The indelible image of the 1975 World Series is of course Carlton Fisk’s walk off home run in the bottom of the 12th inning of Game Six. Even if you are not a baseball fan you have undoubtedly seen a highlight of Fisk connecting on the pitch, then swinging his arms in the air, directing the ball to stay fair, and then sprinting through a mob of fans who stormed the field when the ball hit the foul pole to send the series to a seventh and deciding game. But while that may be the most memorable image of that series and arguably one of the most memorable plays in the history of baseball, the most important play of the 1975 World Series took place roughly twenty hours later. It was a play that in any other game, with any other teams, would have meant far less, but in this game, with the histories of these franchises at stake, a routine ground ball that should have been turned into a double play altered baseball history, and few people even remember it happened.
For the first five innings of Game Seven, Red Sox starter Bill “Spaceman” Lee held the vaunted Big Red Machine scoreless. As he took the mound for the top of the sixth, Lee and his teammates were ahead 3-0 and a mere 12 outs away from claiming their first World Series title in 57 years. Holding that lead would not be easy. Lee would face the top of the Reds order, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench. If any of the three got on base, the clean up hitter, Tony Perez, would come to bat. All four of these Reds players would one day be (or should be) in the Hall of Fame. So Lee certainly had his work cut out for him.
Rose, a switch hitter, was batting right handed against Lee, a southpaw. Running the count to 2-1, Rose slapped a grounder through the right side of the infield for a base hit. Morgan strode into the batter’s box, fouling off Lee’s first offering before taking two pitches. Another 2-1 count. But this time Lee prevailed, inducing a weak fly out to shallow right that failed to advance Rose. With one on and one out, the Reds’ all-star catcher came to bat. After fouling off Lee’s first pitch, Bench hit a textbook double play ball to shortstop Rick Burleson, who fielded the grounder cleanly and flipped the ball to second baseman Denny Doyle to start what should have been an inning ending double play. But Rose, living up to his Charlie Hustle moniker, had a full head of steam and, although he was at least five feet short of the bag, slid hard, forcing Doyle to bunny hop out of Rose’s way. Doyle’s throw to first was off target, keeping the inning alive. Perez then launched Lee’s 1-0 offering, a so-called “eephus” pitch, a slow moving, high arcing curve, over the Green Monster and out of Fenway, cutting the Red Sox lead to 3-2. The Reds would go on to add a run in the top of the seventh and the top of the ninth, winning the game (and the championship) 4-3.
After winning the 1975 World Series, the Reds, playing with the confidence of world champions, cruised to 102 regular season wins and then swept both the NLCS and World Series, cementing the Big Red Machine as one of the greatest teams of all time. But what if Rose failed to break up that double play? It is not hyperbolic to say that the course of the game, as well as the course of baseball history, might have looked much different. If the Red Sox turn that double play, the inning ends and the Reds are still losing 3-0. Perez comes up in the top of the seventh but perhaps it is not Lee he’s facing but one of the Red Sox’s relief pitchers (one was warming up in the bullpen in the sixth) and regardless, no one would have been on base. The Reds only scored two additional runs as the actual game unfolded; if the same occurred in an alternate universe where they are held scoreless in the sixth, the Red Sox win the game 3-2.
Now consider the chain of events that would have unfolded. For the Reds, this would have been their third World Series loss of the decade (they also lost in 1970 and 1972) in addition to losing the NLCS in 1973. Losing to the Red Sox would have led to an off season of questions about the team’s ability to win the big one, tagging them with the dreaded term “chokers,” and likely ending with major changes, including firing Sparky Anderson and trading Perez, who the team tried to deal before the 1975 season but failed to do. It was nothing against Perez, but the team lacked a third baseman (Rose was called into service but was not his preferred position) and Perez was dangled as trade bait to the Yankees and Royals, in hopes of dislodging their then-young stars Craig Nettles or George Brett (which would be a whole OTHER alternate universe discussion). Instead of entering 1976 as cocky champions, the Reds would have been shell shocked by their repeated failures. With full free agency starting around MLB after that season, even if the Reds had won that lone title in 1976, the team would be remembered more like the Braves of the 1990s - a team loaded with talent that only won it all once but is not considered one of the greatest teams of all time - as opposed to how history remembers them, as a dynasty.
The arc of Red Sox history would have been even more profound. The dreaded Curse of the Bambino would have ended in 1975, not 2004. It is possible that with the pressure taken off the team, it does not give up a 14 game lead to the Yankees in 1978 before losing a one-game playoff to them and Bucky Bleeping Dent. It is possible John McNamara feels no need to keep Bill Buckner in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series so he can be on the field when the curse is broken and replaces Buckner with Dave Stapleton, who cleanly fields Mookie Wilson’s grounder. Who knows, maybe Grady Little pulls Pedro in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS a few hitters early, and Aaron Bleeping Boone does not complete this trilogy of gut punches the Red Sox experienced after their loss in 1975.
And here’s the thing, even if all those things still happened, they would have been tempered by the fact that the Red Sox had won in 1975. Would they have still been painful? Of course, but fans would have been able to hold onto the memories of Pudge’s Game 6 heroics and a tight victory in Game 7 to clinch that title. Instead, the Fisk home run is a highlight that will be shown as long as baseball is played, while Rose’s break up of that sixth inning double play can only be found not as a clip on You Tube, but simply part of the entire game’s broadcast. It is rarely mentioned in baseball lore, but this little bit of fundamental base running might have been the most consequential out ever recorded in World Series history.
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