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WHY I LOVE CARL YASTRZEMSKI
August 22, 2008
Yeah, that's right I said LOVE...L-O-V-E! I'm not ashamed to admit it! Ever since I can remember I loved baseball, then because of my Dad, the Red Sox, and since about 8 years of age (also due to my Dad)-YAZ! I wanted to marry him when I grew up! Silly schoolgirl crush-maybe- but I STILL love him to this day! That love has grown to admiration for a man whose 23 years spent in a RED SOX uniform is unheralded.
Admiration for a man who at 5'11"-182 lbs. ,was driven to become the stellar player he became! When Yaz was young, he had a baseball with a nail in it hung from his garge ceiling. He used to swing at that ball for hours. Even in winter he cleared a path to that garage. When working the farm with his Dad, on a break, he'd fill a bushel basket with rocks , throw the rocks in the air and just hit them-one after another until his Dad called him back to work. Here's a quote for Joe Lahaud, a teammate from 68-71. "Yaz did it all the time. We'd be on the road and he'd call, 'C'mon, let's go to the ballpark.' I'd say,'Christ it's only one o'clock. The game's at seven.' He lived, breathed , ate and slept baseball. If he went 0-for-4, he couldn't live with it. He could live with himself if he went 1-for-3. He was happy if he went 2-for-4 . That's the way the man suffered".
I have admiration for a man who NEVER bought into the "I'm a superstar" silliness. He never even realized he had won the Triple Crown until he read it in the newspaper the next day! When asked about being booed in his beloved Fenway he replied, "Yes, I got booed, but they didn't really mean it".
The there's THE WALL. Yaz and The Wall. Nothing like it! YAZ AND THE WALL! The thrill of watching him against that Wall-I will never forget it! He could fake better than any outfielder and routinely pretended to catch a ball he KNEW was going to carom off The Wall. Yep, sometimes this would make runners slow down or even stop completely! He had another "Wall Habit" that actually annoyed some of the Red Sox pitchers. When an opposing batter would smash a pitch thrown right down the middle , Yaz would sometimes stand motionless, hands on hips, staring forward as the ball sailed over his head, over the screen and out toward the Massachusetts Turnpike. He didn't want to give the hitter the satisfaction of turning around. Sometimes, it was "just a message to a Boston pitcher who may have thrown the wrong pitch to the wrong guy".
Most of the time Yaz played that Wall, before it was resurfaced in 1976, it was tin-with bolts sticking out of it. Some spot had two by fours. He knew every bolt and if a ball hit one of those bolts EXACTLY what affect it would have on that ball. "He had a knack for knowing where that ball was going and how far", said former Red Sox player Johnny Pesky. YAZ WAS THE MAESTRO OF THAT WALL!
Happy 69th birthday Mr. Carl Michael Yastrzemski! You have been my hero for 45 years. I love and admire you. Godspeed in your recovery! You are My Captain!
-PEACE 14/09
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