1975 World Series: Off the Pole

The Teams
National League: Cincinnati Reds (108-54) - Seventh World Series (Won in 1919, 1940)
American League: Boston Red Sox (95-65) - Seventh World Series (Won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918)

What Happened
Two outs, ninth inning, Game 7. The future Hall of Famer drills a line drive to center that falls just out of reach of the center fielder, bringing home the game- and World Series-winning run. It's a moment that would have been the defining moment of virtually any World Series, one that should have been replayed countless times in baseball annals.

But in the years following the wild 1975 World Series, Joe Morgan's Series-winning hit became an afterthought, the "oh yah, that happened too" moment of the series. Because really, anything that happened after Game 6, after Carlton Fisk waved that ball fair, was going to be overshadowed.

Everybody's seen it, of course. At least, anybody who's a baseball fan has. If you haven't, take a moment:



It's one of the most famous plays in the history of televised baseball: Fisk swinging at the knee-high pitch, watching it fly toward the monster, waving it fair, jumping in the air. One of the most dramatic home runs in baseball history, one that not only provided a defining moment for what was at the time the greatest World Series ever played, but one that changed how baseball was televised forever.

Fisk's home run did a lot to ensure that the 1975 Series would be remembered forever, but those seven games didn't need a moment like that to live on in history. In five of the seven games, the winning run was scored after the sixth inning. It wasn't ever safe to go to bed; if you did, the team that was losing when you went to sleep would have probably come back to win.

The first five games were good, but they were nothing compared to what happened over the final two games in Boston. In Game 6, Rookie of the Year and MVP Fred Lynn etched his name in Red Sox lore with a three-run home in the first inning, a blast that was the greatest home run in Red Sox history until Cincinnati scored three times in the fifth to tie it. The Reds took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth when Bernie Carbo was next to hit the greatest home run in Red Sox history, tying the game with two outs in the eighth. Then Carbo was knocked off Red Sox mountain by Fisk, who waved and leaped his way into Red Sox and baseball history by winning the game in the bottom of the 12th.

As if that wasn't enough, Game 7 was almost as good. The Red Sox again took an early 3-0 lead and again let Cincinnati tie it. This time, instead of Boston coming back with clutch home runs, it was Cincinnati coming through, with Morgan capping off the series with the hit of a lifetime.

There are so many reasons that Joe Morgan's ninth inning single in Game 7 should have been one of the greatest moments in baseball history. His hit gave the Big Red Machine their first championship after a handful of years of coming just close. His hit helped him clinch the title of best all-around player of his generation. His hit won one of the greatest World Series ever played.

But baseball has a cruel way of determining heroes and goats, of determining who gets remembered and who gets forgotten. There's no reason that Morgan should have been forgotten, and maybe forgotten is the wrong word. Overshadowed might be more accurate. Either way, it's hard to find a clip of Morgan's winning hit with original audio, while Fisk's home run is easy to find. In this series, the losers were remembered more than the winners. But most importantly, it's long remembered, and will never be forgotten.

MVP
In spring training in 1975, Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson famously asked Pete Rose to try out third base, even though Rose had never played the position in his career. Anderson needed to move Rose to make room in the outfield for George Foster, who was starting to blossom into a star. Rose made the switch flawlessly, and the emergence of Foster gave the Reds the deepest lineup in Major League history. It was fitting, then, that Rose was the MVP of the 1975 World Series. He spearheaded the Reds offense throughout the seven games, his .370 average leading his team by far. It was the shining moment of one of baseball's greatest careers.

