8. Carl Yastrzemski – ’67 World Series
The face of the “Impossible Dream” team of 1967, Yaz of course is remembered for his MVP, Triple Crown campaign. Even though he may not have been able to cap such a personally successful season with a collective team success such as a World Series title, Yaz did more than his fair share of work with the bat over the course of Boston’s 7 game showdown with St. Louis.
In playing all 7 games of the ’67 Fall Classic, Yaz put up a robust line of .400/.500/.840. Along with those gaudy numbers he put up multi-hit performances in three of the seven games, blasted two home runs and posted four RBIs in Game 2 alone, and altogether collected two doubles, three home runs, 10 hits, and five RBIs.
Although Yaz and Jim Lonberg provided the Sox with all they could muster and more, the aura of Bob Gibson was simply too much for the ’67 team to overcome. In games started by Gibson over the course of the series the Red Sox went 0-3, losing 2-1, 6-0, and 7-2.
The ’67 team and Yaz specifically can’t be faulted for falling to the greatness of a pitcher such as Gibson. But what makes Yaz’ performance even more impressive is that even with Gibson on the mound for 3 of 7 games, he was still able to post the kinds of numbers at the plate in the Fall Classic that wouldn’t be matched by a Red Sox player until David Ortiz in 2013.