Carl Yastrzemski, A Boston Red Sox Legend
Collecting Carl Yastrzemski cards
Carl Yastrzemski collectors are some of the most loyal in the sportscard hobby, some collecting cards of their hero Yaz for years, some since early childhood and some after seeing him play ball for 23 seasons as a Boston Red Sox legend. I say loyal, because collecting a player set of Carl Yastrzemski cards can be a daunting challenge.
Carl Yastrzemski played baseball until he was 44 years old, showing his durability throughout 3,308 major league baseball games (2nd most games all-time). In Yaz's 23 seasons, he appeared in 18 MLB All-Star games, compiled 3,419 hits in his career and earned a plaque in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. However, Carl Yastrzemski's most recognized accomplishment is perhaps his finest season, in which he was the last player to win the coveted Triple Crown award by leading the American League in home runs (44), RBI's (121), and batting average (.326).
The one accomplishment that escaped Carl Yastrzemski is winning the World Series. Although he played in both the 1967 and 1975 World Series' with the Boston Red Sox, they lost both and Carl Yastrzemski never got a World Series championship ring. Still, the Yaz legend is and will always be alive and well.
Collecting a Carl Yastrzemski player set can be whatever you want it to be. If you want to try to put together a complete run of just Topps issued Carl Yastrzemski cards, that is still considered a player set. So depending on how complete you really want to go is up to you. There are quite a few condition sensitive cards of Carl Yastrzemski, and finding them in high grade can really be almost impossible.
Carl Yastrzmeski's first regular card was his 1960 Topps rookie #148, and even though they can be found in decent condition, finding one in truly MINT condition can be difficult because the orange colored front shows up any minor print flaw, and this issue is often found with black ink spots on the front of the card. Other Yaz cards are notorious for having not-so-good centering, such as the 1969 Topps #130, and 1973 Topps #245 Yastrzemski cards. Likewise, the 1970 O-Pee-Chee card #461 of Yaz is known for bad centering problems, plus it was printed in much lower quantities than the Topps cards of the same year, making it a lot tougher to find.
Of course any of Carl's Topps Venezuelan cards are nearly impossible to find in very high grade, thanks to the low quality card stock and the fact that the Topps Venezuelan cards were issued along with an album or booklet that the cards could be pasted into, and more often than not that's exactly what happened.
Other tough Carl Yastrzemski cards include his 1971 Topps Greatest Moments card, mostly due to its odd size and black borders which show every flaw. Also there are probably a great number of variations and proofs that exist, and while the proofs may not necessarily be condition sensitive, they may be rather rare.
If you get into collecting modern cards of Carl Yastrzemski, well then the chase may never be over for you. With the introduction of "1/1" or "1 of 1" cards into the hobby, there are probably more than a few unique Carl Yastrzemski cards that may never be seen for sale again in our lifetime.