Page 9 - 1975 BoSox

2 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
owner Tom Yawkey the following summer, the Red Sox dysfunctional management bungled their way through the early years of free agency, resulting in a series of painful contract squabbles, and eventually the bitter departures of Tiant, Fisk, and Lynn, among several others. e still-intact club exceeded its 1975 win total in both 1977 and 1978, but would never ap- proach the innocent glory it provided us in the summer of 1975.
So 1975 was both a beginning and an end. Despite the predictions of doom by commissioner Bowie Kuhn and his reactionary owners, the Messersmith decision did not destroy the game of baseball. e commis-
sioner, and many pundits, underestimated the game— the renaissance forged by the Red Sox and Reds in 1975 would not be waylaid by a mere arbiter’s ruling. But for the Red Sox and their fans, the glorious run of pennants never came — it was instead thwarted by the team’s inability to properly adapt to the new order.
But when baseball is at its best, it compels us to live in the moment. As we all watched Bernie Carbo step in against Rawley Eastwick, down three runs in the eighth inning, we cared not what lay in the future. In that summer, and autumn, now 40 years distant, the moments provided by the players on this team thrilled a region. I see them still.