Red Sox Opening Day Roster a Reminder of Legendary ex-Lynnfielder

On Monday when the 2013 Red Sox season gets underway, fans will pay plenty of attention to Jackie Bradley, Jr., a highly anticipated outfielder who less than a year ago was making a name for himself at the AA minor league level.

Following a spring training that made him a household name well beyond Red Sox Nation, an ESPN report noted that Bradley, 22, is expected to start in left field against the Yankees Monday - making him the youngest opening day left fielder since Carl Yastrzemski in 1961 and 1962. And we all know how he turned out.

As many locals know, Yaz moved to Lynnfield a little later in his career and was a well-liked and approachable town resident by many accounts. One famous story claims that he took some of the sod from the Fenway outfield and planted it on his front lawn in Lynnfield.

A check around the Internet finds some other material about Yaz in Lynnfield. Check out this blog post by Check Stetson on Salon in 2009 talking about meeting Yaz as a youngster with his friends in Lynnfield.

This Boston Globe article last year talked more about how Lynnfield doesn't quite have as many sports celebrities as it did back in the day, and this piece also includes some anecdotes about Yaz in Lynnfield, among some Bruins and other sports celebrities.

Last October, when Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers became the first player to win the Triple Crown since Yaz in 1967, this website asked readers for their memories of the time he lived in Lynnfield. Along with pointing out that Red Sox great Rico Petrocelli (as well as a ton of Bruins and many others) was also a town resident, readers reported that the town had a "Congrtulations, Yaz" banner on the Common during the "Impossible Dream" season of 1967, and that the legendary sox outfielder lived on Chatham Way during his time in Lynnfield. Whether the Fenway grass is still out front the world may never know.

Finally, this 2011 article about Route 1 landmarks - including the former Colonial in Lynnfield - is one of my all-time favorites and it talks about a key moment when Yaz was motivated to start lifting weights by a Hungarian fitness trainer who made fun of his physique.  On a side note, doesn't "George Page's Colonial" sound like a cable TV series waiting to happen? But I digress.

For the record, here's Carl Yastrzemski's career stats. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

So what do you think? Is this a dreaded "Bridge Year?" Are the Sox about to get their best crop of home-grown talent in almost a decade? And what were they thinking with a couple of those free agent acquisitions? Sound off in the comments box below!