Yastrzemski goes to Fenway, Sandoval doesn’t as Giants gear up for special week
BOSTON – It’s been 36 years since a Yastrzemski last took the field at Fenway Park, but a bridge to another generation has finally been built.
When the San Francisco Giants open a three-game series in Boston today, rookie outfielder Mike Yastrzemski will follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, Carl, and write a new chapter in the family’s history.
“It’ll be wild, really,” Mike said. “It’ll be really special.”
No one has appeared in more games at Fenway Park than Carl Yastrzemski, a Hall of Fame slugger who spent 23 seasons with the Red Sox from 1961-1983. An 18-time All-star, seven-time Gold Glove Award winner and three-time batting title champion, Carl Yastrzemski is revered as royalty in Boston.
His grandson, Mike, is a 29-year-old rookie who spent parts of seven seasons in the minor leagues wondering if he would ever earn a big league at-bat. Now, he’ll play at a stadium where his grandfather’s No. 8 jersey is retired.
“His grandfather, the name, how he’s playing this year, I think there will be a pretty big ovation for all three games,” Giants teammate and fellow Massachusetts product Tyler Beede said. “I’m fired up for it. I want to wear a Gopro.”
Carl, 80, is expected to appear at Fenway Park this week to watch his grandson play in person for the first time since Mike was a college sophomore at Vanderbilt. It won’t be the first time Mike has played at the oldest stadium in the major leagues.
Yastrzemski first took the field in Boston in 2009 after the Red Sox selected him in the 36th round of the MLB Draft. The Andover, Massachusetts native had no intentions of signing with Boston and instead opted to accept a scholarship to Vanderbilt, but Yastrzemski said he played in a scrimmage featuring some of his fellow Red Sox draft picks shortly after the draft.
He also roamed the outfield at Fenway Park while playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League and during a fundraiser game hosted by his mother, Anne Marie, but Tuesday will mark his first professional game at the family’s baseball home.
“Trying to imagine those fans, the memories they’ve had and what’s going to go through them when they see a Yastrzemski out there in the outfield,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “I’m sure it’s going to bring back some great memories for them.”
Giants prospect Chris Shaw, a Lexington, Massachusetts native, said that despite never seeing Carl play a game, he grew up with an appreciation of what the Yastrzemski name
means to baseball in Boston.
“You still just knew the name, like ‘Oh wow, there’s another Yastrzemski?’ ” Shaw said. “In Boston, that’s held in the highest regard.”
Like Beede, Shaw anticipates Red Sox fans will erupt when Yastrzemski steps into the batter’s box this week.
“Insanity,” Shaw said. “I would expect he gets a standing ovation.”
Yastrzemski’s highly-anticipated arrival in Boston wasn’t expected to be the headline
from the Giants’ third-ever interleague trip to Fenway Park back when the season began. Instead of wondering what kind of warm reception the rookie outfielder will receive, the Giants were curious how long the boos would last when infielder Pablo Sandoval was introduced.
After signing Sandoval to a five-year, $95 million contract after the 2014 World Series, the Red Sox are in the final days of paying off what they still owe. In the years since he signed the deal, Sandoval hit 23 home runs for the Red Sox and 28 for the Giants, as his surprise return to San Francisco followed
the Red Sox decision to cut him in July, 2017.
Despite still being on the hook for more than $40 million at the time, the Red Sox gave up on Sandoval and paid him to move elsewhere.
A season-ending elbow surgery performed during the first week of September will prevent Sandoval from traveling with the Giants to Boston as he recovers. It will also stop Bochy from batting Yastrzemski and Sandoval back-to-back and watching the pendulum of emotions swing forcefully inside Fenway Park.
“I think that’s why he had the surgery,” Bochy joked.