Cincinnati Reds

The Fan Teaser: Week 156 Solution

DouglasTHill1 Comment
An instant classic that’s about to be golden.

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.

Carlton Fisk prepares to touch homeplate
Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk is about to touch homeplate after his walk-off Game 6 homer during the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. (Photo by J. Walter Green/Associated Press)

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.
The video of Fisk’s iconic homer.
Carlton Fisk wills his drive fair.
This is the more famous photo of Fisk, in mid-wave, as Reds’ pitcher, Pat Darcy, and catcher, Johnny Bench (only partially visible), look on. (Photo by Harry Cabluck/Associated Press)

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.

Back in Time #10 – 1972 NLCS Game 5

DouglasTHill6 Comments
NLCS Game 5 Ticket Stub
If only I could have been there.

It began with a comment by longtime friend, Derek Meinecke, during his episode on my podcast, “Conversations with Sports Fans.” (Aside: If you’ve not listened to Derek’s episode, please do. He’s an incredible storyteller and his recollection of a special day with his father at Notre Dame Stadium is what being a sports fan is all about.)

Derek noted that a friend had texted him recently, “If you could go back in time to witness any 10 sporting event what would they be?”

And with that, I’ve found myself wrestling with this question for the past three months.

It’s time to, as Huey Lewis and the News once sang “Get Back in Time.” It’s worth noting any one of these 10 would be worthy of being Number 1, but I figured I needed to get them out of my head and into the world.

As you read these installments over the next 10 weeks my hope is to promote some thought and, perhaps, a bit of debate. And, remember, there are no wrong answers. Please comment either on this post or by emailing me directly at hilldouglast@gmail.com.

As I’ve documented in this space multiple times, growing up in rural Decatur, IN, during the 1970s there were myriad options of Major League Baseball teams to root for. My hometown was about equidistance from the two Chicago teams, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. And, thanks to the power of 50,000-watt radio stations, Pittsburgh (KDKA), St. Louis (KMOX), and Detroit (WJR) were all possibilities.

But this was the 1970s and the Big Red Machine was a very real thing to my childhood self.

We begin this journey back in time with the fifth and deciding game of the National League Championship Series (October 11, 1972) played in, of all places, Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium.

While I’d no doubt enjoy seeing my childhood heroes Bench, Rose, Morgan, Perez, et al. play, I’m here to see a member of the opposition.

By the time this game was played, Roberto Clemente was a 37-year-old aging rightfielder. Though he batted .312 during the 1972 season, it was over only 102 games thanks to injuries that began to rob him of some skills. Less-than two weeks earlier, Clemente collected his 3,000th career hit in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium off New York Met, Jon Matlack.

That aside, I’m venturing 51 years into the wayback machine to see Clemente play – in what would become – his final game.

Unlike my fascination with trailblazing Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, I came to be intrigued by Clemente much later in life. In my early 40s I read David Maraniss’s remarkable 2007 biography, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, and grew a deeper appreciation for a player I don’t have any recollection of having seen in action aside from highlight reels.

Clemente Biography Cover

Certainly the tragedy of his death in that fateful New Year’s Eve plane crash while attempting to bring relief to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua only served to enhance my intrigue.

And, I suppose, that’s why going back to see this game at Riverfront makes it’s way into my Top 10.

Unlike the experience I had this past weekend at Comerica Park in Detroit where over 30,000 fans celebrated the career of future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera, no one knew that day in Cicinnati 50-plus years ago was going to be Clemente’s last. For all anyone knew, he’d be back for the 1973 season, presumably a little older and a little slower, but still … Clemente. That is, going from first to third on a single to center, throwing baserunners out from his defensive position in rightfield, and being the consumate teammate bringing along the younger Pirates who would go on to become Pittsburgh’s 1979 “We are Family” championship team.

While I’m sure I’d have mixed emotions watching Clemente go 1-for-3 in this game while my beloved Reds scratched out two runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off when pinch-runner George Foster scampered home on Bob Moose‘s 2-out wild pitch, I do know that it would be an historic moment to be a part of … even if the other 41,887 fans had no inkling.

Joined in progress, the radio call of Game 5 by Reds’ broadcasters Al Michaels and Joe Nuxhall.

Let Them Play … In Other Places

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This Thursday Major League Baseball will once again shine the spotlight on a baseball diamond borne of a corn field in Dyersville, IA, with its second annual Field of Dreams game. As a sucker for most things baseball, all things Field of Dreams, and of corn in general, I will – no doubt – check out some of the action.

Field of Dreams
The sites after sundown during the initial MLB Field of Dreams game in Dyersville. (Photo by MLB)

I doubt the going-nowhere-fast Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds will be able to duplicate the excitement of last year’s inaugural game between a pair of then-pennant contenders in the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees (see the highlights here), but who cares. As our realtor friends might tell us, it’s all about the location, right?

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that two teams due to play each other 19 times this year will take one of those contests and play it in a state where no MLB team is within 180 miles.

In my pre-blog days I penned a rant on Facebook about MLB needing to do more of this. Why do I, a Tigers’ fan, need to be subjected to 10 games in town against the Guardians? Or the Twins? Conversely, do the fans in Kansas City or Chicago really want the Tigers in town 10 times?

To its credit, MLB and the MLB Players Association took a step in the right direction with the labor agreement it reached back in March. The so-called balanced schedule that will debut in 2023 will see divisional rivals play each other only 14 times each (7 home/7 away), six times each against other league opponents (3 home/3 away), and a three times each against the 14 opposite league opponents and four times against the “natural” rival (2 home/2 away, presumably). The seasons of 19 divisional games are, mercifully, long gone. As our the lengthy stretches between visits by teams from the opposite league.

We learned last week that the London Series is returning in 2023 (Cubs vs. Cardinals, June 24-25). There will also be regular-season games played in London during the 2024 and 2026 season. Mexico City will host regular-season baseball in each of the next four seasons, there will be games played in Asia/Japan in 2024 and 2025, Paris in 2025, and San Juan in 2025 and 2026. Again, I applaud the MLB/MLBPA’s desire to showcase the sport in non-traditional markets, but …

… why the continued neglect of non-traditional markets in the United States and Canada?

I’m delighted the MLB-Little League Classic is returning to Williamsport, PA, on August 21 (Baltimore vs. Boston) but Pennsylvania has two MLB teams that play 81 home games apiece.

How about getting some MLB regular-season action in locations that don’t have multiple bites at the apple of attending live MLB action, annually? Places like Montreal, Portland, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Calgary, Mobile, Durham, Honolulu, Winnipeg, or even Anchorage? If the engineers are able to make a MLB-quality diamond/field in Dyersville and Williamsport, one can presume something similar can be accomplished in these other locations. Red Sox-Blue Jays in Montreal? Mariners-A’s in Portland? Reds-Cubs in Indianapolis? How about the Rockies playing a pair of games in the Canadian Rockies? Or the Twins taking a pair of divisional games north to Manitoba? Maybe the Rays meeting the Orioles in Durham? Or the Braves-Marlins in Mobile?

Bottom line, there are plenty of Dyersvilles and Williamsports out there. Let’s get Major League Baseball in these spots, expose fans of all ages to the game, and grow it domestically as well as internationally.