The excitement surrounding Aaron and Conigliaro contrasted sharply with the tense atmosphere prevailing in the Red Sox dugout. Team captain and first baseman Yastrzemski chewed out his teammates in a pregame speech. “[We had] the worst attitude I ever saw in spring training. If it keeps up, we’ll finish in last place. We laid back and waited to get beat in every game and we did get beat.”2 Yaz was still steaming from the club’s late-season collapse in 1974. Boston had been poised to take the AL East crown but an 8-20 skid transformed a seven-game lead in the standings into a five-game deficit by September 22. Sportswriter Larry Claflin of the Boston Herald American offered an even harsher assessment of the team: “[T]he Red Sox have too many question marks to win anything. They had their big chance last year and faded down the stretch. They won’t come that close in 1975.”3 The Brewers harbored few title aspirations; rather, skipper Del Crandall hoped the return of Aaron, his former teammate on the Milwaukee Braves from 1954 to 1963, would catapult the club to its first winning season since its relocation from Seattle in 1970.

On a cool, 52-degree, sunny, yet windy day, 34,055 spectators packed Fenway Park, celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the Red Sox franchise. Rene Rancourt, who had developed into a Boston institution, sang the national anthem, while 87-year-old former Red Sox outfielder Duffy Lewis (a member of Boston’s 1912, 1915, and 1916 World Series winners) threw out the first pitch. At 2:06 P.M., home-plate umpire Marty Springstead yelled, “Play ball!”

Boston manager Darrell Johnson, booed in the pregame introduction, tabbed 34-year-old Luis Tiant, a 20-game winner the previous two seasons, to start his third consecutive season opener for the Red Sox. Tiant escaped a jam in the first inning after walking designated hitter Aaron and slugging first baseman (and former Red Sox player) George Scott, when the wind kept Don Money’s long fly ball to left field from being a three-run homer.

The Red Sox wasted no time energizing their fans. With two outs in the first and Yastrzemski on first base, Conigliaro got the green light for a hit-and-run and lined Jim Slaton’s outside pitch to right field for a single. The Boston faithful gave Tony C. a three-minute standing ovation (one of his four during the day). With a 2-and-2 count on third sacker Rico Petrocelli, Conigliaro broke for second base. Just as shortstop Robin Yount cut off catcher Darrell Porter’s throw, Yaz raced home on a delayed double steal to score the game’s first run. “I was supposed to hold up and get caught in a rundown so Yaz could score,” said Conigliaro after the game. “But when I saw the throw was bad I kept heading for second base.”4 The Red Sox scored another run in the second when second baseman Doug Griffin collected the club’s third single of the inning, driving in right fielder Dwight Evans.

The third inning proved to be the turning point of the game. Yount put the Brewers on the board with a solo home run. In the bottom half of the frame, with Yastrzemski (double) on second and Evans on first (walk), catcher Bob Montgomery and Slaton engaged in a classic confrontation. According to Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe, “Monty” fouled off “nine straight two-strike pitches” before drilling a two-run double to left field.5 The next batter, shortstop Rick Burleson, lined a single to drive in Montgomery, giving Boston a 5-1 lead and driving Slaton from the mound.

Bill Castro, a 23-year-old reliever in his first full season in the majors, relieved Slaton. In what was described by Lou Chapman of the Milwaukee Sentinel as a “brilliant performance,” Castro shut down the Red Sox by tossing no-hit ball over the final 5⅓ innings. His only blemish was a walk to Evans in the fifth inning.6

But the game belonged to Tiant, who put a damper on Aaron’s debut, stole Conigliaro’s thunder, and kept the Brewers off balance with his unorthodox, whirling delivery. “El Conquistador” went the route yet, according to sportswriter Tim Horgan of the Boston Herald American, “detested every minute of it,” and had trouble staying loose and unleashing his fastball. 7 “I was so cold in the fifth inning, I couldn’t even feel my legs,” said Tiant. “I hate this weather, especially the wind. Anybody has to be lucky to go nine innings in this stuff.”8 The Cuban-born right-hander with stylish sideburns and a Fu Manchu mustache surrendered a run-scoring single to Porter in the seventh, but was at his best in the final two frames. With one out, two men on, and the tying run at the plate, Tiant erased Aaron and Scott on two pitches (both sliders) in the eighth. The Brewers connected for two more hits in the ninth, but with runners on the corners and one out, El Tiante induced light-hitting second baseman Pedro Garcia to hit into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play. Tiant completed the game in 2 hours and 24 minutes and improved his record to 35-15 at Fenway Park since he was released by the Atlanta Braves and signed with Boston in May 1971.

