Word: yastrzemski
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...League aberration). He is platooned with Rose's old comrade, 40-year-old Tony Perez, who takes the lefthanded pitchers, while Yaz gets the righthanders. "Pete is a hitting machine; Yaz is a hard-working hitter," says Perez, who collected his own 2,500th hit the other day. Yastrzemski's career batting average (.286) is the lowest of the 15 men who have made 3,000 hits. He had to grind harder and longer...
...five or six years ago and ruined it. The rivets: they used to be fun. Decoying the runners into stopping at first base, when I knew that the ball was a double. I loved pretending it was a home run and then catching it for an out." Players know Yastrzemski as a joker and prankster but more noticeable than humor is intensity. It burns in his eyes...
...though only 34, has been complaining this season about his "mind wandering at the plate."According to Rose, "That's not age, that's being in last place. I don't know if I could play now for a team that wasn't in contention." Yastrzemski says, "It's easy for your mind to wan der, to come back to the dugout from the plate and think, 'Why did I swing at that pitch?' More than the physical part, the mental part kept me working out in the offseason. I wanted to stay...
...much as Yastrzemski's sparkling average and eleven home runs have meant to the Red Sox this year, the team's change of mood over the past two seasons must be attributed in the largest part to the Major, the tough tobacco-y Manager Ralph Houk. About the time that Mercenaries Fred Lynn, Carlton Fisk and Rick Burleson shipped out, Houk shipped on. "When everyone was saying we'd finish last a year ago," says Yaz, "Houk was saying, 'Let's show them.' " Boston lost the second half of the strike-torn season...
...Yastrzemski, too, says, "I never cared about being a superstar. I just wanted respect." He has also made a splendid living. His salary this year is said to be $500,000. Over the years, he could have made more. "The Red Sox have been a family-type thing to me, especially when...