

Byron Winslow, 9, of Presque Isle holds a 3-pound Russet potato that grew in the shape of a baseball mitt. The Maine Potato News said the oddly shaped spud was grown on a Caribou farm near where Boston Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski once grew potatoes with his uncle. Winslow says he's been a Red Sox fan "since I was 4 or 5." Maine Potato News photo

Swinging Hard

2007-10-25T11:31:00.000-04:00

Yaz gets the 2007 World Series off to a successful start!

Yaz was joined last night by 1967 Sox manager Dick Williams and 21 other members of the Impossible Dream team: Mike Andrews, Gary Bell, Dennis Bennett, Darrell Brandon, Galen Cisco, Hank Fischer, Russ Gibson, Dalton Jones, Bill Landis, Jim Landis, Jim Lonborg, Dave Morehead, Jerry Moses, Rico Petrocelli, Bill Rohr, Jose Santiago, Norm Siebern, Lee Stange, Jerry Stephenson, George Thomas and Gary Walewski. Richie Conigliaro, the brother of the late Tony Conigliaro, also took part in the pregame ceremony.

Many members of the 1967 team were also at Fenway Park for the home opener to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their American League title, the franchise’s first in 21 years.

“Not only did it bring the franchise back to life,” Yaz said of the 1967 team, “but I think it changed the whole attitude in the Red Sox’s organization. I think the organization became winners. I think after ’67, you expected to go out and win.”

Yaz thought the Sox would become a dynasty, but Tony Conigliaro got beaned, Lonborg tore up his knee skiing and Santiago popped out his elbow early the next season.

“You don’t replace players like that,” Yaz said.

Yaz compared Lonborg favorably with Josh Beckett, who started Game 1 last night.

The 1975 World Series is among the most famous in baseball history — especially for Carlton Fisk waving his game-winning home run in Game 6 fair, but Yaz thinks the 1967 World Series was just as memorable.

“I’d like to have seen Lonborg with one more day’s rest,” he said. “What a matchup that would have been between him and (Bob) Gibson.”

Yaz also wonders what would have happened if Jim Rice wasn’t hurt for the ’75 World Series.

“A lot of people forget that Rice didn’t play,” Yaz said. “A lot of people forget Conigliaro didn’t play in ’67.”

...

“This guy gave everything,” said Dwight Evans, Yaz’s former Red Sox teammate. “He wasn’t a man of big stature, but he had tremendous heart, tremendous drive. I played with him for 11 years and learned a lot from his just by his example. If someone asked me who was the best player I ever played with — it was Carl Yastrzemski.”

“The athlete is just bigger nowadays,” Yaz said. “Look at the shortstops in the ’60s and early ’70s, they’ll all Luis Aparicio-sized, and then the bigger shortstop came in with (Cal) Ripken.”

So how did he hit 452 home runs with such a slight build?

“Swung hard,” he said simply.

First Pitch

2007-10-24T09:26:00.000-04:00

Yaz will be on the mound tonight! (Weather permitting)

Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, the 1967 Triple Crown winner, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight. John Williams will lead the Boston Pops in the playing of the national anthem.

Red Sox Fan Test

2007-10-08T14:57:00.000-04:00

How about a little trivia while we wait for the Yankees and Indians to sort it out?

Yazcar

2007-09-14T16:24:00.000-04:00

Meet Yaz' nephew Jeff, a mechanic for Kevin Harvick, Inc.

Jeff Yastrzemski landed at KHI a little under two months ago from Braun Racing -- and immediately learned that his new employer was a Yankees fan.

"I wear my Red Sox hat around the shop all the time, so he gives me a little bit of grief," Yastrzemski said, referring to Harvick. "The last series the Red Sox and Yankees had, we made a bet with each other. If the Red Sox win the series, he had to wear a Red Sox hat for a week and if the Yankees won, I would wear a Yankees hat for a week."

Ugh. Find another driver, Jeff!

YazTube

2007-09-07T10:12:00.000-04:00

Check out the throw he makes to cut the runner down at home at 2:35. Goosebumps.

The Ultimate Grinder

2007-09-06T10:57:00.000-04:00

Bob Ryan in Baseball Digest, November 2000

What Yaz did was last long enough at a high enough level to construct a new image, that of the Ultimate Grinder. He came, as he often pointed out, from tough Polish stock, and he was not afraid of work. The game never came easy for him, but had the combined body and will (one disabled list visit in 23 years) to simply Be There, day-in, day-out, for 16 post-`67 years.