“The Red Sox played good, sharp, daredevil baseball, of the very sort that once made the Impossible Dream (of 1967) materialize,” wrote Tim Horgan approvingly.9 Boston’s victory, 5-2, was a team effort which included a successful hit-and-run and double steal, an attempted suicide squeeze, as well as good defense and pitching. In light of Conigliaro’s emotional return, Aaron’s historic appearance, and Tiant’s show-stealing performance, Ray Fitzgerald of the Boston Globe called the game “one of the most dramatic opening days in Fenway Park history.”10

This essay originally appeared in ” ’75: The Red Sox Team that Saved Baseball” (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Notes

June 18 was a warm, humid Wednesday night, the final game of a three-game set with the Tigers, and the ninth game of a 13-game road trip. Over the first eight games of the trip, the Red Sox were 6-2, giving them an overall record of 34-24 and a 1½-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East. In the first game of the series, Lynn, Boston’s dynamic center fielder, had his 20-game hitting streak snapped. He came into the final game of the series with a .337 average, good for fourth in the American League, with 11 home runs, tied for the third highest, and 40 runs batted in, which ranked fifth in the league.

After losing his hitting streak in the Monday game, Lynn managed one hit in four at-bats in the middle game of the series. Still not quite satisfied, he was up early Wednesday morning, pacing in the hotel lobby anxious to get to Tiger Stadium for extra batting practice.

“I was expecting to see some of our men doing some extra hitting because we’re down pretty good at the moment. I look out onto the field and there’s Fred Lynn. He goes 20 straight games with hits, gets stopped, and he’s out on the field taking extra batting practice,” said Bill Freehan, the Tigers catcher.1

Detroit’s starting pitcher, Joe Coleman, retired Juan Beniquez to lead off the game, but the next four batters in the Red Sox lineup hit him for the cycle: Burleson tripled, Yastrzemski doubled him home, Lynn hit a two-run homer into the upper deck in right field, and then Rice singled. By the time the dust cleared in the top of the first, Boston had scored four runs, and the rout was on.

In the second inning, Coleman got two quick outs, but then gave up two singles, bringing Lynn to the plate for the second time. A high, majestic drive off the façade of the roof in right field resulted in his second home run of the game and drove in three more runs, bringing his runs batted in total to five.

Going into the third inning, the Red Sox had a 7-1 lead, and the Detroit bullpen was called on to pitch the rest of the game. By the time Lynn batted in the inning, Bob Reynolds was on the mound, having replaced Lerrin LaGrow, one of Lynn’s favorite pitchers to face, who had replaced the starter, Coleman. It didn’t matter, as Lynn laced a line drive to left field, over the head of Dan Meyer and off the top of the scoreboard for a two-run triple. If the ball had been hit three feet higher, it would have been Lynn’s third home run in as many at-bats.

Lynn’s fourth at-bat, in the fifth inning, was a lineout to John Knox at second base. In the eighth inning, Lynn singled to lead off the inning, his fourth hit of the game, giving him 12 total bases to that point, along with seven runs batted in.

In the ninth inning, with one out and two runners on, Lynn came to bat for the sixth time in the game. He launched his third home run, and fifth hit, of the game into the right-field upper deck, driving in the final three runs of the game, and becoming just the second rookie to drive in ten or more runs in a game. In addition, he set a rookie record with 16 total bases.

“It’s funny. I hadn’t slept, I had felt lousy. I went out to the park early to try and forget what was going on in the morning. Funny about my swing. When I’m tired, I seem to hit the ball better. I guess it’s because I wait on it better, and make better contact,” said Lynn after the game.2

In Boston’s first trip to the Motor City, in April, fans in the center-field bleachers threw golf balls at Lynn, and in the first game of this series, green smoke bombs were tossed at him.3 By the end of this game, the only thing thrown Lynn’s way was applause.

After Lynn’s historic night, he was now third in batting average at .352, second in home runs with 14, and was leading the league in runs batted in (50) and runs scored (42). He was well on his way to becoming the first player to ever win the Rookie of the Year award and the league Most Valuable Player award in the same season.

This essay originally appeared in ” ’75: The Red Sox Team that Saved Baseball” (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Author’s note

The summer of 1975 occurred during my eighth year. I would turn 9 years old two days after the end of the epic World Series between Boston and Cincinnati, but as of mid-June of that year, I still hadn’t discovered baseball. An older neighbor had a paper route, and on June 19 I was helping him fold papers for delivery that day. We looked through one of the papers, and at the top of the sports section of the Pawtucket Times the headline read: Lynn 3 HRs, 3B, 10 RBI. To an 8-year-old who really hadn’t discovered baseball yet, it made quite an impression. I became a lifelong Red Sox, and Fred Lynn, fan because of that game.

Sources

Retrosheet

Video of Lynn’s at-bats

Notes

Save for finishing a half-game behind the Detroit Tigers in the strike-shortened 1972 season, the Red Sox had not done well since winning the pennant in 1967. They had four third-place and two second-place finishes, but nothing to seriously challenge the almost perennial division champion Baltimore Orioles. The season had started out with great promise, fueled to a great extent by two exciting rookie outfielders, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, who were demonstrating an ability to hit for both power and average. A little over a week before, Lynn had hit three home runs and driven in 10 runs during a 15-1 thrashing of Detroit, serving notice of his talent. But now a slump – was Boston destined to fall back in the pack as in previous years? The Yankees, who narrowly missed a division championship the previous season, two games behind Baltimore, were in town and on a roll.

