Carl Yastrzemski
Carl Yastrzemski was one of the greatest Red Sox players in history, playing 23 years with the team, and is also one of the best players in history who never won a championship.
Yaz joined the Red Sox in 1961, and he had some big shoes to fill, because his position in left field had previously been filled by Ted Williams, who had retired after the 1960 season. By his third season, he had become a pretty good player, leading the league in hits, doubles, walks, and batting average.
He had his best season in 1967, when he took home the Triple Crown with a .326 average, 44 homers, and 121 RBI, while also leading the league in runs, hits, total bases, on-base percentage, and slugging. Heading into the final weekend of the season, he was tied with Harmon Killebrew for the home run lead, and the Red Sox were one game behind Killebrew's Twins for the AL pennant. Yaz went 7-8 with 6 RBI and a home run over those 2 games, winning both the Triple Crown and the pennant, and it would be the last batting Triple Crown for 45 years.
Yaz played extremely well in that year's World Series, batting .400 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI, but they lost to the Cardinals in 7 games due to Bob Gibson's historic pitching performance, the best by any pitcher in history up to that point. Had the Red Sox won, Yaz would have been the easy MVP of the Series, which would have gone nicely next to his regular season MVP from that season.
1968 was known as the Year of the Pitcher due to their dominance that year, and it resulted in the mound being lowered the next year, but it didn't affect Yaz. He was the only player in the league to bat over .300 that season, and he also led the league with 119 walks, but was denied the repeat MVP he deserved.
He continued his strong play for well over a decade after that point, eventually playing in 15 consecutive All-Star games and 18 overall. The Red Sox returned to the World Series in 1975, and while Yaz again played well, batting .350 in the playoffs, they fell in 7 games to the Reds. In 1976, at 36 years old, he hit 5 home runs over 2 games, which tied the all-time record.
Yaz retired in 1983, following 23 seasons with the Red Sox, which is tied with Brooks Robinson for the most seasons played with one team. He was the first AL player ever to reach 3000 hits and 400 home runs. He is the Red Sox all-time leader in runs, hits, doubles, RBI's, total bases, and games played, and is third in home runs.
He is also near the top of many all-time Major League leaderboards. He is #2 in games played and plate appearances, #6 in walks, #8 in doubles, #9 in hits, and #10 in total bases. His career postseason batting average is .369, and he played extremely well in both World Series losses in his career. His Triple Crown was a rare feat, and he is easily one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
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