The Obligatory... Yaz Spring Training Column?

Shank sure seems reluctant to write about current Red Sox players, doesn't he?

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Carl Yastrzemski is the greatest living Red Sox player. He’s rarely seen in Boston, isn’t sure he’ll ever return to Cooperstown, but feels the love every time he returns to Fenway Park to throw a ceremonial first pitch before yet another World Series victory.

“I’m undefeated!’’ Yaz says with a big smile as he recalls his ceremonial tosses.

Still worshipped in the church of Boston baseball, Yaz turns 80 in August. He just became a great-grandfather (“They don’t send the pictures to me because I don’t know how to get them off the telephone”), but he’s still working with young hitters in the Red Sox minor league complex at spring training.

Yastrzemski is our Koufax. Out of sight, never out of mind.