While there was some concern over the Red Sox’ recent travails, close observers of the game were less wary about Boston’s chances as the game began. Luis Tiant, the Red Sox ace (10-6), would be facing Pat Dobson (8-5). Knowing fans could claim a degree of comfort in this matchup. Dobson’s record against Boston going into the game was a mediocre 8-10, Tiant’s record against the Yankees was 19-8, including a streak of seven straight wins at home going back to 1972.2 There was also cause for optimism in the return of Carlton Fisk to the lineup. Fisk had been out of baseball almost exactly a year, having suffered severely torn knee ligaments in a play at the plate in June 1974. After recovering from surgery, and further plagued by a broken arm during spring training, Fisk had made his first appearance of the season in the Cleveland series three days before.

Tiant’s early performance belied past success. He opened the first by hitting Walt Williams and walking Roy White. Chris Chambliss then lined a pitch to deep right field. Bernie Carbo made a great catch before slamming his chin into the wall in front of the Yankees bullpen, biting his tongue and collapsing, momentarily stunned. Williams, seeing Carbo lying on the ground, scored from second on Chambliss’s unusual sacrifice fly. Having almost given up a three-run homer somehow refocused Tiant as he retired the next two batters without incident and would prove most effective the rest of the game.

The Yankees held their slim lead until the bottom of the fourth, when the Red Sox struck. Rick Burleson and Carl Yastrzemski singled off Dobson. That brought Lynn to the plate. Lynn was in the midst of a fantastic rookie year; he entered the game leading the majors in slugging at .614, was batting .341, and was tied with Graig Nettles of the Yankees for the league lead in RBIs. Lynn tripled past Williams in center to put Boston in front. One batter later, Cecil Cooper singled to give Boston a 3-1 lead. Tiant retired the side in order in the fifth, continuing his mastery over New York.

Carbo had saved two runs in the first; in the sixth it was Yastrzemski’s turn to dazzle Red Sox fans. With two outs and nobody on, Thurman Munson ripped a line drive off the left-field wall; Yastrzemski threw Munson out as he tried to leg out a double.

In the bottom of the seventh, Boston struck again. With one out Fisk came to bat. He had not overly distinguished himself since returning to the lineup, managing two singles against Cleveland – and this evening had just a bunt single in the fifth. Working a full count against Dobson, Fisk hit the pitcher’s next offering into the left-center-field screen for his first home run of the season– and his first since June 17 the year before. He was so elated that he hopscotched between first and second and clapped his hands the rest of the way around the bases. Denny Doyle followed with a single off Dobson, who was then replaced by Sparky Lyle. It was not to be Lyle’s night, either, as he allowed successive singles to Rick Miller and Burleson, allowing another run to score. Lynn then singled, driving in his third run of the evening.

Tiant gave up two singles in the eighth and two more in the ninth but no scoring took place. By the ninth inning, Red Sox fans decided to get into the game – literally. One ran onto the field with a handful of All-Star ballots and presented them to Lynn, who signed one and brought the rest into the dugout. All, as it turned out, had Lynn’s name on them. Another fan threw a Frisbee onto the field. New York shortstop Jim Mason expertly sailed it into the Yankee dugout, one of the few things that had gone right for the Yankees. These sideshows – and the game ended with Tiant striking out Rick Dempsey. Tiant won his 11th game of the year, putting the Red Sox just half a game behind New York.

While Tiant was rightfully the big story of the night, Fisk’s home run was a solid signal that he was back. He was ecstatic, “All I was thinking about while I was jumping up and down was to make sure I touched all the bases. That would have been a hell of a time to miss one. I was a happy guy when I saw it hit the nets, you can believe that.”3

Perhaps in the rush to talk to Fisk, Tiant’s effort was ignored. Dressing quickly, he told reporters who approached him that “I have nothing to talk about.”4 Perhaps so, but Yankee outfielder Bobby Bonds did: “I haven’t faced Tiant since 1969. He’s the same pitcher. His motion doesn’t bother me but there’s something about his fastball that’s tough. He throws it high and that’s usually a good one to hit but it seems to rise at the last minute. He has all the pitches, though, and was just in full command out there.”5

Postscript

Boston’s win was the first of three the Red Sox took from New York in the four-game series. After beating the Yankees in the final game, Boston took a half-game lead in the division. They were never out of first place the rest of the season. Beginning on July 7, Boston embarked on a 10-game winning streak, to all intents ending the Eastern Division pennant race. Fisk’s comeback proved successful; he went on to hit .331 for the year and, showcasing his talents on the national stage, hit a home run to win the sixth game of the World Series against Cincinnati. Lynn continued to hit well, batting .331 with 105 RBIs, and won both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards – the first time this feat was ever accomplished. After beating New York, “El Tiante” went on to post an 18-14 record despite experiencing back injuries during the course of the season. Recovering, he went on to beat Oakland on a three-hitter in the opening game of the League Championship Series, and defeated the Reds in Games One and Four of the World Series.

