Red Sox To Unveil Carl Yastrzemski Statue at Fenway Park

Bridgehampton native Carl Yastrzemski will be immortalized in a statue at Fenway Park that will be unveiled later this moth.

The Boston Red Sox are honoring Yastrzemski with a statue capturing the moment where he tipped his helmet to fans before his final at-bat, ending his 23-year career with the team, on Oct. 2, 1983.

Yastrzemski, who graduated from Bridgehampton High School in 1957, was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame, having played the most amount of games — 3,308 — of any player in Major League Baseball history, up to that point.

The statue will only be the third at Fenway Park. It will be placed between one of Ted Williams and "The Teammates" statue depicting Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Williams.

A dedication ceremony will be held on Sept. 22 at 11 a.m., before the Red Sox take on the Toronto Blue Jays. It will be placed at the ballpark's Gate B entrance

“This is quite an honor,” Yastrzemski said, in a statement released by the Red Sox on Wednesday. “To have a bronze statue at Fenway Park is something I never could have imagined, and I am very grateful to the Red Sox for this kind gesture.”

Yastrzemski, 74, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game after the unveiling of his statue.

Born in Southampton, Yastrzemski is the son of a potato farmer. While a student at Bridgehampton High School, he set numerous records in baseball, basketball and football.

After graduation, he attended Notre Dame University with a scholarship to play both baseball and basketball. He left as a freshman to go play with the Red Sox, first playing with the Raleigh of the Carolina League. He moved up to the Red Sox Triple A Minneapolis team in 1960, and went onto the Major League in 1961, taking over the left field from Williams.

Yastrzemski hit 452 career home runs, scored 1,816 runs, drove in 1,844 runs, hit 646, had a .379 on-base percentage, won seven Rawlings Gold Gloves, was an 18-time All-Star, and had one Triple Crown season leading the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox to the American League Championship in 1967, the Red Sox said. The Red Sox won the pennant in 1975.

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