LOS ANGELES — Mike Yastrzemski has been asked the question countless times: Do you feel pressure because you’re the grandson of Boston Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski?
The Giants outfielder has a stock answer: His grandfather supported him unconditionally and never encouraged him to be anyone other than himself, and besides, there’s no pressure to try to live up to an inner-circle Hall of Fame career that will go down as one of the most accomplished and sustained in major league history. Nobody would be expected to duplicate what Captain Carl achieved in 24 seasons patrolling the left field grass in the shadow of Fenway Park’s Green Monster.
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But there’s another answer that will cycle through the grandson’s thoughts. This one usually goes unspoken.
My father had it a lot tougher than I ever did.
Carl Michael Yastrzemski Jr., who also went by Mike, was a switch-hitting outfielder who starred at Florida State and played five minor league seasons in the Chicago White Sox system. He was on a career trajectory to reach the big leagues before a difficult season at Triple-A Vancouver in 1988. He walked away from the game when he was 27 to invest in a produce company. It’s understandable if he simply burned out on baseball. It’s different to be the son of a Yastrzemski than to be the son of a Williams or a Smith.
He found a new calling when his son, Mike, was born two years later in 1990. He was his son’s first and most important baseball instructor. And he taught his son about much more than how to hit a fastball. He was not there to see his son earn a scholarship to play baseball at Vanderbilt, get drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, make his major league debut with the Giants in 2019, or catch an emotional and ceremonial first pitch from a white-haired Red Sox legend in September of that year when the Giants played an interleague series at Fenway Park. He wasn’t there to see his son hit a rousing and dramatic home run in his first at-bat in Fenway, either.
Mike Yastrzemski lost his father to complications from hip surgery in 2004. Mike was just 14 years old.
So it’ll be an emotional time when Mike Yastrzemski puts on blue sweatbands for the Giants and suits up at Dodger Stadium on Father’s Day. He’ll think of the family name he proudly represents. He’ll think of the forebears that he honors by striving to play the game the right way. And now that his daughter, Quinley, is approaching her second birthday, he has a fresh appreciation for what it means to be a devoted parent.
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Mike Yastrzemski took a few minutes to share some Father’s Day thoughts in this Q&A with The Athletic:
This is your second Father’s Day since you and your wife, Paige, welcomed your daughter, Quinley. How has being a dad impacted the way you look at fatherhood and the father figures in your own life?
When you’re growing up, you think about your parents as being just your parents. That’s all that you really know. But they were kids at one point. They were trying to figure it out at one point. Once I started going through (fatherhood) myself, maybe I still couldn’t appreciate what my parents had done for me, but I started to understand how much they sacrificed to get me where I am. I just think of the things I’m willing to do for my daughter, the opportunities I try to give her, the love that I try to show her. I can only imagine it was the exact same way for my parents. To realize the amount of love they have for me is more than I could ever know. I realize that now. Because I don’t know that my daughter will ever know how much I love her. No matter how often you tell them that, no matter how much you do for them, I don’t think it’s possible to put it into words.
What are some of the memories you might stop for a moment on Father’s Day to cherish about your father?
He was someone that I could always lean on. I could ask him any question. When you miss out on a large portion of your life having those opportunities, you end up really cherishing the ones you did have. So I tried to have that perspective. Instead of, `Woe is me, why did this happen?’ It’s more that I appreciate the time that I did have and those times become more vivid and more special.
Is any memory especially vivid?
Most of them have to do with life lessons. Learning on the golf course, for one. He was so much better than I was at golf at that point, obviously. So he’d beat me and I’d slam my clubs and swear. And instead of telling me that I couldn’t do those things, telling me it’s wrong to swear at that age, he kind of let me vent and let that out. He let me learn there are ways I can handle my emotions on my own rather than being told I’m not allowed to do something. There’s always that developmental response of ‘Screw that! He told me I can’t do that so I’m going to do it anyway.’ He let me explore those boundaries when I was in private with him. That way he could see how I reacted and make sure if there’s a bigger fire, he can put it out. I learned to separate those emotions and not let it go on the entire day. I didn’t have to take them home with me. I could leave them wherever they were and be frustrated in that moment and that’s OK.
Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski gets ready to bat against the Dodgers on Saturday. (Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)That seems like an especially important skill to have as a professional baseball player.
It’s hard not to take your work home with you in any job, but in a place where peak performance is so important, it’s OK to be pissed. Be pissed! Use it as motivation or however you need to use it and then move on. That was a really, really helpful skill to use the rest of my life and I didn’t even realize he taught it to me when I was 10 years old.
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What other lessons did he teach you?
He used to be big on making decisions. He wouldn’t let me get away with, ‘What do you want for dinner?’ and, ‘Ah, I don’t know, whatever you want.’ He said you need to choose. You need to learn to make decisions and have an opinion because you’re going to be a father, a partner, a leader in your family. You need to start prepping for being a decision maker. Obviously, like everyone else, I’ve made some bad decisions. But the majority of the time, I feel I’ve made really good ones.
How has he most influenced you as a baseball player?
Just to play the right way. I don’t know if this is true or not, but he was always telling me he’d rather hit a triple in the gap and hustle and beat the throw than hit a home run. Maybe that was true and maybe it wasn’t. But it was probably what he wanted me to hear. Play the game hard, play it the right way, never take it for granted. And it was all encompassed in that one statement that his favorite hit was a triple in the gap. He’d always say that.
Carl Yastrzemski, left, talks with his son, Carl Jr. (also known as Mike), in 1979. The younger Yastrzemski died in 2004. (Associated Press)How much do you sense it was harder for him to be the son of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski than it is for you to be his grandson?
Oh, it was pretty hard for him. I don’t think he always dealt with it very well. People who would watch him play were all his dad’s fans. When you’re trying to create your own path, that shadow is a lot to deal with. It’s a lot bigger compared to the tiny one that I’ve had. And really, I’ve only felt it when I put it on myself. As I’ve got older and realized the magnitude of my grandfather’s numbers and the greatness of his performance over 24 years, it wasn’t something that I could try to achieve. It’s something that I just appreciate. We may never see that again, to play that many years for one team and have that much success there. It’s incredible. So I didn’t take that on as something I had to do to be successful. That was something that happened in baseball history and it happened to be my grandfather who did it. When I actually understand those values for what they were, I stopped trying to achieve them. That gave me the peace of mind to be myself. And also, my grandfather never did anything to cast his own shadow. He always let me do my own thing. I think he’s really happy with the way we both handled it.
What else will you think about on Father’s Day?
Oh, man. A lot. A lot of memories between my dad, both my grandfathers and now the ones I’m creating with Quinley and Paige. It’s been really special to watch how quickly she grows. It reminds me how important it is to continue to live in the moment and not take any moment for granted.
(Top photo of Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski hugging grandson Mike Yastrzemski of the Giants before a game at Fenway Park in 2019: Brian Fluharty / USA Today)
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