On August 6, 1989, the Boston Red Sox retire Carl Yastrzemski's No. 8
jersey.
Yastrzemski played his entire 23-year baseball career with
the Boston Red Sox
(1961–1983). He was primarily a left fielder, with part of
his later career played at first
base and as a designated
hitter.
Yastrzemski is an 18-time All-Star,
and the 1970 All-Star Game MVP. He is the possessor of seven Gold Gloves, including three
consecutive from 1967-1969. He is a member of the 3000 hit club, and the
first American League
player in that club to also accumulate over 400 home runs.
Since then Cal Ripken Jr. has matched the feat.
He is second on the all-time list for games played, and
third for total at-bats.
He is the Red Sox' all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles,
total bases, and games played, and is second on the team's list for home runs
behind another Red Sox great, Ted Williams, his
predecessor in left field.
In 1967,
Yastrzemski achieved a peak in his career, leading the Red Sox to the American
League pennant
for the first time in over two decades, in that season being voted the American
League MVP, and was the last winner of the Triple
Crown for batters in the major leagues until Miguel Cabrera achieved
the feat in 2012.
Sports Illustrated named Yastrzemski the Sportsman of the
Year after winning the Triple Crown.
Yastrzemski retired in 1983 at the age of 44,
although he stated in his autobiography Yaz
that he was initially planning on playing the 1984 season, until he tired from
a long midseason slump. He also stated that had he known how good Roger Clemens would have
been as a pitcher, he would have played in 1984 to have a chance to play with
him.
Yastrzemski would finish his career with a .285 career
batting average with 3,419 hits, 452 home runs and 1,844 RBIs.
Yastrzemski was inducted into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall
of Fame in 1989 with 94.63 percent of the vote on the first ballot in which he
appeared.
In 1999,
Yastrzemski ranked number 72 on The Sporting News'
list of the
100 Greatest Baseball Players. That same season, he was named a
finalist to the Major
League Baseball All-Century Team.
As of the 2008
baseball season, on the all-time lists for Major League baseball,
Yastrzemski ranks at number one for games played for one team, a record shared
with Baltimore Orioles great and Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.
Yastrzemski is number two for games played with 3,308,
number three for at-bats, number six for hits with 3,419, number six for bases
on balls with 1,845, number eight for total bases, number eight for doubles
with 646, number nine with 1,157 extra base hits and 12 for RBIs with 1,844.
In addition, Yastrzemski only trails Ty Cobb in hits collected with
a single team, and trails only Cobb and Tris Speaker in hits
collected playing in the American League, both of whom played before World War
II.
