With 18 All-Star appearances for the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski stands alone amongst Red Sox, beating out Ted Williams' 17 (though Williams would play in more games due to certain oddities). Often enough, his performances were nothing to write home about--Yaz would go hitless in ten of his appearances--but when he was on, he was on.
This piece could easily have been about Yaz' 1967 appearance, when his three hits and two walks were only devalued by the rest of the team's inability to follow suit. Or perhaps his three-run pinch-hit homer that provided the only runs the American League would score all night.
Instead, though, we turn our attention to Yastrzemski's 1970 season.
Arguably the last truly great season of his career, Yaz put up numbers befitting an MVP in 1970, leading the league in both on-base and slugging percentage. Entering the All-Star break with 20 hits in the first 53 at bats of July. He was, to put it lightly, hot.
That very much carried over.
On July 14, 1970, Carl Yastrzemski collected four hits, tying an All-Star Game record. He opened the scoring for the American League in the sixth, putting them up 1-0 with an RBI single, and closed it as well, scoring from third in the eighth to give his team a 4-1 lead and putting the AL within two innings of winning its first All-Star Game in seven long years.
Of course, as was the case in those days, the AL just didn't win. The bullpen came in, and gave up a three-run ninth before blowing the game in the bottom of the twelfth. But Yaz had already made his place in history, and was named the MVP--only the second time in history a member of the losing team would receive the honor.