All that Yaz Baseball legend Yastrzemski helps up-and-coming players as Sox aide

Much of the time, he sits in his golf cart, driving to and from the four ballparks that make up the Red Sox player development complex in Fort Myers, Fla., as he surveys Boston’s youngest and rawest prospects from behind dark sunglasses.

The man most Red Sox fans know by three letters keeps a sharp eye out for up-and-coming players with a hitch in their swing, a nearly imperceptible flaw in their hitting stance, or some kind of defect in their defensive approach or throwing motion.

As soon as he spies any of those things, he puts the cart in park, gets out and walks over to the batting cage, leaning against the back frame as he waits for the player to take his next set of swings. Then, only after he’s had a chance to analyze the problem more closely, Yaz will pull the player aside and offer advice, critiques, or both.

“I may make a slight suggestion. My theory on hitting is everyone is different, and I don’t think you can make major changes, so I try to get them relaxed more,” said legendary Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski. “I’m not really giving them much, but it might be a little something where you tell a guy who you see really grinding to relax more.”

Yastrzemski has spent the last 47 years of his life with the Boston Red Sox organization as a player, goodwill ambassador, instructor, and his current title: player development consultant. He retired as a player in 1983.

“I’ve been coming here since I retired. I like working with the young kids and I look forward to it,” said the 65-year-old Baseball and Red Sox Hall of Fame player. “I work with the lower clubs like Lowell [Mass.] and Greenville [S.C.] and the Delaware club [Wilmington].

“I watch and I don’t do anything major, if I make a suggestion,” he said. “I think they’ve got to go out and prove it to themselves that his way is the right way or the wrong way.”

The last man to win the Triple Crown (leading the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs during the 1967 “Impossible Dream” American League championship season with a .326 average, 44 homers and 121 RBIs) is known for avoiding the limelight. However, on this sunny, 88-degree day in western Florida, he warmed up to a conversation that was supposed to last five minutes.

Yaz talked of his job, last year’s memorable World Series championship season, Boston’s front office and minor league system, Maine, fishing and politics.

“I know Portland is a great town for baseball. I’m very familiar with Maine. I used to do a lot of fishing up there,” said the 18-time major league All-Star. “Hey, by the way, how come the great state of Maine didn’t vote for Bush? What’s going on up there?”

After playing for the Red Sox for a now-unheard-of 23 years and serving in a variety of capacities for the Sox the last 22, No. 8 will finally receive his version of the Holy Grail: a World Series championship ring.

“I don’t know where I’ll put it yet, but I’ll wear it once in a while,” he said with a barely audible chuckle.

Yaz is known for his gruffness around the ballparks to anyone not wearing a baseball hat and carrying a glove or bat – especially if they’re carrying a notepad or tape recorder – but talking about the 2004 Sox season quickly changed his demeanor. A smile cracked his slightly weathered and solemn face, especially when asked about the gestures current Red Sox players made when referring specifically to him and thanking other ex-Boston players who put in a lot of seasons without winning the elusive title.

“I appreciated it. I think this is a very loyal organization. It’s rewarding to see,” he said. “I was just happy for the players here and the organization and fans.”

Yastrzemski’s depth of feeling for and loyalty to the organization is apparent while listening to him talk about the championship and the renovation of Boston’s badly dilapidated minor league system.

“I think the big thing which I’m so happy to see is the commitment that the organization has to the minor leagues to build it back up again,” he said. “We didn’t even have a minor league before John Henry took over the team. It was nonexistent. That’s how bad it was down here.

“I could come in here and look at players and say you can release 99 and nine-tenths of them. They won’t have a chance. Now you look at the guys on Greenville alone and there’s three, four, five or six players who have a chance.”

Yaz said the overall quality of Sox draft picks and farm players has improved drastically as well.

“Five years ago, before John Henry took over, kids playing in Sarasota would be bitching and moaning that they were going back to Sarasota and I’d look at their stats and I’d see .210 in 500 at-bats, 120 strikeouts, three home runs and 20 RBIs. And they expect to go to Portland?” he asked incredulously. “They figured as long as they played a year somewhere, they should advance.”

Nowadays, the Del Ray Beach resident divides his time between Florida and Massachusetts.

“I play golf down here every day. I’m a 7 [handicap] and when I go back up to New England, I’ll fish for stripers every day,” he said.