On the blog today, my do-over for Boston Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski and his 1978 card, something I've wanted to do for some time now:
Rather
than the boring (to me at least) close up of the man staring up into
the air that Topps had out there, I wanted a nice action shot of him to
go along with the legendary All-Star badge that I hold so dear.
This image seems to do the trick, and was good enough for me to include in my recent Series 16 set released a month ago.
As someone who grew up in New York City during the second half of his
career, it's really easy to forget that Yastrzemski was a Long Island,
New York boy before he went on to become a New England legend.
And how could he NOT become a legend, what with 23 years of Major
League ball, all with the Red Sox, turning in three batting titles, a
Triple Crown in 1967 along with an MVP Award, seven Gold Gloves, 18
all-star nods, and 25 league-leads in primary offensive
categories.
By the time he did the retirement tour in 1983, he scored 1816
runs, collected 3419 hits, 646 doubles, 452 homers, 1844 runs batted in
along with a .285 batting average.
He was just plain awesome…