The appropriate milestones, which always meant more to everyone else than to him, came and went. He got his 400th home run and 3,000th hit seven weeks apart in 1979, and when the cheers had died down, he went back to work, playing fiercely and aggressively from the end of the Carter administration to the three-quarters mark of the first Reagan administration.

His toughness, his consistency, and his unmatched work capacity remain his legacy, but also consider this, again courtesy of Gammons: In the 22 biggest games of his career (games played for a pennant in `67, `72, and `75, the 1975 ALCS, and his two World Series), he batted .414, slugged .702, and knocked in better than a run a game.

He knew what he wasn't (Ted Williams, for example), but he also knew what he was. How's this for an honest self-appraisal at the time of his 1983 retirement?

"I think the best way to sum it up," Yaz said, "is that I wasn't the greatest home run hitter that ever lived. But I hit home runs. I have the extra-base hits. I have the total bases. I have the RBI. I wasn't the greatest average hitter that ever lived, but I wasn't too bad. Three thousand, four hundred base hits. I had walks starting innings, and they help win ballgames. Defensively, I wasn't bad.

"I'd go against anybody in a seven-game series," he concluded. "You put eight Yastrzemskis out there, I'll take my chances."

GIDP

2007-09-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

Ouch!

Grounded Into Most Career Double Plays: Cal Ripken 350; Hank Aaron 328; Carl Yastrzemski 323.

Apparently, you have to be a pretty good player to qualify for this one; all three leaders are in the Hall of Fame. Ripken's record appears safe for a while. With Julio Franco (312) out of work, the closest active player is Ivan Rodriguez (265).

Carroll Hardy

2007-09-04T11:50:00.000-04:00

Trivia from Jim Higgins at the Barre Montpelier Times Argus ...

Last week I asked: Who was the only major league player to ever pinch hit for both Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski? It was Carroll Hardy. He hit for Williams in 1960 and Yaz in 1961, his rookie year.

Congrats to Karen Andresen, Jeff Cook, Al Fraser, Sean Bradley, Bill Fraser, and Jim Slotter.

Cook noted that Hardy was the ONLY person to ever pinch hit for Ted Williams in the major leagues, although many players pinch hit for Yaz.

Bradley added that Hardy played for the NFL's 49ers for one season in the 1950s and that he also pinch hit for Roger Maris when they both played in Cleveland.

Too bad no mention of whether Hardy got on base.

Shades of Billy Rohr

2007-09-02T12:54:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Clay Buchholz!

Billy Rohr is one of those guys and New England baseball fans over the age of 50 remember April 14, 1967, when Rohr took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in his first game in the big leagues. The game was played in Yankee Stadium and Whitey Ford was the other pitcher and Jackie Kennedy and her young son were in the stands.

Serving notice that this would be a special year for himself and the Sox, Boston left fielder Carl Yastrzemski made a running, leaping, over-the-shoulder catch of a Tom Tresh drive to start the ninth inning.

Rohr, of course, was denied. Veteran Yankees catcher Elston Howard cracked a clean single to center with two outs and Rohr settled for a 3-0 shutout. Though history eluded him, immortality did not.

Rohr would win only two more games in his major league career, but he'll live forever in Boston baseball lore.

And now there is Buchholz, who wasn't even supposed to be pitching last night.

I Didn't Know That!

2007-08-31T09:42:00.000-04:00

According to Jen's husband at Snowball's Chance ...

The last player ever to get a hit off Satchel Paige was another Hall-of-Famer, Carl Yastrzemski, who four years earlier made his Major League debut....against the Kansas City Athletics.

Wikipedia has more ...

In 1965, Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley signed Paige, 59 at the time, for one game. On September 25, against the Boston Red Sox, Finley invited several Negro League veterans including Cool Papa Bell to be introduced before the game. Paige was in the bullpen, sitting on a rocking chair, being served coffee by a “nurse” between innings. He started the game by getting Jim Gosger out on a pop foul. The next man, Dalton Jones, reached first and went to second on an infield error, but was thrown out trying to reach third on a pitch in the dirt. Carl Yastrzemski doubled and Tony Conigliaro hit a fly ball to end the inning. The next six batters went down in order, including a strikeout of Bill Monbouquette. In the fourth inning, Paige took the mound, to be removed according to plan by Haywood Sullivan. He walked off to a boisterous ovation despite the small crowd of 9,000. The lights dimmed and, led by the PA announcer, the fans lit matches and cigarette lighters while singing “The Old Gray Mare.”

You Are Nobody In Hungary!

2007-08-30T10:45:00.000-04:00

Secrets of '67 ...

‘‘To be involved in a pennant race, and not to be 30 games out of first place by the All-Star break, was a completely different experience for me,’’ Yastrzemski said on Opening Day at Fenway this season. ‘‘Baseball was fun again. I think that’s what made a big difference in my year that year. I’ve always said that - that if we hadn’t been involved in a pennant race I never would have won the Triple Crown.

‘‘You weren’t looking to go out and hit home runs and drive in runs (necessarily); you were looking just to get on base. If you got on base with a walk or made a defensive play, after the middle half of the ’67 season, you’d get a standing ovation. You didn’t have to hit a home run.’’

Of course, he did anyway. Forty-four of them - a total he would never eclipse.

The secret? A three-pronged one.

First, he had put himself through hell in the offseason, training with Gene Berde, a Hungarian-born physiotherapist in Lynnfield. In NESN’s essential documentary on the ’67 season, ‘‘Impossible to Forget,’’ Berde tells an interviewer back then that after Yaz became winded after a brief workout in their first meeting, Berde scolded him, saying, ‘‘You know what you are? You are nobody in Hungary!’’’

Combine that with a couple of well-timed batting tips that season from Ted Williams (close your stance) and hitting coach Bobby Doerr (hold your hands higher) and - viola! - a baseball god was born.

Manny Ties Yaz

2007-08-29T13:25:00.000-04:00

South Coast Today:

Manny becomes the 12th player in Major League history to hit 20 home runs for 13 consecutive seasons, and the 52 ties Carl Yastrzemski for the fourth-most by any player ever against New York. (Hank Greenberg's 53 are next.)

I'll bet Yaz never wore his pants legs that low.

Houston's Gain

2007-08-27T11:13:00.001-04:00

Yaz chimes in at Jeff Bagwell's retirement party

The ceremony included video tributes from several current and former major league players, including recently enshrined Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr., Luis Gonzalez and Chipper Jones.

But the biggest surprise came from Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, Bagwell's childhood idol.

"I begged the Boston Red Sox not to trade you," Yastrzemski said of the infamous deal that sent Bagwell to Houston for pitcher Larry Andersen in 1990. "Boston's loss is Houston's gain. See you in Cooperstown."

That was a really lousy trade, wasn't it?

The Secret Fishing Hole

2007-08-26T10:37:00.000-04:00

From the Brunswick Times Record

BRUNSWICK — The privacy and serenity of Walter Reil's Bath Road property became a favorite vacation spot for one of the most legendary Boston Red Sox players ever — but after 38 years owning and operating the New Meadows Motel, a frustrating discord with railroad operators stain his otherwise fairy tale memories.

If you're not looking for it, the quaint motel campus can be easily lost behind the trees next to Bath Iron Works' boisterous Harding Plant on the Bath Road in Brunswick.

"I don't know how many times I've heard people say, 'I've been driving down this road for 20 years and I never realized you were there,'" remarked Reil, who plans to sell the approximately 16-acre property and its small neighborhood of cabin-style buildings.

That relative anonymity is precisely what attracted Carl Yastrzemski, a 1989 inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the last person to lead the Major Leagues in batting average, homeruns and runs batted in during the same season. The legend, known to Red Sox fans everywhere as "Yaz," could settle in for long summer stretches at the New Meadows Motel and sneak out to the Kennebec River to fish without wading through seas of adoring fans.

Reil, an avid Red Sox fan himself, still remembers the day Yaz checked in for the first time, back in 1996. Early in the week, Reil had gone about his regular morning rounds volunteering to drive patients to dialysis appointments.

"When I got back (to the motel), my wife said, 'You're never going to believe who was here,'" he recalled. "I said, 'Who?' She said, 'Carl Yastrzemski,' and I said, 'You're right, I don't believe you.'"

But sure enough, the following weekend the famous ballplayer showed up for his stay. After Reil fixed the Hall-of-Famer's boat a summer day thereafter, the two became fast friends. The man whose No. 8 is now retired from use by the Sox became a regular visitor to the east Brunswick getaway.

