In Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, the Boston Red Sox' Carlton Fisk hit a walk-off home run against the Cincinnati Reds at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 21, 1975. Fisk's 12th-inning home run won the game for the Red Sox over the Reds by the final score of 7–6 to tie the series at three games each and force a deciding seventh game, and capped off what many consider to be the best World Series game ever played.e.g., Mark Frost, Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series— The Triumph of America's Pastime (Hyperion Books, 2009); Matt Doeden, The World Series: Baseball's Biggest Stage (Millbrook Press, 2014) p23"Fisk's Homer Beats Reds In 12th; Finale Tonight", Cincinnati Enquirer, October 22, 1975, p1"Fans Go 'Beserk' As Sox Tie Series", The Daily Sentinel (Fitchburg, Mass.), October 22, 1975, p1
Facing Reds right-hander Pat Darcy, Fisk hit a long fly ball down the left field line. It appeared to be heading foul, but Fisk, after initially appearing unsure of whether or not to continue running to first base, famously jumped and waved his arms to the right as if to somehow direct the ball fair; the ball ricocheted off the foul pole. Fisk's "body English", "waving" the ball fair,Verducci, Tom (October 21, 2015). "Game Changer: How Carlton Fisk's home run altered baseball and TV". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved June 8, 2019.MLB's 20 Greatest Games (2012) was captured on a TV camera stationed in the scoreboard.
Though the home run remains to many the most iconic moment of the 1975 World Series, the Reds defeated the Red Sox in the following night's winner-take-all Game 7 on a tie-breaking single in the ninth inning, and prolonged the Red Sox' World Series title drought, which began in 1918 and eventually lasted until 2004.
Background
During the 1975 baseball season, the Boston Red Sox had contended for the pennant during the previous season and entered the 1975 with Carlton Fisk and Rick Wise available for the full season. Rick Burleson established himself as the team's shortstop and performed better offensively in the major leagues than he had in the minors. The Red Sox also had two highly regarded rookies, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. However, the team's collapse late in the 1974 season remained a concern for some fans.
At first most of the preseason talk had to do with the decision by Tony Conigliaro to try one more comeback and with the salary hassle concerning Luis Tiant, who felt he deserved more than the $70,000 he was earning and would not show up at Winter Haven, Florida, causing team owner Tom Yawkey to meet with "El Tiante", agree on a raise (to $90,000) and get the Sox pitching ace back in camp.
The likelihood of the Boston Red Sox winning became more unlikely after Fisk, returning from the serious knee injury of 1974, was hit in the right arm and broke it, resulting in Fisk being sidelined.
Fred Lynn attended the University of Southern California, where he played both baseball and football before focusing on baseball during his collegiate career. He was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the 1973 MLB draft. In 1975, Lynn earned both the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards while contributing to the Red Sox’s World Series appearance. During his early major league career, Lynn and Jim Rice were often mentioned together as key young contributors in Boston’s lineup.
Rick Wise, back after a year of shoulder trouble and a broken finger, looked ready to boost a pitching staff, which already had Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, Reggie Cleveland, and Roger Moret. The bullpen also looked strong, with Dick Drago as the closer and Dick Pole and veteran Diego Seguí.
Additionally, the word on Tony Conigliaro was encouraging. Carl Yastrzemski was at first base, and after three short trials in previous years Cecil Cooper was going to make this team and potentially be the designated hitter.
With 1975, the Big Red Machine lineup solidified with the starting team of Johnny Bench (c), Tony Pérez (1b), Joe Morgan (2b), Dave Concepción (ss), Pete Rose (3b), Ken Griffey (rf), César Gerónimo (cf), and George Foster (lf). The starting pitchers included Don Gullett, Fred Norman, Gary Nolan, Jack Billingham, Pat Darcy, and Clay Kirby. Rawly Eastwick and Will McEnaney were the key closers with a combined 37 saves. Pedro Borbón and Clay Carroll filled in as stretchers between the starters and the finishers. However, this was not the lineup on opening day.
At that time, Rose still played in left field and Foster was not a starter, while John Vukovich, an off-season acquisition from the Milwaukee Brewers was the starting third baseman, replacing Dan Driessen. While Vuckovich was considered a strong defensive third baseman, he was also seen as a weak hitter, as was Denis Menke. In May, with the team off to a slow start and trailing the Dodgers, Sparky Anderson moved Rose to third base (a position where he had very little experience) and inserted Foster in left field to bat cleanup. Rose proved to be reliable on defense, while adding Foster to the outfield helped the offense. During the season, the Cincinnati Reds won 41 out of 50 games in one stretch.
Postseason Cincinnati clinched the NL West with 108 victories, 20 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers, then swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in three games to win the NL pennant.
After a great season of their own, the Red Sox swept the Oakland Athletics in three games in the American League Championship Series to advance to their first World Series since 1967. Carlton Fisk batted .417 in the ALCS.
Luis Tiant won Games 1 and 4 of the World Series but after five games, the Red Sox trailed the series 3 games to 2.
