In the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 22, 1975, Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk pulled a fly ball deep into the leftfield corner of Boston’s historic Fenway Park and its famed Green Monster.
At the time, Game 6 of that year’s World Series was tied at six, it was the bottom of 12th inning, and as Fisk’s deep drive continued to hook into the dark and foggy Back Bay night, the catcher famously hopped along the first base line waving his arms to the right, imploring his drive to stay fair.
It did!
And Fisk’s walk-off home run meant the Red Sox, by virtue of the 7-6 win, and their opponents, the Cincinnati Reds, would return the next night for a winner-take-all Game 7. A game the Reds won, 4-3, when they scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning.
This week’s Fan Teaser image, captured by the Associated Press’ J. Walter Green, is not the most-memorable image from that night (see below for that one), but it does a fabulous job of capturing the unmitigated joy Fisk and his teammates felt following four hours of tense game action.
A few fast facts about what happened in the aftermath of one of the most famous homers in baseball history:
- Fenway Park organist John Kiley played the opening notes of George Handel‘s “Hallelujah Chorus” after the home run signal went up from the umpiring crew.
- Seventy miles to the north, in Raymond, NH, an Episcopal minister ran to St. Bartholomew’s Church, grabbed the rope, and began ringing the church bell.
- The first person Fisk shook hands with was Red Sox first base coach, Johnny Pesky, who Fenway’s right field foul pole was unofficially known for years as “The Pesky Pole” due to the non-power hitting Pesky’s knack for wrapping home runs around the shortest pole in the Majors. It was officially dedicated in Pesky’s honor September 27, 2006. A year earlier, ironically, the left field pole was officially recognized as the “Fisk Foul Pole.”
- The home run ball actually caromed off the poul and back into the field of play. Reds left fielder, George Foster, tucked the ball in his pocket and sold it at auction in 1999. It fetched $113,273 from Red Sox fan, Keith Elfman. It is believed that media personality Keith Olbermann purchased the ball for $142,000 in a 2014 auction and then, controversially, sold ownership shares on Collectable in 2022.
- NBC camerman Louis Gerard famously – and accidentally! – wound up tracking Fisk’s arm waving from his spot in left field rather than tracking the flight of the ball (as he was supposed to) because of a pesky (no relation to Johnny) rat in his camera well. It sort of changed the way television production moved forward, seeking reaction shots in addition to game action.
- NBC play-by-play voice for the Series was Dick Stockton, the regular lead TV announcer for the Red Sox during the season. He met a young reporter for the Boston Globe at Game 6 named Lesley Visser. The two married in 1983 and were married for 26 years before divorcing in 2010.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.