Thursday afternoon, Reil stepped out of the August heat into his air conditioned workshop. Hunting trophies and family photos cluttered the comfortable surroundings, as did a signed Yastrzemski jersey, a "Yaz" poster and numerous pictures of Reil and the Red Sox legend celebrating heavy stripers freshly pulled from the Kennebec.

Stories rolled off Reil's tongue, like the time Yaz surprised Reil's buddies by showing up for a Tuesday night poker game unannounced. Naturally, the starstruck players didn't object when Yastrzemski wanted to change the card game from poker to baseball.

"I told those guys that the six of us were probably the only people in the state of Maine that can say we've played 'baseball' with Carl Yastrzemski," Reil recalled.

Eternity With Yaz

2007-08-01T08:25:00.000-04:00

Do replica jerseys decompose?

We knew Matt Damon was a big Bosox fan, we just didn't know how big. On "Live With Regis and Kelly" yesterday, cohost Regis Philbin said he bumped into "The Bourne Ultimatum" star at the movie's premiere and that our man Matt revealed something kind of weird: He wants to be buried in a Red Sox uniform, and not just any Sox uni. When this diehard is dead, he wants to be dressed in a No. 8 Sox jersey in honor of his hero Carl Yastrzemski.

Mystery Yaz Teammate #2

2007-07-05T11:47:00.000-04:00

This one shouldn't be too hard. Always liked those red caps with the blue bills!

Fireworks!!

2007-07-04T13:39:00.000-04:00

Via CBS Sportline:

July 4th 1977: The Boston Red Sox tied a major league record by banging out eight home runs, including four in the eighth inning. Fred Lynn and George Scott collected two each. Others were hit by Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, Butch Hobson, and Bernie Carbo. The Sox beat the Blue Jays, 9-6.

Happy Fourth of July, Yaz fans!

1970 All-Star Game

2007-07-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

Doberman on the Diamond looks back at some of the greatest All-Star game performances and sure enough Yaz is there!

Tying a record for most hits, Yaz batted 6 times, and collected 4 knocks in a losing effort. The Rex Sox player also had 1 RBI and scored a run, but the N.L. came out on top, 5-4.

Yaz singled in the first, sixth and eighth innings. He doubled with two out in the twelfth but was stranded by Amos Otis. The NL won the game in the bottom of the twelfth on the famous Rose-Fosse collision at home plate.

Return of The Mystery Yaz Teammate!

2007-06-26T15:58:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-23T10:31:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-14T11:35:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-06-01T09:37:00.000-04:00

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."

World’s Greatest Baseball Card Croucher

2007-05-30T12:38:00.000-04:00

Denny Doyle logged a few seasons playing second base for the Bosox in the mid-seventies. He's the subject of the latest entry at Josh Wilker's awesome Cardboard Gods blog.

Nobody, but nobody, can perform the crouching middle infielder baseball card pose like Denny Doyle. There have been many admirable practitioners of this imitation of ready, steady, utterly lifeless anticipation, many who have brought the necessary "good glove, no hit" standards to their rendition of the pose’s backstory, but Denny Doyle is the best there ever was, the best there ever will be. The 1977 card shown above is a perfect example, in that Doyle’s intense concentration on the task (or lack of a task) at hand has produced the impression that he has literally frozen into his crouch and will be forever unable to move. George Scott will have to be called to pick Denny Doyle up and carry him back to the clubhouse, then carry him back out to second base when the game is about to start.

Doyle lasted eight seasons in the majors, batting .250 with no power, no speed, and little ability to draw more than the occasional walk, in my mind the perfect record for the world’s greatest baseball card croucher. Even his name seems to contribute to the "unity of effect" (to use Poe’s term) for this particular art form. Denny Doyle. He sounds like the harmless, mild-mannered alter ego of a cut-rate superhero whose only power is the ability to turn into a statue.

Denny Doyle had his career year in 1975, when he helped the Red Sox get to the World Series by hitting .310 in 89 games after being traded to the club from the California Angels. Doyle only managed a .513 OPS in the 1975 World Series, but he did get a hit in every one of the seven games played, a perfect Denny Doyle performance in that it was both steady and of negligible worth.

Go read the entire piece now. There's the obligatory Yaz mention but so much more!

The First Red Sox Homer of the Season

2007-04-05T10:55:00.000-04:00

Kevin Youkilis hits it for 2007, breaking Big Papi's two year streak.

The Red Sox all-time leader? Yaz - with seven.

Ted did it five times, Jim Rice but once and Manny never.

