In this Olympic fortnight of impossible dreams, world records and dramatic sports spectacle, the City of Boston’s collective breath (for those of us aged 50 and older) is held awaiting word on the health of our true and beloved sports icon Carl Yastrzemski. Admitted to hospital last week with chest pains, prayers went out for the quiet, dignified superstar who made headlines on and off the field (he was the first baseball player to make the princely sum of $100,000 for an entire season, today some of the pretenders make that by showing up for spring training) with his love of the game and stellar play.

There is not a person in Boston who cannot spell his last name nor will we ever forget the one baseball record he holds that has stood untouched for almost 41 years. Yaz remains the last Triple Crown winner in batter in baseball ending the season holding three statistical titles: batting average – .326, home runs – 44 and runs batted in – 121. In 1967 he followed-on a feat accomplished just the year before by Baltimore great Frank Robinson. So rare is this feat that one needs to go back to 1956 and Mickey Mantle to find the next winner. Indeed only 14 men since 1878 have ever accomplished this feat (with Rogers Hornsby and another Boston legend Ted Williams winning it twice). Even with designated hitters and specialists, no one has come close to winning this title.

WHDH radio’s Jess Cain, who passed away in February of this year at the age of 81, recorded this wonderful tribute song to Yaz on that album:

Caaaaaarrrrrlllllll Yastrzemski,
Caaaaaarrrrrlllllll Yastrzemski,
Caaaaaarrrrrlllllll Yastrzemski,
The Man we Call Yaz (we love him)

We sang it throughout his career after The Impossible Dream Season of 1967. It was called The Impossible Dream because the Red Sox entered the last weekend of the season two games behind with three to play and were playing the league leading Minnesota Twins at home. Win all three and they still had to wait and see what the Detroit Tigers did. Lose and it’s all over. They won all three and brought home the league pennant to Boston for the 1st time since 1946.

I remember watching the crowd stream onto the field in celebration as Ken Coleman said, “THE RED SOX WIN! And there’s pandemonium on the field.” I remember having to look up the word in the dictionary afterwards.

Of course the World Series went down to the wire against the St. Louis Cardinals as the curse of the Babe made sure their infielder Julian Javier blooped the game winning hit which sent the Red Sox down to defeat I seven long games. No matter, to a 10-year old kid, just being there was a miracle. 1918 was not even a date worth remembering (the last time the Sox won the World Series).

In the off-season my first ever LP album was ‘The Impossible Dream’ replaying the improbable and set to the song from the musical Man of La Mancha. As a kid of 10 it was a great to see and when my airline executive Dad arranged for me to meet with Cy Young Award winning pitcher Gentleman Jim Lonborg in a private airline lounge, well, it just doesn’t get any better than that! My Dad passed away the year before they won it all defeating two dreaded nemeses The Yankees and those Cardinals in a 37-year wait for payback.

Carl Yastrzemski threw out the first ball in their repeat series in 2004, almost 40 years later.

Get well soon Yaz, we need you there rooting and to selfishly keep our dreams alive.