Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 18: It Stayed Fair

1975 World Series, Game 6: Cincinnati Reds at Boston Red Sox

October 21, 1975, Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

Reds lead series 3-2

Some baseball moments are so well-known, so iconic, you only have to see one image to know what game they came from. Yogi Berra jumping into Don Larsen's arms. Kirk Gibson's fist pump. Joe Carter leaping around the bases. Bernie Carbo's home run.

Ok, fine, that last image doesn't quite reach the iconic status of those other moments. But maybe it should.

First, the context. The Red Sox had taken a quick 3-0 lead on Fred Lynn's first-inning home run over the bullpen. The Reds got it all back in the fifth on a walk and three hits, took the lead in the 7th, then stretched the lead to 6-3 when Cesar Geronimo hooked one around Pesky's pole in the 8th. At that moment, up by three in the top of the 8th, the Reds had a 93 percent chance to win the game and with it the World Series.

But the Red Sox started chipping away. The first two runners reached base in the bottom of the eighth, but the next two got out, bringing up the pitcher's spot with two on and two outs. That's when Carbo stepped out of the Red Sox dugout to pinch hit against Rawly Eastwick. With a 2-2 count - the Reds one strike away from escaping the inning and getting the World Series title in their grasp - Carbo hit one of the biggest home runs in the history of the Red Sox. 

In a flash, Fenway Park went from nervously quiet to deliriously loud. The Red Sox' chances of winning went 9 percent to 53. It seemed certain that Carbo would be remembered forever.

The Red Sox didn't score again in the 8th, but they came close in the 9th. The first three batters reached base, putting the Red Sox at 94 percent to win the game. But just as Carbo's home run had quickly tied the game, George Foster just as quickly ended the Red Sox' rally with a perfect throw home after a soft fly ball by Fred Lynn. Foster's double play killed Boston's scoring chance, and the teams settled in for the beginning of a marathon.

Through the 10th and the 11th they played on with nothing happening. Carbo's home run started to become a distant memory. something else now was going to decide it. Someone new would be the hero.

The Reds tried in the top of the 12th, getting a pair of one-out singles of Game 3 starter Rick Wise, but Wise got out of it with a soft fly ball and a strike out. The teams moved on to the bottom of the 12th.

............

When watching a sporting event, you never know when you're about to watch history. Obviously something big was about to happen in this game - it was the 12th inning of a World Series game, so somebody was going to win in dramatic fashion. But there's a difference between a dramatic win and an all-time iconic moment. For now, Carbo's home run was standing as that moment, with Foster's throw sitting in the runner-up spot in case the Reds pulled it out.

Catcher Carlton Fisk led off the 12th for the Red Sox against Pat Darcy, the Reds' 8th pitcher of the night who was just starting his third inning of work. Darcy's first pitch to Fisk was over the plate but head-high. Ball 1. Fisk took one step out of the box, took a breath, and stepped back in. Darcy wiped his hand on his pants, then grabbed the ball. The pitch. The swing.

The contact.

The jumping. The waiving. The path of the ball as it curved toward the foul pole. Dick Stockton on the call: "If it stays fair... home run!"

One catcher gesturing for it to stay fair, the other 
leaning, hoping it goes foul. 

Afterwards, the replay. The one captured by accident because the camera operator inside the Green Monster saw a giant rat near him, and so didn't want to turn the camera to follow the ball. So he kept following Fisk, so everybody saw the jumping and the waiving. And that's how a walk-off home run transforms from monumental to iconic.

The Red Sox lost that series, of course. They had a 3-0 lead through five innings of Game 7 but blew the lead, then lost the series on Joe Morgan's ninth-inning single. Some baseball fans probably remember that, and can picture Morgan's hit in their memories. But everybody remembers Fisk's home run.

Game 6, 1975 World Series Overall Rank: 18 Top 10 Swing: 245 Top play: Carbo's home run (WPA of 44% for Boston) Loser's largest WE: 93 T8, no outs, Cincinnati up 5-3 Average LI: 1.52 Highest leverage moment: 4.98 (tied 6-6, B9, 2 outs, runners on 1st and 3rd, Rico Petrocelli up)