This essay originally appeared in ” ’75: The Red Sox Team that Saved Baseball” (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Notes

Neither team had a hit until the fourth, when Boston had the game’s first threat. With Denny Doyle on first base after a walk from New York ace Catfish Hunter, Lynn singled to send Doyle to third with one out. But Hunter struck out rookie Jim Rice and got Rick Miller to ground to first baseman Chris Chambliss to keep the contest scoreless.

Lee held the Yankees hitless until the fifth, when three straight singles strongly suggested that New York would score first. Nettles and Chambliss singled and Sandy Alomar beat out a bunt to load the bases with nobody out. But light-hitting shortstop Fred Stanley hit into a force out, third baseman to catcher, Bobby Bonds fanned on a “fastball” or “hard screwball,”1 and designated hitter Rick Dempsey popped to Miller in right.

The Yankees threated again in the sixth with a leadoff double by Roy White. Cleanup hitter and catcher Thurman Munson failed to advance White with a bunt back to a grateful Lee,2 who threw White out at third. Munson would have just three successful sacrifices in 1975 and a total of 21 in his 11-year career. Munson’s failure proved critical when right fielder Lou Piniella followed with a single that would have scored White but instead only sent Munson to second, from where neither Nettles nor Chambliss could bring him home.

The Red Sox seriously threatened again in the eighth. With two outs, Bernie Carbo, the designated hitter, drew Hunter’s fourth walk of the day. On a full count, Doyle followed with the game’s second and final extra-base hit, a double, but a Piniella-Alomar-Munson relay cut Carbo down at the plate to set up the dramatic ninth inning.

With one out in the ninth, “Lynn hit a short grounder to short which bounced high.”3 Jim Mason, who had replaced Stanley at shortstop after Alex Johnson hit for Stanley in the seventh, failed to handle the ball cleanly and was charged with an error. With two outs, Lynn swiped second: “Thurman Munson’s desperation throw was in the dirt, in front of Mason.”4 Miller then drove in Lynn on Boston’s third and last hit of the day, a liner to left-center that Bonds could not catch.

Lee made the lone run stand up by setting the Yankees down in order in the ninth. He retired Piniella on a comebacker before Nettles “hit a towering, slicing drive to deep left center.”5 The Boston Globe the next day ran two photos of the play from WSBK-TV. In the top frame, center fielder Lynn has left his feet and leaped with an outstretched glove-hand as the ball rapidly descends. In the bottom frame, Lynn has begun to tumble with his left arm and leg thrown up in the air while snow-coning the ball, after which he “bounced three times, rolled over, and, with Jim Rice hurdling him, came up with the ball”6 to complete what coach Don Zimmer described as “the ‘best [catch] I’ve ever seen, given the situation.’”7

“Lynn’s run and ensuing catch struck with electrifying, sudden-death-like effect.”8 The Chambliss foul pop to end the game excited Sox third baseman Bob Heise, who “caught it sliding toward home plate” and put an exclamation point on game one as he “spiked the ball as his teammates rushed onto the field. It had finished a game that seemed like a season, one that had cut the heart out of the New Yorkers.”9

An impending sense of futility descended over New York since Boston, with the 1-0 win, surged nine games ahead of the faux Bronx Bombers, who now toiled in another borough (they played home games at Shea Stadium in 1974 and 1975 while Yankee Stadium was being renovated) and failed to hit with the force of their predecessors.

• Related link: Read about Game 2 of this July 27, 1975, doubleheader
• Read more: Read SABR BioProject biographies on the 1975 Red Sox

Notes

Second-year New York pitcher Tippy Martinez would pitch in more than 500 American League games, but would start (and lose) just two of them (both in 1975), with this game against Boston representing his first such effort. Martinez struggled immediately in yielding a double to designated hitter Juan Beniquez followed by a walk to second baseman Doug Griffin. After a Carl Yastrzemski grounder to Chris Chambliss advanced both runners, a single by Jim Rice drove in the game’s first run and gave Moret all the support that he would need.

Desperate for offense, the Yankees almost tied the game in the bottom of the frame thanks to some daring baserunning by Bonds. After singling, he raced from first to third on a groundout by designated hitter Walt Williams. (Both teams used different DHs in the two games but kept them in the same spots in the batting order.) Bonds failed to score, however, as Roy White fanned and Thurman Munson skied out to Fred Lynn.

The Red Sox rallied for two more runs in the third thanks to a homer by Yaz and a Carlton Fisk sacrifice fly. Boston knocked out Martinez in the fourth on an RBI double by Griffin. Rice then greeted reliever Dick Tidrow with a run-scoring double of his own.

The Red Sox concluded the scoring in the seventh with consecutive hits by star rookies Rice (a single) and Lynn (a double).

Boston beat New York 6-0, but a little-noticed substitution for New York heralded a future shift in the ongoing AL rivalry. In the eighth inning, a 24-year-old lefty made his major-league debut. Although Ron Guidry immediately gave up a single to Denny Doyle, he retired Yastrzemski on a liner to left and chalked up his first major-league strikeout, getting Rice, who had four hits so far, to go down looking. In the top of the ninth, Guidry yielded a double to Lynn and a single to Fisk but escaped with consecutive strikeouts and a fly out.

