YAZ: Baseball, the Wall, and Me

by Carl & Gerald Eskenazi Yastrzemski ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1990

The long-awaited autobiography of Boston Red Sox Hall-of-Famer Yastrzemski (3419 hits, 452 home runs). All one expects is here: the ""Impossible Dream"" of 1967, when a ninth-place team made it to the Series on the strength of Yaz's incredible Triple-Crown season (fully one third of the book pores over this rush to glory); Yaz's struggles to step out from Ted Williams' shadow; Game Six of the 1975 Series. These memories--along with ruminations on the ""Green Monster"" (Fenway Park's notorious left-field wall), Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, Yaz's fellow players, and so on--provide pleasant if predictable baseballiana with the help of New York Times sportswriter Eskenazi. Happily, much one doesn't expect is here as well, such as the disturbing old-world dominance of Yaz's potato-farming Polish father, who once drove from New York to Virginia to tell his minor-league son to ""cut out the crap"" after hearing about a late-night carouse. Or Yaz's confession that, overwhelmed by self-analysis, he ""never enjoyed"" a baseball game until the late 1970's, and considered suicide after some especially tough games. Or his neoreactionary doubts about free-agency. Such peculiar passages pop up every where, scowls and broodings that give weight to an otherwise conventional rehash. This'll sell like crazy in New England, and any other place where brooding intensity counts more than a platinum-capped smile. An autobiography with some grit in its well-oiled gears.

Pub Date: April 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION