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Saturday, May 30, 2009

wezen-ball: Yaz and the Triple Crown

I’m reminded of a friend of mine that passed on seeing Cream at MSG back in ‘68…“I’ll catch them next year, man.”

Yaz also provided a little bit of context surrounding his quest for the Crown:

“‘The big thing was just being involved in the pennant race that year,’ Yaz says. ‘When I was going for my 3,000th hit (in 1979), we weren’t involved in the race and I went 10 or 11 at-bats trying to get that hit.

‘But being in the pennant race, I was so focused that I didn’t know I had won it until the next day. There wasn’t any media attention on the Triple Crown. None whatsoever. It was the first time Boston had been in a pennant race in a long time, and everything and everyone was focused on it.’

Yaz hit .523 with five homers and 16 RBIs during the final two weeks. Over the last two days in a critical series against Minnesota, he went 7-for-8, including a three-run homer that won the game on the second-to-last day.”

No media attention? To someone born of today’s era like me, this just seems impossible to believe. Maybe the Triple Crown just wasn’t as exciting at the time. Frank Robinson had won it the year before, and Mantle won it ten years before that (and Williams 9 years before that). That’s not really all that rare. At the time, it was happening about as frequently as an NL All-Star victory today: rare, but inevitable.

Repoz Posted: May 30, 2009 at 10:57 AM | 6 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: awards, history, red sox

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1. jwb Posted: May 30, 2009 at 11:13 AM (#3199839)

I said the same thing about Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1979. . .

2. Steve Treder Posted: May 30, 2009 at 03:01 PM (#3199908)

3. Jose Can You Seabiscuit Posted: May 30, 2009 at 03:28 PM (#3199923)

There was enormous media attention. Now, it was what enormous media attention was in 1967 -- no cable, no internet, no 24-hour news cycle and all that. But the newspapers and TV and radio covered it like glue

I'm too young to have been there but I imagine that while the media coverage must have been intense it wasn't 100% or even 75% "Triple Crown." With that pennant race so crazy I'm sure the majority of the attention was on that, not the triple crown.

4. Scott Kazmir's breaking balls Posted: May 30, 2009 at 03:49 PM (#3199937)

With that pennant race so crazy I'm sure the majority of the attention was on that, not the triple crown.

Exactly. My uncle, Al Cabral, was a sports cartoonist for the New Bedford (MA) Standard Times during those years. I remember his cartoon on Yaz not coming out until after Yaz accomplished the feat. All media attention was focused on the standings. His assignments during that time was strictly on team, not individual stats, as it should be. Pennant fever was rampart. BTW, in 1967 I was 13 (thus, I am old).

5. Moe Greene Posted: May 30, 2009 at 05:27 PM (#3200007)

Pennant fever was rampart.

This is how I recall it as wall.

6. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: May 30, 2009 at 05:43 PM (#3200027)

There was enormous media attention. Now, it was what enormous media attention was in 1967 -- no cable, no internet, no 24-hour news cycle and all that. But the newspapers and TV and radio covered it like glue.

It was an indescribably tense and exciting September.

I think that most of us seem to be agreeing that there was huge media attention on that 1967 AL pennant race, and in fact I'd say that the pennant race dominated the media even more than it would today, since they weren't quite so football-focused as they are now.

But that triple crown was an entirely different matter. The first time I remember any mention of the it was on the last Saturday of the season, when Yaz hit #44 to go ahead in the home run category, and then a few innings later Killebrew hit #44 to tie him. And since Yaz's home run was at a far more critical moment in the game, I'm not even sure that when he hit it, the triple crown was even mentioned. I do remember their mentioning it when Killebrew tied him, but OTOH at that point of the game it was closer to garbage time---not really "garbage time" in the strictest sense, but IIRC it was with 2 outs in the 9th and the Twins were still 2 runs behind after he hit it.

By coincidence, that game is the one game from that era that's been completely preserved on a DVD (and in color, no less), so if anyone wants to check on this, it'd be easy to do.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

wezen-ball: Yaz and the Triple Crown

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