The last gasp for the Yankees came in the ninth. Williams and White started with singles, but Munson grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. After Lou Piniella lined to right, the Sox “had finished taking three out of four games in the series and, for all intents and purposes, buried the New Yorkers, some 10 games back of the Sox.”3

Yankee fans did not react to the “inglorious”4 sweep quietly: “Amidst endless brawls [in the stands], the throwing of beer and garbage and an echo of boos for everyone from [New York manager] Bill Virdon to [Jim] Mason, no one noticed Moret. All he did was get his seventh win in eight decisions, overpowering the Yankees. …”5

The margin between the two clubs would not drop below 8½ games over the rest of the 1975 season. Three years to the day later, Catfish Hunter, the 1975 game-one loser, would suffer a 17-5 loss to Cleveland that left New York eight games behind Boston, a margin that would not hold this time thanks in large part to the efforts of Guidry, whose 1975 debut at the end of a one-sided doubleheader left little hint of the impact he would ultimately have on the storied history of Red Sox-Yankees clashes.

• Related link: Read about Game 1 of this July 27, 1975 doubleheader
• Read more: Read SABR BioProject biographies on the 1975 Red Sox

Notes

Surprising no one, the Orioles were once again red hot in time for their final showdown with the leaders, a two-game set in Fenway Park. After starting the year terribly – Baltimore stood in last place as late as June 10 and just 45-45 on July 20 – the Orioles had put on a patented late-summer surge to get back in the race, 39 wins in 59 games heading into the two-game series.

The pitching matchup seemed to favor the visitors. Taking the hill for the Orioles would be Jim Palmer, the game’s greatest pitcher, with a record of 21-10 and a 2.17 ERA, including nine shutouts so far this year – the best season of his stellar career. Facing Palmer would be Luis Tiant, the Red Sox’ erstwhile ace who had struggled with a bad back most of the year and was just 16-13. But hope was not lost: Five days earlier Tiant had three-hit the Tigers, losing a no-hitter with two out in the eighth inning. Still, the Tigers were a last-place club, hardly the Baltimore Orioles.

The announced attendance was a season-high 34,724, though some observers believed the standing-room patrons swelled the crowd well beyond that total. “They have had these tickets since April,” wrote Peter Gammons in the Boston Globe, “in the eternal and annual hope that this year, finally, would be the eradication of frustrations past.”1

Truth be told, the game displayed very little action other than on the pitcher’s mound, where every eye was focused, and where the outcome was determined. The Red Sox stranded Denny Doyle after his one-out triple in the first, but struck pay dirt on two Palmer mistakes – solo home runs by Rico Petrocelli in the third and Carlton Fisk in the fourth – both of which landed in the screen atop the left-field fence.

The masterful Tiant took it from there. He allowed a single to Royle Stillman in the first inning and a single to Don Baylor in the second (promptly picking him off). The first two Orioles reached in the fourth, but Tiant bore down and got out of the jam easily. He allowed singles in the sixth and seventh, but retired the last eight men to face him. In the game, the Orioles managed just five singles, striking out eight times. It was Tiant’s first shutout of 1975, and it took just 2 hours and 13 minutes.

“For all the acts and encores El Tiante has performed,” wrote Gammons, “this was perhaps his finest hour. If pennant races are supposed to come down to the great matchups of great pitchers, this was one we shall all remember years from now. With the perfectly timed comeback of Tiant, it was the matchup of two of the best money pitchers of recent years, won on two Palmer mistakes.”2

“It’s no disgrace losing to a guy who pitched that well,” said Palmer. “Frustrating, yes, but no disgrace. I just made two bad pitches, a fastball to Rico that I wanted a little on the outside and it wound up over the plate, and the fastball starting off to Fisk. Otherwise, I did about as well as I thought I could.”3 Palmer’s manager, Earl Weaver, had to agree: “That’s about the best I have ever seen Tiant. He made good pitches tonight. When you come into Fenway Park and give up two runs as Palmer did tonight, you don’t mind. But the other guy pitched a great game.”4

“Palmer,” countered Tiant, “is the best pitcher in the league, and I went out there thinking this is a time to win, and win now. I’ve always wanted to pitch in the World Series, and I figured if we win now, well, it’s that much harder for them.”5 Asked about his “comeback,” Tiant added, “I don’t want to make excuses, but the back has been a problem. I just couldn’t throw as hard or to the places I had to. So this is very satisfying. I had good stuff, all my pitches. Fastball, curve, knuckle … I threw five knucklers, three for strikeouts.”6

One of the two hitting heroes, Fisk, had the best view in the house of Tiant’s mastery. “These last few days we’ve had 30,000 here,” said the catcher, “but it was like a morgue. But when Luis goes out there, it’s just a different than any other man. There isn’t a player alive who can’t feel what he exudes from the audience.”7

Besides the obvious – the Red Sox now led by 5½ games with 11 to go – Tiant’s performance also gave the team hope for what lay ahead, their first postseason in eight years. “We were very concerned about Tiant,” admitted Boston pitching coach Stan Williams. “He had physical problems and they were causing mechanical problems. We were concerned it might be the end of the line. But he’s far from the end. … Tonight they had no idea what he was going to throw or where he was going to throw it.”8

So was it over? Were the Orioles dead?

