All eyes are fixated on Mike Yastrzemski as the San Francisco Giants come to Fenway Park for a three-game series beginning Tuesday night.
The 29-year-old outfielder, grandson of Boston Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, is set to make his Fenway debut Tuesday, which has caused plenty of Yaz talk ahead of the mid-week set. Of course, his grandfather’s impressive statistics have been thrown around quite a bit lately, causing the Andover, Mass., native to reflect on the 18-time All Star’s historic career.
Yastrzemski, now 80 years old, played a remarkable 23 seasons in a Red Sox uniform. In that time, he totaled 3,308 games, averaging .285 with 452 home runs and 1844 RBIs. You can go down each column of Yastrzemski’s career numbers and continue to be impressed by every single value, but one in particular stuck out to his grandson: 23 seasons.
“When I turned 23, that was the big shocking moment,” Mike Yastrzemski said, per the Eagle Tribune’s Chris Mason. “For my entire life (grandpa Yaz) had showed up to Fenway Park every day. That kind of blew my mind. I can’t picture 23 years worth of Major League Baseball experience.”
He’s got a point. 23 seasons of Major League Baseball is ridiculous. And out of those 23 seasons, the Hall of Famer played 105-plus games in 22 of them. In the lone campaign he didn’t, Yaz logged 91.
Unbelievable.
