Among the clichés which flood the baseball vernacular, one does not hold water. All games do not count the same. Just ask Bryce Harper and Josh Donaldson, who garnered MVP honors last week.
But there was no more graphic portrayal of this theory than 1967.
Two years before divisional play came into existence, the race for the American League pennant and representation in the World Series came down to a thrilling September featuring a four-way dead heat.
In this season of competitive balance, one man tipped the scales.
By the time Carl Yastrzemski had retired following a 23-year career, his final hit total was 3,419 — surpassed by only seven major leaguers. He had 452 home runs and 1,844 runs batted in.
Those statistics earned him a ticket to Cooperstown. By leading the Boston Red Sox to the ’67 World Series with a Triple Crown-winning performance, most notably during a tension-filled stretch run , he earned a more exclusive honor — one for which he stands alone, as no player in baseball history was ever more integral to his team’s success.
A ninth-place club just the previous year, the Boston Red Sox made up a six-game deficit at the All-Star break and remarkably entered the final month in first place by a half-game — with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers all in close pursuit.
Yaz, then age 28, was on pace for a career year.
But this task wasn’t nearly as daunting as the effort being made to try and rid himself beyond the tall shadow cast by iconic Ted Williams, who had departed from the game after 1960.
It’s often said that replacing the legend is nearly impossible…it’s much easier replacing the man who replaced the legend. Yaz, who debuted on April 11, 1961, wasn’t afforded such a luxury.
Taking over Williams’ spot in left field was a burden in itself. It was made more overwhelming by early stigmas: a spoiled brat, a loafer, lacking intelligence. Expectations were raised, because of the athletic ability he’d already shown and because of who had come before him.
Despite any criticisms, he led the league in doubles three times, won two Gold Gloves and a batting title (1963) during his first six seasons. But he had yet to eclipse the 20-homer mark.
Little did anyone know that the Hall of Famer, now renowned for a tireless work ethic as well as fierce determination, was about to embark on a level of play few have ever equaled.
And the timing could not have been better.
After the calendar turned to September, he tallied nine home runs and 26 RBI over 27 games. He hit .417, had an on-base percentage of .504 and a .760 slugging percentage.
In the final 12 games of the season — with the weight of a World Series berth hanging on every pitch — Yastrzemski did just about everything to carry the Red Sox: 23 hits in 44 at-bats, 16 RBI and 14 runs scored.
But the most serious heavy lifting had to be done in the last two contests. Fenway Park was the setting; the Twins were the opponent. Minnesota was clinging to a one-game edge on both the Red Sox and Tigers. The White Sox sat 1.5 games back.
Yaz ensured Boston wouldn’t be eliminated prematurely, going 3-for-4 with four RBI on the regular season’s penultimate day. His single in the fifth inning gave the Red Sox the lead. A three-run homer in the seventh (his 44th of the year) proved vital in a 6–4 victory.
Now deadlocked with the Twins (and with Detroit a half-game back), everything hinged on the Oct. 1 finale. An early 2–0 Minnesota advantage would be short-lived, thwarted by the man who was making the most out of every pressure-pack opportunity.
The bottom of the sixth began with three straight singles to load the bases — setting the stage for you-know-who. Wasting no time, Yaz sent the first pitch up the middle for a two-RBI single.
Red Sox fans had come to expect it.
Boston would go on to score five runs in the frame. Yastrzemski finished the day 4-for-4 at the plate, not to mention adding an outfield assist that snuffed out a Twins rally.
When Jim Lonborg got Rich Rollins to pop out to shortstop Rico Petrocelli, it concluded a 5–3 Red Sox win and set off a mob scene on the field.
This heroic athletic achievement didn’t happen without a little help. That came courtesy of the California Angels, who defeated the Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader — giving Boston its first pennant in 21 years.
The team defied the long odds placed upon them in spring training. Their newly-deified superstar possessed the rarest individual skill set in a team sport setting: dominance in the clutch.
The final numbers of this incomparable season also bear out his marked excellence above the rest.
In addition holding American League leadership in home runs, RBI (121) and batting average (.326), Yaz was tops in nearly every other significant offensive category: hits (189), runs (112), total bases (360), slugging percentage, and on-base percentage. All of this during an era in which pitchers (throwing from a higher mound) held the cards. Collectively, the AL hit only .236, reached base barely more than 30 percent of the time, and posted a slugging average of .351.
The Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistic, a prime determinate for one’s value, shows Yastrzemski’s final number as 12.2. Not only was that the highest in baseball by a wide margin (4.9 wins above second-ranked Al Kaline), it’s tied for the third-highest mark of all-time among position players (according to Baseball-Reference). Just three of Babe Ruth’s best seasons are on par or better.
Yaz’s status as the game’s top hitter that year was front-and-center. But his performance in left field — even beneath the imposing ‘Green Monster’ — is grossly under-appreciated. Baseball-Reference shows his defensive WAR as 2.7 — the second-best in the AL behind perennial Gold Glover Brooks Robinson and one of the top 20 defensive seasons ever by a left fielder.
Not surprisingly, Yastrzemski was the obvious choice for the American League’s Most Valuable Player — garnering a near-unanimous vote. He was also honored by Sports Illustrated as its “Sportsman of the Year.”
A World Series title, however, proved elusive — as it would for all Red Sox players for 86 years.
Although he batted .400 (10-for-25) with three homers and five RBI, Bob Gibson and St. Louis Cardinals beat the Red Sox in seven games. Yaz alone could not exorcise “The Curse of the Bambino.”
What he did eradicate was the specter of the franchise’s former occupant in left field.
Like Ted Williams, Yastrzemski became the principal figure for a generation of Boston fans. His steady play and leadership for over two decades in a Red Sox uniform led to his No. 8 being retired and placed in the upper right field grandstand at Fenway — along side the legendary No. 9.
And just as Williams quieted any doubters with a .406 batting average in 1941, Carl Yastrzemski earned his special place in New England sports lore with a storybook 1967 season — a season in which he rose above the rest to make an “Impossible Dream” made true.