Another Opening Day

2007-04-03T14:22:00.000-04:00

Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek now needs four more opening day starts to catch up with Yaz.

Jason Varitek will make his eighth straight start at catcher on Opening Day, a Red Sox record for that position. Only four Boston players have made more consecutive starts at the same position. Carl Yastrzemski started 12 straight openers in left field from 1961-92, Harry Hooper started 10 straight openers in right field from 1911-20, Wade Boggs started at third 10 straight times from 1982-92 and Jim Rice started in left nine straight times from 1980 through 1988.

The Glory of '67

2007-04-02T07:50:00.000-04:00

Forty years ago ...

As 1967 dawned, the Red Sox were coming off eight consecutive losing seasons. They’d lost 90-plus games for three straight years, including a 100-loss disgrace in 1965. They hadn’t won an American League pennant in 21 years, and hadn’t seriously contended for one in 15. After Ted Williams retired in 1960, attendance plummeted; the average attendance for a game at Fenway Park in the six years from 1961-66 was 10,026. Like the Bruins of today, they had become irrelevant. Their existence barely dented the Boston sports consciousness.

“You couldn’t give tickets away — no one wanted them,” Rico Petrocelli wrote in his book.

And then Yaz and the 67 Red Sox changed everything!

Uncle Carl

2007-03-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

“Don’t you know who her uncle is?” sneered one of my better informed classmates.

“Unh. Unh.”

“He’s Carl Yastrzemski.”

“Well, I don’t know who that is. You guys know that I only follow the Reds.”

The most clueless fan ever spends a day at the ballpark with Yaz.

The Meaning of Yaz

2007-02-27T13:54:00.000-05:00

There is a cool thread on Yaz at the The Sons of Sam Horn website.

Carl Yastrzemski’s immediate predecessor, Ted Williams, lived some kind of charmed life where he could accomplish whatever he wanted to through the sheer force of being Ted. He was a 6’ 3” live wire, a bulldog Picasso or Hemingway with a bat. Yaz? He was you or me, some guy who wouldn’t get two glances on the street, but was somehow able to push himself to the very limits of what he could do and live out there in that ether for 23 years. If Ted Williams was Superman, some freakish alien life form given powers by the yellow sun, then Carl Yastrzemski was Batman, a human residing on the edge of his own capabilities because that is what he was driven to do. Williams left us by hitting a home run in his last at-bat, still lifting that car as effortlessly as he did on the cover of Action Comics #1. Yaz, on the other hand, bore the visible scars of battle, ones dealt not only by foes on the diamond but by time itself. And because of this we identified with him all the more.

Share your thoughts ...

Armand LaMontagne

2007-01-27T10:49:00.000-05:00

According to one Boston cabbie, "A sports museum in Boston is like an art museum in Paris." The Sports Museum of New England on the 5th and 6th levels of the Banknorth Garden in Boston is home to five life-size wooden sculptures of New England athletes by artist Armand LaMontagne - including the pictured facsimile of Yaz.

LaMontagne, one of America's leading sculptors of celebrated personalities is best recognized for his life-size wood and bronze sculptures. Besides the five works at the New England Sports Museum, he is represented at The Baseball Hall of Fame, the Basketball Hall of Fame and Fort Knox. Other notable New England athletes LaMontagne has whittled include Ted Williams, Larry Bird, Bobby Orr, Harry Agganis and Dwight Evans.

So if you can't make it to Paris in the spring, give the New England Sports Museum in Boston a try and check out the wooden works of Armand LaMontagne.

Lip Reader

2007-01-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

Sneaky Mel Stottlemyre used to read Carl Yastrzemski's lips when he saw Yaz talking to himself between pitches.

"If I saw his lips saying, 'Be quick, be quick,' I'd throw him a changeup," Stottlemyre said. "If he was saying 'Stay back, stay back,' I'd throw him a fastball."

Never trust a Yankee!

The Yaz Song!

2007-01-14T14:50:00.000-05:00

"We Fenway Fans, we stomp and clap our hands at Yaz's jazz!!"

This is a Yaz fan "must have" courtesy of staffannouncer.com!

Yaz fan to skipper Southern Vermont College

2006-11-19T11:47:00.000-05:00

That's the entire school - not just the baseball team.

Karen Gross, a professor of law who has a strong interest in civil liberties and a passion for books, maps and Red Sox slugger Carl Yastrzemski, was inaugurated as the new president of Southern Vermont College Saturday afternoon.

Gross was formally inducted as the eighth president of the small college in a ceremony at the Bennington Center for the Arts that drew many presidents from the region's colleges.

...

Gross said she thinks the No. 8 is significant for her personally and professionally, since she has become the college's eighth presidency.

"My favorite baseball player of all time – my Red Sox hero Carl Yastrzemski — wore the No. 8," she said in a whimsical turn in her talk.

Another home run for Yaz Nation! Congratulations, Karen!!

Deal or No Deal?

2006-11-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

Read about the day in 1975 when Yaz was almost traded for Bill Hands.

The 2007 Ford C. Frick Award

2006-11-02T14:14:00.000-05:00

Voting is underway now at MLB.com for the Ford C. Frick Award. Longtime Red Sox announcers Ken Coleman and Ned Martin are on the ballot.

Presented annually since 1978, the Ford C. Frick Award is given to an active or retired broadcaster with a minimum of 10 years of continuous Major League broadcast service with a ballclub, network or a combination of the two.

Fans will have the opportunity to vote for up to three of the nearly 200 broadcasters eligible for consideration for the 2007 Ford C. Frick Award. Fans are allowed to vote once daily. Results will be announced in early December. The fans' selections, along with the full ballot of 10 candidates, will be announced in late January.

The final ballot will be comprised of three online selections, along with seven other candidates determined by a Hall of Fame research team. The Frick electorate includes all living award winners and six historians appointed by the Hall of Fame.

Coleman, who died in the summer of 2003, represents a strong contingent of former or current Red Sox announcers that also includes the late Ned Martin. Current Sox announcers Jerry Remy (television) and Joe Castiglione (radio) are also nominees.

Coleman called games for the Red Sox from 1966-74 and 1979-89. Before going home to become the voice of the Sox, Coleman called every touchdown scored by NFL legend Jim Brown.

In all, Coleman spent 35 years as a Major League broadcaster, also calling games for the Indians (1954-63) and Reds (1975-78).

While Coleman traveled around a bit during his illustrious career, Martin was a rock of stability, calling Red Sox games from 1961 until his retirement following the 1992 season.

Martin happened to be a rookie in Boston the very same year eventual Hall of Famer Yastrzemski broke into Fenway. He called more Yaz moments than any other broadcaster.

Vote here.

Put Jim Rice in the Baseball Hall of Fame!

2005-12-02T10:22:00.000-05:00

Hall of fame ballots are out and Yaz is going to bat for Jim Rice.

‘‘He had exceptional power to all fields,’’ Yastrzemski said of Rice, with whom he shared a clubhouse from 1975-83. ‘‘He was a very aggressive hitter and he worked hard. He made himself into a pretty good outfielder. He was probably the most dangerous hitter in the American League.’’

An exaggeration? Hardly. During the 12-year stretch from 1975 to 1986, Rice led the AL in games, at-bats, runs, hits, home runs, RBI, total bases, slugging percentage, extra-base hits, go-ahead RBI, multi-hit games and outfield assists. He was fourth in both triples and batting average in that span.

...

‘‘I don’t know if (steroid fallout) will help him because he should have been in a long time ago,’’ said Yastrzemski, who similarly argued for former teammate Luis Tiant. ‘‘For 10 years, Rice was probably the most dangerous hitter in the American League. You had to play with him every day to see how dominant he was. He was a guy that went to the post every day. He never complained. You never knew when he was injured because he played all the time.’’

Yaz is right. It's time to put Jim Rice in the Hall of Fame.

Mini-Fenway

2005-11-01T11:20:00.000-05:00

In Quincy, Massachusetts, a group is building a half-size replica of Fenway Park for Little Leaguers and others. The project even includes a museum for Yaz.

Mini-Fenway will be built on 12 acres of state-owned land off of Ricciuti Drive in West Quincy and will seat 5,000, mimicking its bigger twin down to the last ad. Iacobucci said that CITGO officials had already been out to make measurements for their sign, and that he was working with the sponsors whose familiar signs fill Fenway, from the Coke bottle towering over the outfield to the Dunkin' Donuts billboard

...

Once the stadium is built, there are bigger plans: a baseball diamond-shaped movie theater that plays classic baseball films and Red Sox away games, a domed indoor field with batting and pitching cages, and a pro shop. A Carl Yastrzemski Museum will have special resonance at the park, since the famous hitter is the first Little League player to make it to the Hall of Fame.

Cool! Wonder if they'll let you rent it out for parties?

Grandma Pierzynski

2005-10-17T07:43:00.000-04:00

Umpire Jerry Eddings screwy call brings up more on the Bridgehampton, Long Island Yastrzemski/Pierzynski connection:

"I didn't know what [A.J.] was doing. He was going pretty slow," [Sabrina Pierzynski] said of her grandson's decision to take off for first. She added that it was a good call. "I thought the ball was in the dirt," she said.

She was speaking from her house, about a block away from Carl Yastrzemski's boyhood home. Over the years, she has seen and heard a lot about plays at the plate. She recalled that her late husband and A.J.'s namesake, Anthony, was the catcher for a Bridgehampton town team called the White Sox. Yastrzemski was the batboy.

The Bridgehampton team was apparently actually named the White Eagles not the White Sox, but we can forgive Granny Pierzynski the mistake.

Congratulations and good luck to the Chisox in the World Series!!

Waz

2005-10-11T11:04:00.000-04:00

Well, the 2005 season is officially over for Red Sox. Disappointing ending yes, but at least we no longer have to suffer the gnawing desperation of being one year closer to death without ever seeing a Red Sox World Championship. And thankfully the Yankees are gone, too! Good luck to the White Sox. They played a superior ALDS. It's their turn to get the World Series monkey off their fans' backs.

The Waterbury Republican-American caught up with Gary Waslewski at the Bobby Bonds Memorial Scholarship Classic on Sunday. "Waz", a rookie righthander who would go on to only start 42 games in the Major Leagues, was the surprise choice of manager Dick Williams to start Game 6 of the the 1967 World Series for the Red Sox trying to stave off elimination by the St. Louis Cardinals.

[Waslewski] hadn't pitched in a month, and as he recalls today, "Cliff Keane, a poison-pen scribe, wrote, 'Waslewski has as much a chance of winning as Custer.'" He laughs now. He claims he laughed then. He even claims he wasn't shocked when WIlliams gave him the ball. He'd be the only one.

"In Toronto (Boston's Triple AAA affiliate) I pitched a lot of big games," Waslewski recalled.

Waz, as they called him, won 18 games in Toronto with Williams managing. But in Toronto he wasn't facing guys named Brock, Flood, Maris and Cepeda.

Waslewski pitched the game of his life in the Series. He left in the sixth inning giving up only four hits and leading 4-2. He tired and walked Maris and McCarver. John Wyatt bailed him out. But Wyatt gave up a game-typing homer to Lou Brock in the seventh and ultimately he earned the victory, not Waslewski. The Sox rallied to win, 8-4, in a game where Rico Petrocelli, Carl Yastrzemski and Reggie Smith hit homers in the same inning to set a Series record.

Waslewski was traded by the Boston Red Sox to the Cardinals after the 1968 season and bounced around the majors until retiring in 1972. Waz may be only a minor hero in the Red Sox pantheon, but he's a hero nonetheless.

The Yastrzemski Award

2005-10-06T21:36:00.000-04:00

Dating to 1968, The Yastrzemski Award is presented annually by the Suffolk County Baseball Coaches Association to the outstanding high school baseball player in Suffolk County, New York.

Guess who won one?

It's a simple play, one that he perfected not long after taking up baseball in East Islip almost 20 years ago.

Catch grounder. Pull ball from glove. Toss ball to second base.

Catch, pull, toss.

He booted some balls and fumbled others, but not many. He played four years on the varsity at East Islip High School and won the Yastrzemski Award as Suffolk County's finest in 1990, his senior season. He was drafted in the ninth round by the Braves and right after graduation was sent packing for Pulaski, Va., and later Idaho Falls and Macon and Durham and Greenville, honing his skills while waiting for the big-league call-up. All along, he kept turning the simple play.

Catch, pull, toss.

"I've made that play 1,000 times," Tony Graffanino said yesterday.

