2. GAME 6, 1975 WORLD SERIES, CINCINNATI AT BOSTON
The New Yorker's Roger Angell wrote of this game, "Game 6. Game 6. What can we say of it without seeming to diminish it by recapitulation or detail?"
He's right. You just had to see it. this game had more comebacks than John Travolta.
You had Fred Lynn socking a three-run homer in the first inning and then slamming into the center field wall in the fifth, where he lay motionless for a few seconds and looked dead (he finished the game). You had Boston starter Luis Tiant, ol' reliable, battered for six runs in five innings. You had the Sox sending pinch-hitter Bernie Carbo to the plate in the eighth inning, with two men on base and two outs and Boston down 6-3, and Carbo barely fouling off a third strike before bashing the next pitch into the center-field bleachers, tying the game and saving the season. As the charismatic Carbo ran around third base, he yelled at Pete Rose, "I'm the strongest man alive, Pete! I'm the strongest man alive!"
You had Boston loading the bases in the ninth inning with one out, and Fred Lynn hitting a fly ball to shallow left for the second out. Third base coach Don Zimmer screamed at Denny Doyle, "No! No! No!" but Doyle thought he said "Go! Go! Go!" and dashed toward home, where he was tagged out to end the inning.
You had Rose stepping into the batter's box in the 10th inning and telling Sox catcher Carlton Fisk, "This is some kind of game, isn't it?" Later that inning, Joe Morgan lined a shot to right field that looked like it would easily score Ken Griffey from first with the go-ahead run, but Boston's Dwight Evans made a leaping, sprawling catch to save the inning, capping it off with a throw to first to double off Griffey.
You had Fisk standing in the on-deck circle before the bottom of the 12th, saying later he just had a feeling something good would happen. Something did. He smacked a shot to left. It started hooking foul. Fisk watched the ball as he hopped toward first, waving his arms, gyrating, willing the ball fair with his body. The ball landed over the Green Monster and bounced off the foul pole, and the Sox won, 7-6.
POSTSCRIPT:The famous replay of Fisk waving the fall fair was the first influential slow-motion replay moment, spawning the redundant, unimaginative slow-motion action seen today in all sports telecasts, music videos, and Sharon Stone movies.