“We still have a chance,” said Weaver, “and nobody in this room is going to give up.”9

“We still have a way to go,” cautioned Boston first baseman Carl Yastrzemski, who was a quiet 0-for-4.10

The Orioles were hardly dead. But thanks to the dazzling Luis Tiant, Red Sox fans throughout the region slept much more soundly after September 16, 1975.

This essay originally appeared in ” ’75: The Red Sox Team that Saved Baseball” (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Notes

For the second straight day at Fenway Park, Boston’s starter retired the first 10 Reds. This time, it was Bill Lee, who began his first career postseason appearance by striking out Pete Rose on three pitches. A 17-game winner in 1975, Lee hadn’t won since August 24 or started a game since September 19.1 Manager Darrell Johnson did not pitch Lee at all in Boston’s American League Championship Series sweep of the Oakland A’s. Against Lee, Cincinnati mustered just one ball hit out of the infield in the first three innings, Johnny Bench’s first-inning fly ball to center.

And unlike for Luis Tiant in Game One, who had to start his own rally after the game entered the bottom of the seventh scoreless, the Red Sox put a run on the board for Lee in the first inning. Cecil Cooper, getting the leadoff assignment, doubled to open the game against 32-year-old righty Jack Billingham. After an infield single by Denny Doyle put runners on the corners, Carl Yastrzemski bounced back to Billingham, who held the runner and threw to second, but when Cooper took off for home, shortstop Dave Concepción threw to catcher Bench and Cooper was caught in a rundown.

It looked like a wasted opportunity until Carlton Fisk came to the rescue and singled Doyle home with the game’s first run.

The Reds had been shut out on successive days only once in 1975 – they were blanked just five times during the season – and it only made sense that the team that led the major leagues in scoring would not be held off the scoreboard forever. Cincinnati ended its 13-inning scoreless streak in the fourth. Joe Morgan broke Lee’s perfect string with a one-out walk, took third on Bench’s single, and scored the tying run when Tony Pérez hit into a force play.

Boston regained the lead in the sixth. Yastrzemski singled against Billingham with one out. He moved up to second when Concepción – awarded his second of five career Gold Gloves in 1975 – misplayed Fisk’s grounder for an error. Rico Petrocelli, whose two-run single in Game One spurred the Red Sox’ decisive six-run seventh inning, knocked in Yastrzemski with a single, putting Boston ahead, 2-1.

It was not pretty, but neither was the weather, which was cold, rainy, and windy. The elements eventually caused an adjournment of 27 minutes in the middle of the seventh inning. When the teams came back on the field, the Reds had their third pitcher. Will McEnaney replaced Pedro Borbón, who’d been summoned by Sparky Anderson to relieve Billingham for the last out of the sixth.

McEnaney’s first batter was Lee, whom Red Sox skipper Johnson kept in despite the rain delay. It was certainly not an automatic decision. The Boston Globe’s Peter Gammons said that Lee was finally “out of the celestial doghouse.”2

Lee breezed through the eighth, allowing a two-out Rose single before getting Morgan to bounce out to end the inning. Boston had a chance to extend its lead in the home eighth with a walk and single against Reds rookie Rawly Eastwick, but Dwight Evans fanned to end the inning.

Lee had allowed only four hits and two walks on 92 pitches through eight innings. A day after Tiant pitched the first World Series complete game since Steve Blass of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971, the Red Sox went for the first back-to-back complete games in the World Series since the 1969 New York Mets. But there were no miracles for Boston in the ninth inning in Game Two.

Bench lined an opposite-field double leading off against Lee, and Johnson summoned Dick Drago. A converted starter, Drago was in his first season exclusively as a reliever. At a time when each American League team had starters go the distance at least twice a week on average, and Boston was third in the majors with 62 complete games, Drago’s 15 saves were in the top five in the AL. (League leader Rich Gossage of the Chicago White Sox had all of 26.)

Drago, who’d blown only three saves all year, induced a grounder from Pérez that shortstop Rick Burleson made a nice play on to record the first out, with Bench crossing to third. Drago got George Foster to fly to left, too shallow to risk sending Bench home against Yastrzemski’s arm.

It was up to Concepción, whose error had helped Boston take its one-run lead in the sixth. With the game on the line, the Reds shortstop hit a bouncer just over Drago’s head. Though second baseman Doyle snagged the ball, there was no play. The game was tied, but not for long.

Concepción took off for second. Fisk had thrown out Reds baserunners in each of their first two steal attempts of the Series, and Burleson, who made the tag, argued that they’d gotten Concepcion on his ninth-inning steal attempt as well. The safe call stood, however, and Ken Griffey followed with a shot to left-center that hit the wall on the third bounce to give the Reds their first lead of the World Series.

When Eastwick set down the Red Sox on two popups and a lineout in the ninth, the Reds could breathe a sigh of relief that they’d survived Boston, coming within an out of falling behind two games to none while scoring only once in 18 innings.