In the 10th inning of Game 3 of the 1975 World Series, in which Larry Barnett was working behind home plate, Cincinnati Reds hitter Ed Armbrister laid down a sacrifice bunt, and then collided with Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk, who was trying to field the ball. Fisk committed a throwing error on the play after colliding with Armbrister, which led to the Reds' winning run. Barnett declined to make an interference call on Armbrister, despite Boston's pleas. Barnett's failure to call an interference was criticized by NBC television broadcaster Curt Gowdy (a former Red Sox announcer), who was particularly harsh in his comments, reputedly leading NBC to drop Gowdy from its baseball coverage. Gowdy had reportedly been given the correct interpretation of the rule—that interference can be called only if a batter intentionally gets in the way of a fielder—by NBC Radio Producer Jay Scott (who was a Triple-A fill-in umpire at the time as well), but did not use it.Powers, Jim, "Mt Broadcaster Had Role In Gowdy Fall" Montana Sportsfan Magazine, Billings MT Barnett later claimed he had received death threats on account of Gowdy's criticism.Gowdy answers umpire's charges The Morning Record. Retrieved June 11, 2012
More to the point, Tony Kubek, on the NBC telecast, immediately charged that Armbrister interfered (with the attempted forceout), even though home plate umpire Barnett did not agree. Later, Kubek got 1,000 letters dubbing him a Boston stooge. Prior to Game 2 of the 1986 World Series, NBC did a feature on replays narrated by Bob Costas. One of the plays cited by Costas was the Armbrister play, and Barnett and Costas both insisted that Barnett had made the correct call, although Barnett declared, "You won't find many people in Boston who believe it was the right call." Costas used the feature to condemn the suggested notion of instant replay to settle calls, noting that it was the "same kind of mentality that adds color to classic movies and calls it progress."
To this day, Major League Baseball maintains that Barnett made the correct call. In fact, the Professional Baseball Umpires Corporation (the organization that oversees all minor league baseball umpires) instructs and teaches its umpires to make the same call as Barnett did should the same incident occur in a future game. Specifically, Major League Baseball has interpreted Rule 7.09(l) as saying "a catcher trying to field a batted ball that remains in the immediate vicinity of the plate cannot be protected because of the right of the batter-runner to begin his advance to first. Barring an intentional action on the part of either player, contact in this instance is incidental, and is not interference..." (Jaksa/Roder Umpires' Manual, 1997 Edition. Pg. 57).
The setup World Series Game 6
Game 6 was postponed three days because of rain. Bernie Carbo did not join his teammates for batting practice at Tufts University because he said he couldn't find it. He spent the early part of Game 6 working on his Louisville Slugger. "I’m sitting there and I’m whittling this bat, I took a lathe and took all the polish off. It's nice and smooth. Rick Wise is sitting next to me and says, ‘You know, you can’t use that bat. It doesn’t have an emblem on it.’ So as the game was going I took a magic marker and wrote ‘Louisville Slugger’ on it. That's how I kept myself amused."
Game 6 played at Fenway Park is thought to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, game in postseason history. The Sox struck first on a 1st inning Fred Lynn blast. But by the 8th they were down 6–3 in the bottom of the eighth when pinch hitter Carbo with two outs and two batters on base, hit a three-run homer into the center field bleachers off Reds fireman Rawly Eastwick to tie the game. Bernie Carbo later said: And I said, "Hey, I’m not going to hit. Juan Beníquez, grab a bat, you’re going to hit. Sparky's going to go to the lefthander because Sparky goes by the book." Darrell said, "Well, go up and stand on the on-deck circle." And they introduced me. So I’m still thinking Sparky will come out and take Rawly Eastwick out and go with Will McEnaney. But the umpire says, "C’mon, you’ve been announced, you’re hitting."
So I go into the batter's box. I ain't ready to hit. Next thing, strike one, strike two, ball one, ball two. Then he threw me a cut fastball, a little slider and I took it right out of Bench's glove – the ball just dribbled out. I step out and I’m thinking, "Aw man, I almost struck out. I was lucky."
I hit the next pitch to center field. I rounded first base and I saw César Gerónimo going back. Rounding second, I knew it was gone and I’m yelling to Pete Rose, "Don’t you wish you were this strong?" And Pete is yelling back, "Ain’t this fun, Bernie? This is what the World Series is about. This is fun."
Johnny Bench said after the game it looked like a Little Leaguer learning how to hit. Pete Rose said it was the worst swing he ever saw. Don Zimmer said he thought it was over. Rico Petrocelli said it looked like a pitcher who hurt his arm, trying to make a comeback as a hitter.
In the bottom of the ninth-inning, the score was tied 6–6 and the bases were loaded with no outs. Denny Doyle was on third base when Fred Lynn lifted a soft fly ball to short and shallow left field. After Reds left fielder George Foster made the catch, Doyle tagged up and attempted to score the winning run. He was thrown out at home plate, which inadvertently helped set the stage for Fisk's subsequent game-winning home run. After the game, Red Sox third-base coach Don Zimmer told the press, "I was yelling 'no, no, no' and with the crowd noise, he (Doyle) thought I was saying 'go, go, go.'" Society for American Baseball Research: Denny Doyle In a World Series that included five future Hall of Fame players, Doyle was the only player on either team to hit safely in all seven games.
In the top of the eleventh inning, Red Sox right fielder Dwight Evans made a spectacular catch of a Joe Morgan line drive and doubled off Ken Griffey Sr. at first base to preserve the tie. The Red Sox allowed two Reds singles in the 12th inning, but did not allow a run.
The play