Game 6 of the 1975 World Series
Pudge Fisk's Homer Ends the Greatest Fall Classic Game Ever Played
Oct 25, 2007 James Lincoln Ray
Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox was one for the ages. After the Big Red Machine won two out of three games at Riverfront Stadium, the Fall Classic returned to Fenway Park with Cincinnati ahead three games to two. Three straight days of cold New England rain delayed the contest, but the game finally got underway on October 21 with the Reds looking to clinch their first title in 35 years and the Sox just trying to stay alive.
Boston sent 18-game winner Luis Tiant to the hill to face a team full of future Hall of Famers that included Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez and Pete Rose.
The Reds started Gary Nolan, who held the Sox at bay in Game 3, limiting a lineup that featured Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and Fred Lynn to just one run in five innings.
The Red Sox Gain an Early Edge
The Red Sox jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning when Lynn, who that year became the first player to win the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in the same season, homered into the right field seats at Fenway Park with Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk on base.
Tiant held the Reds scoreless for the first four innings, but he faltered in the fifth, surrendering a two-run triple to Ken Griffey Sr. that scored two. After Joe Morgan popped out to third base, Johnny Bench knocked Griffey home with a single to left field that knotted the score at three runs apiece.
Cincinnati's George Foster added a two-run double in the seventh, and Cesar Geronimo tacked on a solo homer in the eighth. The Reds were now up 6-3, and were only six outs away from the team's first World Series championship since 1940.
Bernie Carbo's Memorable Blast Keeps Boston on Life Support
Freddy Lynn led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single to left field. The next hitter, Rico Petrocelli, drew a walk and there were two men on with nobody out. Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson replaced pitcher Pedro Borbon with Rawley Eastwick, who promptly struck out Dwight Evans and induced Rick Burleson to fly out to left field.
With two outs, the Fenway faithful fell silent as pinch hitter Bernie Carbo stepped into the batter's box. Carbo had already homered in a pinch hit appearance in Game 3. Could lightning strike twice?
On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Carbo crushed a pitch over the center field wall, a 425-foot bomb that tied the game 6-6. Carbo is still the only player with two pinch hit home runs in one World Series.
Neither team scored in the ninth or the tenth innings.
Then, with one out and Ken Griffey on first base in the top of the eleventh inning, Joe Morgan ripped a bullet that appeared headed for the right-field seats. But just as all apeared lost for the Sox, rightfielder Dwight Evans made a remarkable running one-handed catch, spun around and fired the ball back to first base to double up Griffey. The brief rally was over, and the game continued on into the cold October night.
Carlton Fisk's Historic Homer
Both teams were starting to show fatigue as Carlton Fisk faced Pat Darcy to lead off the bottom of the twelfth inning. With the count 1-0, Fisk drove a Darcy fastball high and far down the left field line. As he started to run toward first, the ball appeared to be heading foul, and the Boston catcher jumped up and down, waving his arms to the left as if to will the ball into fair territory.
When it came down, the ball glanced off the foul pole and bounced back onto the field.
Home Run. Red Sox win 7-6.
Pudge leapt exuberantly and clapped his hands in excitement as he rounded the bases. The hit, the body english, and Fisk's trip around the diamond created one of the most enduring memories in baseball history.
The entire sequence was captured perfectly by NBC cameraman Lou Gerard, who filmed Fisk through an opening in the Green Monster's scoreboard. Gerard later admitted that although he had been instructed to follow the flight of all home runs balls, he had been distracted by a nearby rat just as Fisk made contact. Unable to follow the ball, he instead kept the camera on the Red Sox catcher. The play forever changed the way that television cameras covered postseason home runs.
The Fallout
Despite the dramatic win, the Red Sox lost the World Series the next night, when Joe Morgan's ninth inning single put the Reds up for good, 4-3.
The Reds won the Series again the next year, hammering the Yankees in a four game sweep.
Sarky anderson went on to manage the detroit Tigers to the 1984 World Series title, becoming the first manager to win a Series with both a National League and an American League team.
The Red Sox would suffer crushing defeats again in 1978, 1986 and 2003, but would finally come around and win the 2004 World Series.
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