The Reds were as stunned as anyone as to what had happened to their potent bats through the first two games. Pete Rose put it the way the public was looking at the Reds: “That team won 108 games?”3 Yes. And that team was fortunate to win a game at Fenway Park. Gammons of the Globe was more philosophical about the view of Game Two from underdog Boston’s end. “In its emotional drain, it was a game and advantage lost, but a vision for the people who make the World Series films, a game of attitudinal and psychological juxtapositions to be remembered over many a one-more-round from Braintree to San Rafael.”4 

Almost 900 miles from Boston, at the same time the Reds and the Red Sox were battling at Fenway Park, their NFL counterparts were facing off at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, to which the World Series would head after an offday. Cincinnati won the football game that Sunday, too, the favored Bengals pulling away late to beat the New England Patriots, 27-10. But football, the sport that many Americans had come to rely on in the TV age for their prime entertainment, was placing a distant second this month. If you missed the 1975 World Series – even a few innings – you were missing something special.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ken Griffey, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted the following:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197510120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B10120BOS1975.htm

Enders, Eric. 100 Years of the World Series, 1903-2004 (New York: Sterling Publishing, 2005).

Frost, Mark. Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America’s Pastime (New York: Hyperion, 2009).

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series: Complete Play-by-Play of Every Game, 1903-1989 Compiled by the Authors of The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).

Nowlin, Bill, and Jim Prime. The Boston Red Sox World Series Encyclopedia (Burlington, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2008).

Notes

1 Ron Fimrite, “Reaching Out for the Series,” Sports Illustrated, October 20, 1975, https://vault.si.com/vault/1975/10/20/reaching-out-for-the-series.

2 Peter Gammons, “Reds Find the Starter Button, Run Over Red Sox in the Ninth,” Boston Globe, October 13, 1975, https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/1975/10/13/reds-find-starter-button-run-over-red-sox-ninth/R3Mj6uAaspsljNvUXCyceJ/story.html.

3 John Erardi, “Ninth-Inning Rally Gets Reds Even,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 23, 2000: D8.

4 Gammons, “Reds Find the Starter Button, Run Over Red Sox in the Ninth.”

The World Series moved to Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium after the first two games in Boston were split: Luis Tiant’s shutout in Game One, the Reds’ ninth-inning rally in Game Two. The Red Sox took the early lead in Game Three when Fisk homered to open the second inning against right-hander Gary Nolan, who had won 15 games in 1975 after missing nearly all of the 1973 and 1974 seasons because of a calcium spur in his right shoulder.1

Boston’s starter was a familiar face for the Reds. Four years earlier, in 1971, Rick Wise had pitched a no-hitter and hit two home runs at Riverfront Stadium as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. With the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973, Wise bid for another no-hitter in Cincinnati but settled for a one-hitter after Morgan singled with one out in the ninth.

Taking the mound seven days after beating the Oakland A’s to clinch Boston’s American League Championship Series sweep, the 30-year-old Wise kept the Reds hitless until the fourth. He issued a two-out walk to Pérez, who surprised everybody by stealing second base – Pérez had stolen just one base all year. Bench then launched a home run to left to put the Reds in front, 2-1.

Wise allowed home runs to the first two batters of the fifth inning – modest power threats Dave Concepción (five regular-season homers in 1975, then one in the Reds’ National League Championship Series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates) and Cesar Gerónimo (seven homers in ’75). After Nolan struck out, Rose knocked Wise out of the game with a triple. Rookie Jim Burton came in and walked Ken Griffey before Morgan scored Rose on a sacrifice fly. Held to just three total runs in two games at Fenway Park, the Reds now had a commanding 5-1 lead.

Reds manager Sparky Anderson removed Nolan with a reported stiff neck after Nolan allowed just one run on three hits and a walk in four innings.2 Nolan turned out to be Cincinnati’s most effective pitcher of the evening. Rookie Pat Darcy took the mound for the Reds in the fifth

Darcy had appeared in 27 games as a swingman in 1975, but he had not pitched in 17 days. He worked around Rick Burleson’s single for a scoreless fifth. In the sixth, however, Darcy walked two batters and then wild-pitched them up a base before Fred Lynn’s sacrifice fly cut the lead to three runs.

After Darcy allowed a leadoff single to Dwight Evans in the seventh, Anderson turned to veteran righty Clay Carroll. The move seemed to work when Morgan turned Burleson’s grounder into a double play. But former Red Bernie Carbo – Carroll’s Cincinnati teammate for four seasons – followed with a pinch-hit, opposite-field home run and the score was 5-3.

Will McEnaney got the last out in the seventh and retired the Red Sox in order in the eighth. He fanned Lynn to open the ninth, but Rico Petrocelli singled to center to bring up the potential tying run. Anderson came out of the dugout yet again, summoning rookie Rawly Eastwick to face Evans. Eastwick, the winning pitcher with two scoreless innings of relief in Game Two, had tied the Cardinals’ Al Hrabosky for the NL saves lead at 22.

