1976 Kellogg's #24 - Carl Yastrzemski

• What did he do to deserve a 1976 Kellogg's card?
• Carl didn't have his best year in 1975, but he had a Hall of Fame career going.
• In 1975 Yaz batted .269 with 14 HR and 60 RBI
• Carl was in his 11th straight All Star Game in 1975. Yastrzemski would eventually be an 18-time All Star. He appeared as a pinch hitter in the 1975 All Star Game and  hit a 3-run homer.
• Batted .455 (5 for 11) in the 1975 ALCS and batted .310 (9 for 29) in the 1975 World Series
• 1976 Highlights:
• Batted .267 with 21 HR and 102 RBI
• Went 0 for 2 in the All Star Game

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 4, Group 2) - down to six!

Pete Rose and the Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing card advance to the semi-finals.

This bracket is going to be a tough one. Please vote for your favorite out of these four cards. The top two cards will advance to the semi-finals.

Carl Yastrzemski #230

Steve Garvey #150

Johnny Bench #300

Oscar Gamble Traded (#74T)

1976 Topps Card of the Year - round 3, group 2

• Pete Rose, Dave Parker, World Series Champs, and the Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Card will move on to the final eight. I had to make a decision between the Worlds Series Champs and the Luis Tiant cards since both had the same number of votes.
• Here are the cards from the "other side of the bracket." Please vote for your favorite card(s) from this group. The top four cards will move on to the final eight.

Steve Garvey #150

Carl Yastrzemski #230 

Jerry Reuss #60

Oscar Gamble traded #74T

Johnny Bench #300

Ray Fosse #554

Fred Lynn #50

Lou Brock #10

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 2, Group 2)

• The cards that will move on from group 1 are Johnny Bench, Ray Fosse, Fred Lynn, and Lou Brock
• Here are the cards for round 2, group 2. Please vote for your favorite(s). The top four from this group will make it to the next round

Steve Ontiveros #284

Oscar Gamble Traded (#74T)

Sal Bando #90

Brian Downing #23

Carl Yastrzemski #230

Steve Garvey #150

Bill Plummer #627

Jerry Reuss #60

1976 Topps Card of the Year - Round 1, Group 1

• It's time to choose a card of the year. I chose 64 cards to be included in the voting. About 45 of them were chosen by readers and I chose the other ones to fill out the field.

• We'll do this eight cards at a time. Choose your four favorite cards from each group. The top half of each group will advance to the next round.

• Here are the cards:

#620 Al Oliver

#278 Bernie Carbo

#627 Bill Plummer

#525 Billy Williams

#23 Brian Downing

#230 Carl Yastrzemski

#262 Checklist

#277 Chicago Cubs

• The poll will be open for three days and then the next set of cards will appear for your vote.

1976 Topps #230 - Carl Yastrzemski

• Mr. Yastrzemski had a long and distinguished career with the Boston Red Sox. Carl has a lot of black ink on his baseball reference stat page:

• batting (1963, 1967, 1968)

• home runs (1967)

• RBI (1967)

• hits (1963, 1967)

• runs (1967, 1970)

• doubles (1963, 1965, 1966)

• walks (1963, 1969)

• on base percentage (1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970)

• slugging (1965, 1967, 1970)

• Lifetime:

• 18 All Star Games

• 1 MVP (1967) - 5 top-ten finishes

• 1 Triple Crown (1967)

• 7 Gold Gloves

• 2nd in games played (3,308)

• 3rd in at bats (11,988)

• 6th in hits (3,419)

• 8th in doubles (646)

• 6th in walks (1,845)

• Carl also had a lot of success in the post season. He batted .400 with three home runs in the 1967 World Series, .455 with one HR in the 1975 ALCS, and .310 in the 1975 World Series.

• The first time Carl came on my "radar" was in the 1975 World Series. My father had bought a scorebook and was teaching me how to keep score. I didn't know why he wrote in "Yaz" until I saw the full name on the TV screen. I was really proud of myself later when I learned how to spell his last name.

• Yaz was signed by the Red Sox in 1958. He batted .377 as an infielder for Class B Raleigh in 1959 and .339 for AAA Minneapolis in 1960. Carl had the unenviable task of succeeding Ted Williams as the Boston left fielder in 1961.
• Listed below are articles that were written throughout (and after) Carl's career. They can probably tell his story better than I can.

• Here is a May 20, 1963 Sports Illustrated article about Carl

• Here is a December 25, 1967 Sports Illustrated article announcing that Yaz was Sportsman of the Year for 1967.

• Here is a March 16, 1970 Sports Illustrated article about "The Team that Eats Managers."

• Here is a July 10, 1972 Sports Illustrated article about Yaz that wonders whether or not he has lost his power after some injuries.

• Here is a September 24, 1979 Sports Illustrated article about Carl's 3000th hit.

• Here is a September 1981 Baseball Digest article recalling Carl's most memorable games.

• Here is a November 1989 Baseball Digest about how tough of an opponent Yaz was.
• Here is a November 2000 Baseball Digest article about Yastrzemski.

• Carl's identity was stolen by his late son Mike late in his life. Carl was stuck with quite a few of his son's debts.
  

• Carl is now a roving instructor with the Red Sox. Here is his webpage.

• Liked to face: Jim Perry (.300, 5 HR in 140 AB); Jim Slaton (.409, 4 HR in 88 AB); Wilbur Wood (.324, 4 HR in 74 AB); Blue Moon Odom (.447, 5 HR in 47 AB)

• Hated to face: Gaylord Perry (.161 in 87 AB); Jim Hunter (.219 in 114 AB); Sam McDowell (.190 in 63 AB)