The complete list of Yastrzemski Award Winners:

2005 - David Collado, Copiague
2004 - Brian Johnson, East Islip
2003 - Estee Harris, Central Islip
2002 - Scott King, Connetquout
2001 - Tim Layden, Deer Park
2000 - Jason Gouge, East Islip
1999 - Dominick Ambrosini, Connetquot
1998 - Rick Riccobono, Commack
1997 - Rob Rizzo, Half Hollow Hills West
1996 - Mark Frole, Lindenhurst
1995 - Mike Cabales, East Islip
1994 - Ross Gload, East Hampton
1993 - Bill Koch, West Babylon
1992 - Mike Ciminiello, Smithtown East
1991 - John Garside, Glenn
1990 - Anthony Graffanino, East Islip
1989 - Brady Forseth, Smithtown West
1988 - Jim Mecir, Smithtown East
1987 - Keith Osik, Shoreham-Wading River
1986 - John Thoden, Patchogue-Medford
1985 - Ron Witmeyer, East Islip
1984 - Ron Witmeyer, East Islip
1983 - Rich Vichroski, Northport
1982 - Chris Bayer, West Islip
1981 - Raf Cepeda, Comsewogue
1980 - Kevin Baugh, Deer Park
1979 - Boomer Esiason, East Islip
1978 - Neal Heaton, Sachem
1977 - Jim Walker, Whitman
1976 - Victor Nicotra, Islip
1975 - Mike Heiser, Whitman
1974 - Al Willet, Patchogue
1973 - Len Locascio, Commack South
1972 - Neal O'Hara, Northport
1971 - Tom Veryzer, Islip
1970 - Don DeMola, Commack South
1969 - Richard Walsh, Central Islip
1968 - Skip Borowicz, Huntington

Boomer Esiason?

It ain't over till it's over. I'm not sweating it. Bosox in 5.

Bridgehampton White Eagles

2005-10-05T07:39:00.000-04:00

Painful start to the ALDS as the White Sox paste Boston 14-2 thanks in no small part to a double dinger contribution from White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Boy, did Clement look bad! At least the Red Sox weren't depending on him in an elimination game against Cleveland.

Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Downey points out that Pierzynski hails from the same Long Island hometown as another Polish ballplayer. In fact, the Yaz connection is pretty tight!

Pierzynski is from Bridgehampton, N.Y., where his father played a little semipro ball. A photograph of that team includes a batboy with another long, Polish name - maybe you've heard of him? Carl Yastrzemski? He played a little Boston Red Sox ball, you may recall.

The semipro team was the Bridgehampton White Eagles.

In time, [Yaz] became the batboy for the Bridgehampton White Eagles. The team was an outgrowth of the social club for Polish-Americans founded by, among others, the Yastrzemskis. ``We used to hire bands and run dances,'' recalled Tom Yastrzemski, Carl's uncle and godfather, during a visit to the farmhouse that has been in the family for the better part of the century. ``We put the money we made into uniforms.''

All five Yastrzemski men played for the White Eagles. So did the Skoniecznys, brothers of Carl's mother, Hattie. Several cousins filled out the roster but the catalyst was Carl Yastrzemski Sr. He was the shortstop and he hit enough line drives in his youth to pique the interest of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

``They offered a Class D contract for $75 a month,'' the father once recalled, ``and the kid was born by then. I had to say no and stay on the farm. I'm not sorry.''

Oddly, if you ever looked at the back of a Yaz baseball card, his hometown is always listed as Southhampton instead of Bridgehampton.

No special significance to the White Eagles - Sing Sing ticket. Just an image I found floating around the web. 1936 was three years before Yaz was born and I'd imagine it's likely his dad was in the lineup that day against the Prison Nine.

Wells vs. Buehrle tonight at 7:05. Let's go Red Sox!!

An All Star from the Neck Down

2005-10-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

The Red Sox square off against the White Sox today in Game 1 of a surprisingly rivalry-less A.L. Wild Card series.

In June 67, White Sox skipper Eddie "The Brat" Stanky was asked if he considered Yaz an All-Star and offered nastily that Yastrzemski was "an All-Star from the neck down."

The FlyingSox Network records the thoughts of a few of the Chisox players who were in the mix of the 1967 pennant chase on Stanky and Yaz.

Catcher J.C. Martin:

Outfielder Ken Berry:

Pitcher Joel Horlen:

Big Papi

2005-10-03T19:06:00.000-04:00

The no-longer-accursed Dan Shaughnessy offers up his version of the now-obligatory '67 Yaz/David Ortiz column.

Cone of Uncertainty

2005-10-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

University of Hawaii professor R.W. Burniske ruminates on his battle with cancer through a Red Sox prism in this affecting Honolulu Star-Bulletin piece. Be well, friend.

Captain Carl

2005-10-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

Boston Globe reporter Stan Grossfeld spends a day fishing the Merrimack River with Number 8.