Word: yastrzemskis
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...Carl Yastrzemski: Any roster must begin with Yaz, for while his statistical contribution to the team is often negligible, his symbolic value is impossible to assess--he is the real prism of the Red Sox, the central figure in almost every way. To understand Yaz is to understand the intricate relationship between the Sox and their fans and the Sox and themselves. It's all love and hate. When Yaz steps up to the dugout side of the plate and kicks at the dirt like a racehorse, as he has for fifteen years, his third spot in the line...
That year Yastrzemski also became the highest paid player in baseball. Catfish Hunter could claim that honor now, but Yaz's salary certainly hasn't shrunk, and since 1967 the money, the batting order, the hype, his longevity as the Sox's oldest veteran, the team leadership he has always displayed (sometimes challenged by the younger players on a club that has had its share of dissension), and the memories--these combine to put an incredible amount of pressure on him, the man who replaced Ted Williams. And since '67 he has flirted with the hopes of the people dangerously...
...around waiting for a fight. Pick out a Yankee game. In the proper season, the half of the crowd that's not rowdy kids or their grown-up counterparts will be B.U. students from Long Island, heavily into New York--they would never think of booing Yastrzemski if he were a Yankee. No wonder there's an edge to the Bostonians' insults--it's like the American track team in China, last week, impressed in spite of themselves because the Chinese fans seemed to really mean it about friendship, not competition, but dubious deep down inside--"Americans like...
...least, Yankee fans wouldn't have booed a New York Yastrzemski a few years back--who knows what things are like...
...Lyle wasn't equal to the task. He walked Evans and struck out Carl Yastrzemski before giving up run-producing singles to rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice...