Longevity was the key to his success. Had a few great seasons, and many very good ones. Attitude at times was less then charming- was a superstar below the neck- above that......well opinions differ.

He's not the greatest hitter in baseball history, or the greatest hitter in Sox history. But...... For two months, in 1967, he was the best hitter I've ever seen, when he put the team on his back and carried them to a pennant and almost a Series title. A far better defensive player than he is often given credit for, particularly in his younger days.

He hung around a little longer than he should have in my opinion, his last good year was in '79, but it's hard to give him less than 5 stars as a Red Sox. He had an odd looking career with a strange mid career slump in the early 70's, but won three batting titles and is the last man to date to win a Triple Crown, which he did in an amazing '67 season. Great fielder in his prime, hit over 400 homers and had over 3,000 hits and could even steal bases when young. Yastrzemski had some mediocre or merely pretty good years, but some excellent ones like 1970 too.