SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In Minor League Baseball, it's all about working your way up the ladder to the majors. It's the dream for players like Mike Yastrzemski, an outfielder for the Sacramento River Cats.
Stories about minor leaguers have been done many times. What makes this one different is Mike’s grandfather happens to be hall-of-famer Carl Yastrzemski, one of the greatest Boston Red Sox to ever play the game.
The younger Yastrzemski has spent eight seasons in the minors, and at the age of 28 has yet to get called up to the show. The River Cats parent team, the San Francisco Giants, are struggling and they’ve hopefully noticed that Mike has been belting homers of late.
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So far on the season, Yastrzemski's slash line — .270/.362/.640 — is one of the best on the team. He has also hit 9 home runs, 17 RBIs and 22 runs in just 27 games.
So how often does Grandpa Yastrzemski weigh in on Mike’s game?
"We talk about my swing and how things are going once in a while," Yastrzemski said. "If I'm scuffling, he has cues to help me to go back to where I've been. But as far as that goes, he let's me have my own career, and I'm very grateful for that."
Carl Yastrzemski was the American League MVP during the Red Sox magical pennant winning season in 1967. He retired in 1983 with multiple team records. He'll forever be known in Boston as "Captain Carl".
The Younger Yaz may be the next Yaz to get a major league at bat. And if that happens in mid-September when the Giants visit Fenway Park in Boston, it would be a sight to see the Fenway Faithful go crazy for the family of one of their greats.
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