Known more at the time for his tremendous outfield arm than for his bat, Evans showed he not only had power, but a flair for the dramatic, less than a month from his 24th birthday. He launched a game-tying home run to left field that stunned the Cincinnati crowd.3

The Red Sox, down for most of the game, not only had momentum but precedent on their side. Boston had never before scored at least five runs and lost a World Series game.4 After Boston’s furious comeback to tie the game, Jim Willoughby set down the Reds in order in the bottom of the ninth. Denny Doyle led off the 10th with a single for the Red Sox, but nothing came of it when Gerónimo hauled in Yastrzemski’s long fly ball and Fisk bounced into an inning-ending double play.

Gerónimo led off the bottom of the 10th with a single off Willoughby, putting the winning run on first with nobody out. And then up stepped Ed Armbrister.

As he came off the bench to bat for Eastwick, the 27-year-old outfielder from the Bahamas had just two successful sacrifices to his credit in a three-year major-league career. He had batted just 72 times during the regular season. Of his 59 games played, 42 were as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner.

Armbrister squared to bunt and his attempt bounced off home plate. Fisk sprang out of his crouch, threw off his mask, and grabbed the ball with his bare hand. That is when Armbrister stopped and crept slightly backward, just enough to make contact with Fisk. The catcher eschewed tagging the batter inches from him and went for the force play. The play at second would have been close, but the throw was over the glove of shortstop Burleson and continued into center field. Gerónimo kept running and barely beat Lynn’s throw to third base as Armbrister sprinted to second.

The winning run was 90 feet away, and home plate was where several Red Sox were streaming to demand to know why interference had not been called.

Home-plate umpire Larry Barnett, an American League arbiter, let the play stand. Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson fumed at Barnett before appealing to first-base umpire Dick Stello, a National Leaguer, but Stello diplomatically demurred to the ump with the play in front of him. Instant replay was decades from becoming part of the umpiring process, but the men in the booth had full access to the technology. NBC announcers Tony Kubek and Marty Brennaman – who was Cincinnati’s play-by-play man during the season – felt that the call should have been interference, as did all of New England and millions more across the country hanging on every pitch.

“I just stood there for a moment, watching it,” Armbrister told reporters who mobbed the obscure outfielder after the game. “Then [Fisk] came up from behind me and bumped me as he took the ball. I just stood there because he hit me in the back and I couldn’t move.”5

Fisk was so angry at the umpire and the turn of events that he moved away from Barnett, standing by himself for several moments on the Astroturf beyond the home-plate cutout. It was his second throwing error of the game; he had made a poor throw on George Foster’s steal of second base in the second, the same inning in which Fisk had homered.6 The game, almost three hours old, was still alive, though Boston’s hopes hung in the balance.

Johnson brought in Roger Moret, who walked Rose to set up a force play at any base with no one out. Anderson opted to pinch-hit Merv Rettenmund for the lefty-swinging Griffey against the southpaw. Moret caught Rettenmund looking and suddenly the Red Sox were a double play away from getting out of the mother of all jams.

The next batter, however, was Morgan, who would be named MVP of the National League for 1975 – and later for 1976. Morgan lined a single over the drawn-in outfield and the Reds had won in their final at-bat for the second straight game.7

Cincinnati led the Series and all bunts were off, you might say.8

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Troy Olszewski and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ed Armbrister, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197510140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B10140CIN1975.htm 

Enders, Eric. 100 Years of the World Series, 1903-2004 (New York: Sterling Publishing, 2005).

Frost, Mark. Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America’s Pastime (New York: Hyperion, 2009).

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series: Complete Play-by-Play of Every Game, 1903-1989 Compiled by the Authors of The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).

Notes

1 “Fisk’s Solo HR,” MLB.com, 0:44, accessed October 2025, https://www.mlb.com/video/fisk-s-solo-home-run-c1212597183?partnerId=web_video-playback-page_video-share.

2 Paul Meyer, “Ump: ‘Simply a Collision,’” Dayton (Ohio) Journal Herald, October 15, 1975: 15.

3 “1975 WS Gm3: Evans’ Homer in Ninth Ties Game,” YouTube video (MLB.com), 0:47, accessed October 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPEm0TIe_bE.

4 Bill Nowlin and Jim Prime, The Boston Red Sox World Series Encyclopedia (Burlington, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2008), 291.

5 Kevin Paul Dupont, “Obstruction Call Conjures Images of 1975 World Series,” Boston Globe, October 28, 2013, https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/10/27/middlebrooks-obstruction-conjured-memories-another-crucial-world-series-call/Iz2y6ASabchNuT9V1RR3GJ/story.html.

6 “1975 WS Gm3: Fisk Gets Tangled Up with Armbrister,” YouTube video (MLB.com), 2:57, accessed October 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRw2_KvHcPk.

7 “Morgan’s Walk-Off Hit,” MLB.com, 0:37, accessed October 2025, https://www.mlb.com/video/morgan-s-walk-off-hit-c31190473?partnerId=web_video-playback-page_video-share.

8 The Reds had one more final-at-bat win in the World Series, scoring the tiebreaking run in the ninth inning of Game Seven to clinch the Series.