Forgotten history: The Braves' Yastrzemski
(As long as my health and well-being allows, I am going to spend the off-season writing up some short pieces about the history of the Braves that are in danger of being forgotten, if they haven't already).
My first, as it says above, is the Braves' Yastrzemski.
Much ago was made this season when Mike Yastzemski, grandson of Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, played a game at Fenway Park and hit a game-winning homer. If you listened closely, you might have heard a reference to Mike's father, Carl's son, but no details. Here are the details.
Carl Michael Yastrzemski (don't think was a "senior") was a four-year star at Florida State and passed on being drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 23rd round of the 1983 draft in order to play his senior year. The opportunistic Atlanta Braves then selected him in the third round of the now-defunct secondary draft in January of 1984.
He looked on be on the right track. A switch-hitter, "Yaz" (also his nickname) hit .264 with more walks than strikeouts for the Durham Bulls in the '84 season. Back at Durham for 1985, he improved on nearly everything, batting .270 with 11 homers and 63 RBIs in 132 games. He would move up to Double-A the following season, but as a member of the White Sox, with the Birmingham Barons. He hit a solid .285 with 73 RBIs in 124 games, would make a similar impression in AAA the following year: .292-6-52 at Hawaii, which was a spacious ballpark.
So what happened? The writing was on the wall in an interview he did in 1986.
“I’ll know when I’m ready, after I play in Double A and Triple A,” Yastrzemski told the L.A. Times. “I’m going to give it 100%. If I see myself hitting .210 or .215, well, I’ll have to give this thing a second look. But if I can steadily improve, then I’ll know that I’m going keep going.” For the first half of the Sox’s Birmingham season, Yaz was closer to his goals of staying around. His average stayed around the .280 to .290 mark for the better part of the season. “I’d like to be doing better,” Yaz the younger said. “The main thing is to stay consistent. I want to stay away from going 10-for-10 and then go 0-for-30.”
He repeated AAA in 1988, was hitting only .211 through 54 games when he walked away. He maintained he was not affected by the comparsions people were inevitably going to make.
“I’m not concerned about it. Baseball is a very individualized sport,” said Yaz on the event of his 25th birthday. “My stance is different. I switch hit, he didn’t. Our styles are different. If people compare us, well, then they will compare us.”
He was 26 when he walked away, benched and admittedly not focused on the game.
"It wasn't a snap decision," Yastrzemski told the Sun Sentinel. "After I got into the (produce brokerage) business last October I began thinking about leaving baseball. I went to spring training with some doubts. I wasn't mentally ready to play. My dad and I were talking last winter," Mike said. "He was disappointed I even went to spring training.
"He said if he had the business opportunity I had and was in my situation, he wouldn't go back to baseball. I wanted to give it one more shot, but I wasn't mentally into it."
He was hitting .185 in his last eight games and had been benched.
"I'm not sad about leaving," Yastrzemski said. "I never had great talent. I didn't have a great arm or great speed or great power. I made myself a ballplayer. I've gone as far as I can go and worked my butt off to get there. I'm excited about a new challenge. I'm going to have a stable life for the first time in my entire life. I've been moving around for 25 or 26 years. In spring, I was going down to spring training with my dad. When the season started, I went north again. I was changing schools and moving around a lot."
"My wife isn't too much of a baseball fan," Yastrzemski said. "As a matter of fact, I think she hates it."
His wife, Anne Marie, gave birth to their only child, Michael Yastrzemski, in August of 1990, and was coached by dad and grandad. Like his dad, he passed (twice) on being drafted in order to finish his college career, at Vanderbilt. And that was even though the Red Sox drafted him (very late) 2009. The Orioles drafted his as a 14th rounder in 2013 and gradually moved through their system before a trade late in the spring of 2019 with the Giants -- who happened to have a spot for him after he hit 12 homers in his first 40 games.
When he finally made the majors this year at age 28, after 2,600 minor league at-bats and six different clubs, the Yastrzemski family celebrated. But his father was not there to share in the joy; Carl Michael Yastrzemski died at the age of 43, in September of 2004, from a heart attack following hip replacement surgery. His father missed most of the post-season hoopla surrounding the Red Sox as a result.
In his two years with the Braves system, "Yaz" played in 242 games, hitting .267 with 19 homers and 113 RBIs.
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