Page 36 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 29
In the 1973 season, the dreaded sophomore jinx caught up to Carlton Fisk in the second semester. Batting .303 on June 23, he hit only .228 in July, .198 in August, and .186 in September. He again caught 131 games for the Red Sox, who lost out to a surging Baltimore team at year end. Part of Carlton’s slide could be attributed to his desire to catch every game, which drains energy and reduces e ectiveness. But the extended slump of 1973 was nothing compared to the challenges to come. At Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium on June 28, 1974, the Red Sox and Indians were deadlocked at 1-1 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when George Hendrick drove the ball to the base of the left-center- eld wall. Cleveland’s Leron Lee rounded third and crashed into the fully-extended Fisk, who was reaching for a high relay throw from Mario Guerrero. Pudge tore ligaments in his left knee. “My career was supposed to be over,” he recalled. “I was supposed to walk with a limp and have chronic back problems the rest of my life.”15
Fisk returned in 1975, and the long, lonely hours spent in rehabilitation made a lasting impression on him. ough for years the knee injury hampered his ability to throw out baserunners, he felt that it might have been a blessing. “In some ways, hurting my knee was one of the best things ever to happen to my o season psyche,” Fisk said while still an active player. “Now, everything I do is programmed toward getting ready to play baseball. Before, winter was just a time to have fun hacking around the basketball court.”16 His obses- sion with conditioning was the secret to his 22-year career in the majors. ough injuries continued to plague him — in his career Fisk spent the equivalent of 51⁄2-plus seasons on the disabled list—he always managed to return, allowing him to catch in 2,226 games, the most in major-league history until topped by Ivan Rodriguez in 2009. “More than the home runs, it’s the longevity that stands out as his greatest achievement,” said high school coach Silva.17
Injuries also taught Fisk another facet of the game, as he came to admire players like Jerry Remy, Rick Burleson, and Mike Flanagan, who faced serious career-threatening injuries and battled back, though
not always successfully. He also came to fully respect the players who were perhaps not overly blessed with talent, but who made themselves successful through pain and hard work.18
Fisk’s return from the 1974 knee surgery was further delayed in 1975 when he was hit by a pitched ball in a spring-training game, breaking his forearm. Returning to a standing ovation on June 23, 1975, Pudge hit .331 over the remainder of the season to lead the Red Sox to the AL East title. Fisk batted .417 against the Oakland A’s in the League Championship Series, but his greatest heroics were yet to come.
Game Six of the 1975 World Series—a must-win game for the Boston Red Sox, down three games to two to the Cincinnati Reds — was a wild, seesaw a air. e Red Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Fred Lynn’s three-run homer in the rst inning, but the Reds came back and took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth, when Bernie Carbo’s pinch-hit, three-run homer tied the game. In the ninth inning, the Red Sox failed to score despite loading the bases with no outs, and the game headed into extra innings with the score knotted, 6-6.
It was 12:33 A.M. by the time Carlton Fisk stepped to the plate to lead o the bottom half of the 12th against Pat Darcy, the eighth Reds pitcher of the night. On Darcy’s second pitch, Fisk lofted a high shot down the left- eld line. Millions of television viewers watched Fisk wave wildly as he made his way down the rst-base line, willing the ball to stay fair. When it glanced o the foul pole — a fair ball — John Kiley, the Fenway Park organist, launched into Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” as Fisk circled the bases in triumph. e home run touched o a celebration throughout New England. In the early-morning still- ness of Charlestown, Dave Conant, a lifelong friend of Pudge’s, rang the bell of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, the Fisk family church, to celebrate the ac- complishment of Charlestown’s native son.
Many consider Fisk’s game-winning blast the exclama- tion point on the greatest baseball game ever played. In Game Seven, however, Bill Lee couldn’t hold on