The Year The Red Sox ALMOST Won The World Series

Musings Of The 1975 Boston Red Sox

1975 Topps Baseball Card of the Red Sox Team

A few days ago Shane Victorino hit a grand slam home run vs the Detroit Tigers to power the Boston Red Sox to victory and send them to the 2013 World Series.  This home run was very reminiscent of another Boston post season home run that occurred nearly 4 decades earlier.  That being in the 1975 World Series.

October 21st is the anniversary of the one of the most exciting games ever played in World Series history, that being Game 6 of the 1975 fall classic between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds.  The game was played at Fenway Park and went 12 innings before Carlton Fisk hit his famous walk off home run in which he tries to push the ball fair as it sailed down the left field foul line.  This play is what everyone remembers about the series.

This play is in-fact so famous, that many non Red Sox fans, think that this play won the game and won the series.  It won the game but only knotted up the series.  The Reds won a seventh game thriller 4-3.


How much do you know about the 1975 Red Sox ?  Well stick around and we will examine some players and the 1975 season and playoffs in various amounts of detail.

The Players:

The thing that I remember the most about this team was the fact that this team had two rookie phenoms on the roster.  A rookie of the year and MVP, and a future hall of famer.  Of course I am talking about Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, who were nicknamed that year the "gold-dust twins".

Jim Rice

Jim Rice, the Red Sox left fielder had an unbelievable year not just for a rookie but for any player at any age.  He batted .309 with 22 home runs and 102 RBI's.  In any other year those numbers would have been good enough for him to breeze with the rookie of the year honors, but he was one-upped by his rookie counter part Fred Lynn.  Rice played for 16 season (all with the Red Sox) and retired in 1989.  He was Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Fred Lynn

Fred Lynn had the season of a life time in his rookie season of 1975..  Not only did he win the AL rookie of the year, but he was also voted the AL MVP.  It was the first time this ever happened.  Lynn batted .331 with 21 home runs and 105 RBI.  He also lead the majors with 47 doubles, and for good measure he also won the gold glove for his defensive play in center field.  Lynn played for 17 years, retiring in 1990.  He lead the AL in batting average in 1979, and accumulated 4 gold gloves over his career.

Luis Tiant

Luis Tiant was one of the most colorful players on the 1975 Red Sox.  He was a great pitcher and had one of the most unusual pitching motions in the history of baseball.  He would twist his body so that his head would point towards second base and then twist around and turn toward the plate for the delivery.  Below is a video of his pitching motion.

Tiant won 229 games in his 19 year career.  He was a 20 game winner 4 times in his career and a 20 time loser once.  You need to be a great pitcher to have the chance to lose 20 games in any one season.  He won 96 games for the Red Sox over a period of 5 years from 1972 to 1976, including three 20 win seasons (and 18 wins in 1975).

Another thing about Tiant was his age.  No one ever really knew how old he was.  At the time he claimed that he was 34 but in that era, many Latin players falsified their age to look more attractive to scouts.  It is very likely that Tiant was about 5 years older, 39 not 34 during the 1975 season.

Carl Yazstremski

Carl Yastrzemski  was 35 years old during the 1975 season.  He was on the down side of his career.  Gone were the days of 40 home runs and .300 batting average.  He could still hit doubles, and even drove in 100 RBI's in 1976 and 1977.  The year 1975 however was a down year for Yastrzemski with a 269 batting average 12 home runs and 60 RBIs.  Yastrezmski played a total of 22 years and retired in 1983.  He was a first ballot hall of famer, elected in 1989.

Carlton Fisk

Carlton Fisk was 27 years old during the 1975 season and would wind up playing for another 18 major league seasons retiring in 1993.  Fisk played 11 years for the Red Sox, but had another entire career (13 years) with the Chicago White Sox.  Fisk was injured for part of the 1975 season and only wound up appearing in half the regular season games.  He batted over 300 that year.  He was an All Star catcher for both the Red Sox and White Sox and played until he was 45.  He of course was the central figure in Game 6 and the hero with his 12 inning walk off home run.

Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver was a catcher and pinch hitter, and did play for the 1975 Red Sox, but was traded mid season to the Phillies, where for the next 5 seasons became Steve Carlton's personal catcher..  He was one of only a handful of players who played in 4 decades in the majors (50's, 60's, 70's, 80's).

Tony Congliaro

Tony Congliaro (or Tony C) was a phenomenal but tragic baseball figure.  He was a teenage phenom who was playing major league baseball by the age of 19.  When he turned 20 (in 1965) he led the American League in home runs with 32.  His life (and baseball career) took a left turn on an August night in 1967 when he was hit by a pitch in the face.   Though he was wearing a batting helmet it provided little protection.  This was still an era where the batting helmets did not have ear flaps. The result were a broken cheek bone and his eye had swelled shut.  It was thought that he might not see out of the eye again as there was a hole in his retina that could not be repaired.  He was lucky that he was not instantly killed by the blow.  It was also later discovered that he had inner ear damage that made him have trouble focusing.

Congliaro was out the remainder of the 1967 season and ALL of the 1968 season.  He figured that his career was over, when late in 1968 his vision began to improve.  He made it back to the majors in 1969 hit 20 home runs and was named the American League comeback player of the year.  In 1970 (again for the Red Sox) he had his best season ever with 36 HR and 116 RBI's, but his vision once again began to fail and was traded to the Angles at the conclusion of the 1970 season.  He played a half a season with the Angles in 1971 before being forced once again to retire because of poor vision.  Once again in late 1974 his vision began to improve and was given an invitation to try out during spring training of 1975 for the Red Sox, even though he had not played since 1971.  He made the club, and hit a home run in his first at bat of the season, but once again poor vision caused him problems.  He wound up batting an anemic .123 with 4 HR and 15 RBI's he was forced to retired in mid June of 1975 after refusing to be sent down to the minor leagues.

Bill Lee

Bill "Spaceman" Lee was one of the spark plug's of Boston's starting rotation in 1975.  In 1973, '74 and '75 when finally given the opportunity to start, he won 17 games each season for Boston.

Rick Wise

Rick Wise had an 18 year major league career with Philadelphia, Boston, St Louis, Cleveland and San Diego.  He was a starting pitcher in 1975 with the Red Sox and won 19 games that season.  He had a no hitter for 8 2/3 innings vs Milwaukee that season before George Scott broke it up with a home run.

Dick Drago

Dick Drago, relief pitcher and closer for the 1975 Red Sox.  A Fun baseball name.  He had 2 saves in the 1975 ALCS vs Oakland, and took a loss vs Cincinnati in the World Series that year.  Look at that handle bar mustache.

The 1975 Season

The Red Sox had made a run for the AL East pennant in 1974 only to fade in September and finished 7 games behind Baltimore.  Luis Tiant pitched the Red Sox to victory on opening day in 1975 and for much of the spring the Sox were in the lead or near the top.  By the All Star break in July their lead was 4.5 games, this swelled to as much as 9.5 games at times and by September 1st it was down to 6.  On September 15th the lead was down to 4 games and fans were getting nervous.  However, unlike 1974 the Sox got hot at the end and in-spite of being rained out for 5 consecutive nights in late September, the Sox swept double header vs Cleveland a partially fog filled Fenway Park with wins by Lius Tiant and Reggie Cleveland with scores of 5-0 and 4-0 respectively, clinching the AL East.

In the playoff with both strong pitching and strong hitting the Red Sox swept a best of 5 series vs the defending World Series Champs of 1974 the Oakland A's with scores of  7-1, 6-3 and 5-3.

The 1975 World Series

The series was a see-saw battle with each team alternating wins.  

Boston won game 1 on late game hitting as Lius Tiant picked up a 6-0 win.

Game 2 featured more brilliant pitching by Bill Lee but it was all for naught when Dick Drago let up 2 runs in the top of the 9th and Boston Fell 3-2.