Scores 
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Cincinnati	0	3	6 (10)	4	6	6	4
Boston	6	2	5	5	2	7 (12)	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

2. 1975 - Cincinnati (N) def. Boston (A) 4-3
3. 1924 - Washington (A) def. New York (N) 4-3
4. 2001 - Arizona (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
5. 2011 - St. Louis (N) def. Texas (A) 4-3
6. 1912 - Boston (A) def. New York (N) 4-3 (1 tie)
7. 1992 - Toronto (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-2
8. 1947 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
9. 1972 - Oakland (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-3
Numbers 10-19
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

2. 2001: Arizona 3, New York (A) 2
3. 1960: Pittsburgh 10, New York (A) 9
4. 1924: Washington 4, New York (N) 3
5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
6. 1912: Boston (A) 3, New York (N) 2 (game 8)
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
8. 1975: Cincinnati 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
10. 1926: St. Louis (N) 3, New York (A) 2
11. 1962: New York (A) 1, San Francisco 0
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
17. 1972: Oakland 3, Cincinnati 2
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
20. 1986: New York (N) 8, Boston 5 
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
25. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
26. 1947: New York (A) 5, Brooklyn 2
27. 2011: St. Louis 6, Texas 2
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

October 22, 1975: Living the dream

BOSTON - The way the series had gone, with all the close games that had thrilled baseball fans throughout the week, it was really no surprise that it had come down to this. The series between the Reds and the Red Sox was tied 3 games to 3, and game 7 was tied 3-3 entering the ninth inning. It couldn't possibly get any closer.

The previous six games had been highlighted by multiple players coming through in the clutch, most notably the dramatic home runs in game 6 by Bernie Carbo and Carlton Fisk that saved the Red Sox from elimination and made this game 7 possible. Now, with the ninth inning about to start, the Red Sox likely couldn't help but rue the missed chances they had suffered in the first eight innings.

It looked to be Boston's game to lose in the third inning of game 7 as the Red Sox batted around, scoring three runs. But it was an empty three runs, as two of the scores came via bases-loaded walks and the Red Sox left the bases loaded in the inning. Boston left the bases loaded again in the fifth, as pitcher Bill Lee flew out to deep center to end the threat.

When Lee flew out, the Red Sox had built a 3-0 lead with five hits and seven walks. The large number of walks had been a gift from the Cincinnati pitchers, but the Red Sox had been unable to get the big hit that would bust the game open. Unknown to Boston, Lee's fly out would be Boston's last serious threat, as they would get only one base runner the rest of the game.

The Reds, meanwhile, started plucking away at the lead. First came the top of the sixth, when Tony Perez hit a two-run home run to cut Boston's lead to 3-2. Then in the seventh, two Reds reached base via a walk, allowing Pete Rose to drive in the game-tying run with a single. Cincinnati copied Boston, though, in leaving the bases loaded that inning.

And that was it, dropping us off in the top of the ninth inning of game 7, tied 3-3. It had been 35 years since Cincinnati had won a World Series, 57 years since Boston celebrated. For someone, the greatest win in a generation was about to happen.

Ken Griffey Sr. started things for the Reds with a walk. Then the Big Red Machine, one of the best hitting teams of all time, reverted to small ball, moving Griffey to third one base at a time with a pair of ground outs. Pete Rose was up next, go-ahead run on third. He drew a walk, putting the series in the hands of Joe Morgan.

Decades later, Morgan said this particular at bat was the absolute highlight of his career. Regardless of how the at bat turned out, the fact that he was coming to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning of a tied game 7 was an absolute dream come true. It's the at bat that every young child dreams about when he takes his bat to the backyard, the ultimate test of someone's ability to come through in the clutch. No wonder Morgan remembered the at bat so fondly; it's not often that someone gets to live the dream of millions of others.

Of course, it probably helped his memory that the 1-2 pitch Morgan swung at turned into a line drive, a line drive that started to dive right as Boston center fielder Fred Lynn started to get a beat on it, a line drive that fell to the grass just out of Lynn's reach, allowing Griffey to come home with the series-winning run.

That wasn't the last play of the series, of course. Boston still had to get out of the top of the ninth without more damage, which they did, but not before loading the bases. Cincinnati also had to hold Boston scoreless in the bottom of the ninth, a prospect that didn't seem too promising to people that had been watching the series. But the baseball gods had had enough of the 1975 series; there would be no more fireworks. Boston went down in order on eight pitches, with hall-of-famer Carl Yastrzemski flying out to center to end the most thrilling World Series yet played.