BOSTON — Forty-four years ago, Carl Yastrzemski ended one of the most electrifying World Series in baseball history with a flyout to center field at Fenway Park. A little higher and farther, and Yastrzemski would have tied Game 7 with the Cincinnati Reds. He never returned to the World Series.

The year the Red Sox finally won it, 2004, was painful for Yastrzemski: His only son, Mike, a former minor leaguer, died that September of a heart attack after hip surgery. Only 43 years old, he had left behind a son, also named Mike.

On Tuesday, Mike Yastrzemski did something his father never could, and that his grandfather desperately wanted to do on that October night in 1975. He played a major league game at Fenway and hit a home run into the center-field bleachers.

“I just had to take a second and understand what was going on and appreciate that moment and not take it for granted,” said Yastrzemski, who later added a double. “So I made sure to kind of keep my head up and look around and just soak it all in.”