Love for the Red Sox Began with Cheering for Carl Yastrzemski

I've been a die-hard Red Sox fan my whole life. I remember one summer, I was probably around 10, getting a Carl Yastrzemski shirt and hat, and wearing them all the time. I loved 'Yaz.' I always was a righty, but I taught myself to hit lefty because I wanted to be just like #8.

I collected baseball cards and when the Boston LF would show up in a pack along with that hard gum, it would make my day. Brothers fight. That's what they do. Once during an argument with one of my older brothers, he knew one of the worst things he could do to me was ruin my baseball cards. He took my TOPPS 1970 Carl Yastrzemski and bent it right down the middle. To this day, I haven't forgiven him.

Why the memory lane? On this day, September 12, 1979, Yastrzemski became the first American League player to get 3,000 career hits and 400 career home runs. He was my idol!