Page 307 - 1975 BoSox

300 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
his bunt (and contact with Carlton Fisk) set up the winning rally, sacri ced successfully — and without controversy. e tying run was at second as the batting order turned over for the fth time.
Pitching carefully, Tiant walked Pete Rose. at put the tying and winning runs on base with consecutive left-handed hitters due up. But Tiant wasn’t going anywhere. Gri ey, who’d hit as hard a ball as the Reds had managed in two games against Tiant, drilled another El Tiante o ering, but this one was tracked down in deep left-center eld by Fred Lynn, who saved the day with an over-the-shoulder catch.Tiant’s 163rd pitch was popped up by Joe Morgan and caught by rst baseman Carl Yastrzemski for the last out of this hard-fought contest. As Tiant’s catcher, Carlton Fisk, put it: “It was a tough situation to walk out of alive.”14
“My breaking ball was not as good as it was in Boston,” Tiant said after the game, stroking his Fu Manchu. “I used my fastball more tonight. Also, the mound is higher here than at Fenway Park. at bothered my control.”15
e stakes were also higher in Game Four than in Game One. Boston needed to win at least once at Riverfront Stadium; no small order since the Reds had been 67-17 at home (including the NLCS and Game ree of the World Series). No matter what happened in Game Five — or the rest of the Series — Luis Tiant’s arm, feet, bat, and glove had assured that Boston would see a Game Six. at turned out to not only be a great thing for the Red Sox, but great for baseball as well.
Game Five:
October 16, 1975, at Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati
Reds 6, Red Sox 2
When future ponti cators called October 1975 one of the great months in sports history, Game Five of the World Series was probably not what they were think- ing about speci cally. “I challenge you to think of three weeks that were more important to sports than the 21 days from October 1, 1975, to October 22, 1975,” Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin wrote in 2010.“ irty- ve years later, the world still feels the e ects of that Wednesday-to-Wednesday-to-Wednesday-to- Wednesday whirlwind.”16 During that span was the third Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier ght (the fabled “ rilla in Manila” won by Ali on October 1); the groundbreaking Players Association’s lawsuit was led on October 7 on behalf of pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally, which would usher in free agency a year later; and October 11 (hours after the ’75 World Series began) marked the debut of not one but two variety shows that would be known as Saturday Night Live—one was hosted on ABC by Howard Cosell
featuring Joe Namath and Joe Frazier and was canceled after a few weeks, the other was hosted by George Carlin and would have a lot less to do with sports, but NBC’s landmark Saturday night show would see many sports gures as hosts in a comedy setting in the decades to come, including Cosell himself, plus Bill Russell, O.J. Simpson, John Madden, George Steinbrenner, Derek Jeter, Bob Uecker, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and both Peyton and Eli Manning.17 But enough of Saturday night, what about ursday night?
Game Five in Cincinnati pales when compared against the rest of this groundbreaking month, but the ursday contest at Riverfront Stadium was still crucial. e winner would snap the 2-2 tie in the World Series, assuring that one team would head back to Fenway Park needing to win just once in two potential games to claim what was already among the hardest- fought World Series in recent memory. ough Game