Oct 21: Drama at Fenway

OCTOBER 21, 1975 | BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Many regard the game played on this date in 1975 as the best World Series game ever. Certainly game 6 of the ‘75 Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox ranks up there as one of the most exciting. The 12 inning classic is most remembered for Carlton Fisk‘s walk-off home run – more like “wish-off” home run – to force a game seven, but there was much more.

The ball Fisk hit was down the left field line. Fisk had to wish the ball, coax the ball, symbolically push the ball right, otherwise it’s a long strike. The ball stayed right. Game over.

But the opportunity wouldn’t have presented itself to Fisk without teammate Bernie Carbo hitting a pinch hit, 3-run homer with 2 out in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game at 6.

Later in 11th, Dwight Evans made a game-saving catch in right of a long drive off the bat of Joe Morgan, then doubled Ken Griffey, Sr. (as in Ken Griffey, Jr.’s Dad) off 1st.

As exciting as that game was, it did not turn out to be a Cinderella story for Boston. Cincinnati won game 7 the next day 4-3.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Game 6 1975 World Series box score & play-by-play
More on 1975 World Series

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Bill Grimes

I'm from Chicago. I worked in broadcast journalism for much of the 1970's and 80's. In 1990 I became a litigation consultant, retiring in 2017. Around 2005 I recall flipping through the sports section of the newspaper coming across "On this day in baseball history Willie Mays hit his 600th home run." I enjoyed the one-liners, but I wanted more. I wanted a story. I took my news reporting skills and started researching and telling baseball stories, one for every day of the year. TodayinBaseball.com is the result.