Carl Yastrzemski was very quiet when it came to his post-career era. Like said many times about him, he always valued family first and kept it to himself. During his career and a little bit after (1983), he lived through the Vietnam and Cold War. For the USA, these were two significant movements that occurred during this time. For the Vietnam War, it was considered a very infamous movement. For many Americans, they did not approve to this and they definitely showed it. They certainly had reason to, because the US government poured in $168 Billion into the war effort, which caused food prices and taxes to increase, to help the war effort. From a political standpoint, the war caused the US citizens to lose faith in their government. The turning point was the My Lai Massacre, a mass murder of 500 unarmed civilians (mostly women and children) committed by US soldiers. The most significant part of it was that it was covered up for over 2 years. Thus, throughout this time, the relationship between the government and its citizens was in disarray.

The next movement was the Cold War, which was an arms race between the Soviet Union and the USA. Although this had been going on for a while, it started to escalate in the early 80’s, when US citizens were realizing there were no signs of stopping. This created movements of a “Nuclear Freeze”. For example, in 1982, in Yaz’s home state New York, there was one of the largest demonstrations in US history, where over 1 million people gathered to support the freeze. Through all of this infamy, baseball was a way to get away from the stress of war.

Boston, the city of champions. That is what people remember about the city. Even though Carl Yastrzemski did not win here, he is definitely considered a champion in Boston’s eyes. He will be remembered of his great hitting and fielding. He will be remembered as the man who had the guts to fill in the shoes of the great Ted Williams. He will be remembered for making the “impossible dream” pennant come true in 1967. He certainly left a legacy. He, at the time, broke the record of games played with 3,308 games. Not only that, but he was an all-star, always in contention as one of the best in the game at the time. And the most significant part of it was that he spent his whole 23 year career in Boston. He will be remembered for that. He will be remembered as representing Boston both on the field and in the heart. He was a hero to everyone at the time, and that is why no one will ever wear the number #8 jersey ever again on the Red Sox. He meant a lot to me personally, and my dad. He is the one who kept the fans faith throughout the years, and that is why he had the honor of raising the 2004 banner. As he said himself “I’m very proud of my accomplishments, but I’m most proud of that, Not (Ted) Williams, not (Lou) Gehrig, not (Joe) DiMaggio did that. They were Cadillacs and I’m a Chevrolet.” He is and always will be remembered as Carl ‘Yaz’ Yastrzemski.