Today's entry for my collection of 1967 Topps Autographed Baseball Cards is about a player who stayed with the same team his entire career of 23 seasons and ranks very high on many major league baseball statistics. It is Carl Yastrzemski, outfielder of the Boston Red Sox, card number 355 in the 1967 Topps Baseball card set of 609 subjects.
This autograph was obtained from a respectable ebay seller on January 24, 2010 and it has been signed with a black sharpie. I research the autograph against other Carl Yastrzemski autographed pieces and I feel confident it is authentic. As of September 9, 2010, I have accumulated 510 different signature in the collection and I am actively pursuing the others.
Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski played 23 seasons for the Boston Red Sox from 1961 to 1983. That is a record for longevity with one team shared with Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles. During his Hall of Fame career, Carl achieved the following statistics, .285 career batting average, 3,419 hits, of which 452 were home runs, 1,844 runs batted in and 1,845 walks and 1,157 extra base hits in his 3,308 games played. The 3,308 games played is second all-time behind Pete Rose's 3,562. Yaz was elected to 18 all-star games, won 7 Gold Glove Awards and is the last batter to win the Triple Crown, leading the American League in 1967 with the highest Batting Average, Home Runs and Runs Batted In. Carl was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 with 94% of the vote on his first year of eligibility.
Carl Yastrzemski career started in the shadow of Baseball legend Ted Williams, who played left field also for the Boston Red Sox. Carl led the Red Sox after Williams retired and handed over the left field position to Jim Rice, who also played well enough to be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2009. Interestingly enough, Carl Yastrzemski was also linked to another Hall of Famer, Jim Brown of Pro Football. In high school, Carl broke Jim Brown record basketball scoring record at Long Island High School. Carl was given a basketball scholarship by Notre Dame before switching to baseball.
To learn more about Carl Yastrzemski, check out his biography at wikipedia.org.
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