The 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds has always been my measuring stick for baseball greatness.
And Game 6, with Carlton Fisk’s dramatic home run, has been the gold standard for immortality.
Well, Fisk, Pete Rose, Bernie Carbo, and Tony Pérez, you may have met your match.
There is no doubt that individual exploits of Games 6 and 7 of the 2025 series will just grow in stature in the future — even if they’re big enough now.
There are some apt comparisons. Carbo, a pinch-hitter who looked sick on a Rawly Eastwick pitch earlier in the count, parked one in the center-field bleachers for a 3-run homer that tied Game 6. Little-used Miguel Rojas of the Dodgers did him one better — hitting his game-tying homer in the ninth inning of Game 7.
Catchers had the game-winning dingers in their signature games: Fisk in Game 6; Will Smith in Game 7.
Little things played big parts. In ’75, Rose was on first with one out when Johnny Bench hit a tailor-made double-play ball to Rick Burleson at short. He fed Denny Doyle perfectly at second, but Doyle turned to make the throw to first just when Rose was charging full throttle to the base. The collision caused Doyle to throw the ball away. Perez followed by hitting a Bill “Spaceman” Lee eephus pitch to Jupiter. Seriously. It was still rising as it cleared the old screen in left field. The homers Saturday by Bo Bichette, Max Muncy, Rojas, and Smith, collectively, didn’t travel as far as that Perez blast.
At the time, the score in that seventh game was 3-0 Sox. Perez brought the Reds closer and they ultimately won. Fundamentals.
Saturday, Isiah Kiner-Falefa of the Blue Jays was on third with the bases loaded in a tie game with one out in the ninth inning. Toronto’s Daulton Varsho hit a sharp grounder to Rojas at second. The force of the drive nearly drove Rojas backward, but he caught himself and threw to the plate — just in time to nab Kiner-Falefa. It appears as if Kiner-Falefa was a little too careful with his lead off third, even given the Toronto outfield was playing shallow. A couple of more steps off third and the Blue Jays win. Again, fundamentals.
They talk about Yoshinobu Yamamoto and what he did Saturday, and he deserves all the accolades he can get. But I’ll put up Luis Tiant and his 163 pitches in Game 4 in 1975 against him and take my chances.
Finally, two of the all-time circus catches were game-savers. In 1975, Joe Morgan was up with a runner on base in Game 6 and hit a drive to deep right. Dwight Evans, in right, actually overran the ball initially and reached back to make a fabulous catch — and then doubled up the runner at first.
Right after Rojas’ play Saturday, Ernie Clement hit a blast to left and Kiké Hernandez, still playing shallow, had no chance of catching it. The Blue Jays were going to win. But . . . Andy Pages, the center fielder, came out of nowhere, bumped into Hernandez, and still managed to catch the ball.
I had the privilege, at the age of 22, to cover all four games of that 1975 series at Fenway, and I swore I’d never see a game as dramatic as that sixth game was. And I’ve still never seen another one live.
But Friday and Saturday might have finally knocked ’75 off the top. Those games raised baseball up to another level.
Several players from that 1975 series ended up in the Hall of Fame. From Cincinnati, we had Bench, Morgan, Perez, and manager Sparky Anderson. And from the Red Sox, we had Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk. Jim Rice missed the series with a broken wrist.
Thanks to his own stupidity and greed, Rose is not a member of the Hall, but he may still get in on a veterans’ committee ballot now that he’s been removed from the banned list.
And of course, both teams had players who perhaps should be in the Hall of Fame, but aren’t due to cluelessness on the part of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters, and/or a glut of candidates in a given time period. The Reds had Dave Concepción, Ken Griffey Sr., George Foster and probably César Gerónimo. Boston had Tiant and Evans definitely, and you could make somewhat of a case for Fred Lynn.
How many players in these games do you think will make the Hall of Fame? I’m sure we could all name five without even thinking about it. And more if we did.
What a series!