Game 3 was a homerfest with home runs by Carlton Fisk, Bernie Carbo and Dwight Evans for Boston and Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo for Cincinnati, as the Red triumphed 6-5.

Game 4:  Lius Tiant pitched his second complete game and second win of the series as the Red Sox won 5-4.  Forcing the series to return to Fenway for the finale.

Game 5:  Tony Perez hit two home runs and the Reds coasted to a 6-2 victory, taking a 3-2 series lead as the series would head back to Boston.

Game 6

The Red Sox had their back up against the wall and needed a win to force a game 7.  It wasn't going to be easy and it wasn't going to be quick.  Rain had delayed this game for three days and 5 days had elapsed since game 5 in Cincinnati.  In the friendly confines of Fenway Park the Red Sox fans hoped for a miracle.

Fred Lynn hit a 3 run home run in the bottom of the first to put the Sox up 3-0.  Lius Tiant was the started and held Cincinnati scoreless for the first 4 inning, things were looking good for Boston.  In the top of the 5th with 2 runners on Ken Griffey (senior not junior) hit a drive over Fred Lynn's head that injured Lynn when he tried to make a spectacular catch.  Lynn could not, Griffey wound up with a triple driving in 2 runs.  He later scored on a Bench single and the the game was knotted at 3-3.

In the 7th and 8th innings the Reds scored and going into the bottom of the 8th, held a 6-3 lead.  With 2 runners in the bottom of the 8th, the Red Sox sent up Bennie Carbo to pinch hit.  He looked totally over-matched during this at bat, but somehow managed to hit a 3 run home run and to the game up at 6-6.  (Carbo, years later admitted that he was high and stoned during this at bat).

In the bottom of the 9th the Sox loaded the base with no one out but failed to score.  The game went into the bottom of the twelfth when with no one on, Carlton Fisk came to the plate.  On the second pitch, Fisk hit a high line drive down the left field line.  For a moment time stood still.  As the ball traveled, Fisk watched it and began to wave his arms, hoping to coax it to stay fair.  The ball hit the screen on the foul pole and was a home run for the ages.  This is the moment that is always shown on the highlights of the 1975 World Series.  Many fans think this was game 7 and the Red Sox won the world championship.  But alas it was only game 6 and the series was now knotted 3-3.

Here is a video of the this classic moment in world series history.

Epilogue part 1:  

I watch this game as a teenager on a small 12" black and white television set in my bedroom "back in the day", over the air using (gasp) the set's built in "Rabbit Ears" antenna.

Epilogue part 2:  (Game 7)

In the third inning of game 7, Carl Yastemzski single in the first run and then Don Gullet walked in 2 more runs giving the Red Sox fans hope and a 3-0 lead.  Could it be that "the curse" would finally be broken ?  The Sox gave up 2 and 1 runs in the 6th and 7th inning and going into the 9th the game was tied 3-3.  In the 9th a bloop single by Joe Morgan scored Ken Griffey to give the Reds a 4-3 lead.  The Red Sox were retired in order in the bottom of the 9th with Yaz making the final out with a fly out to center field.

Epilogue Part 3:

The Red Sox would play in another World Series in 1986 vs the New York Mets.  They once again had victory slip though their fingers with the misplay of a ground ball by Bill Buckner off the bat of Mookie Wilson in game 6 when the game (and series) seemed to be won.  The champagne was on ice in the Red Sox club house and NBC were showing views of the pre-celebration club house scene.  When all went awry in the 10th inning, the clubhouse was stripped of all traces of the "celebration" in about 60 seconds flat.  The Red Sox did not recover from this miscue and lost game 7, two days later.

In fairness to Buckner, the speedy Wilson would have beat Buckner to the base even if he had fielded it cleanly, so the game would have continued.

The "curse" was finally broken in 2004 when the Red Sox won the World Series with a  sweep the St Louis Cardinals 4-0.  It was their first world championship since 1918.