[1][2][3] Facing Reds right-hander Pat Darcy, Fisk hit a long fly ball down the left field line.
At first most of the preseason talk had to do with the decision by Tony Conigliaro to try one more comeback and with the salary hassle concerning Luis Tiant, who felt he deserved more than $70,000 he was earning and wouldn't show up at Winter Haven, Florida, causing team owner Tom Yawkey to meet with "El Tiante", agree on a raise (to $90,000) and get the Sox pitching ace back in camp.
[citation needed] Rick Wise, back after a year of shoulder trouble and then a broken finger, looked ready to boost a pitching staff, which already had Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, Reggie Cleveland, and the stringbean flame-thrower Roger Moret.
Carl Yastrzemski was at first base, and after three short trials in previous years Cecil Cooper was going to make this team and probably be the designated hitter.
With 1975, the Big Red Machine lineup solidified with the starting team of Johnny Bench (c), Tony Pérez (1b), Joe Morgan (2b), Dave Concepción (ss), Pete Rose (3b), Ken Griffey (rf), César Gerónimo (cf), and George Foster (lf).
The starting pitchers included Don Gullett, Fred Norman, Gary Nolan, Jack Billingham, Pat Darcy, and Clay Kirby.
At that time, Rose still played in left field and Foster was not a starter, while John Vukovich, an off-season acquisition from the Milwaukee Brewers was the starting third baseman, replacing Dan Driessen, who was a decent hitter, but whose defensive skills were considered a weakness.
During the season, the Reds compiled two notable streaks: (1) by winning 41 out of 50 games in one stretch, and (2) by going a month without committing any errors on defense.
Fisk committed a throwing error on the play after colliding with Armbrister, which led to the Reds' winning run.
[6] Gowdy had reportedly been given the correct interpretation of the rule—that interference can be called only if a batter intentionally gets in the way of a fielder—by NBC Radio Producer Jay Scott (who was a Triple-A fill-in umpire at the time as well), but did not use it.
[8] More to the point, Tony Kubek, on the NBC telecast, immediately charged that Armbrister interfered (with the attempted forceout), even though home plate umpire Barnett did not agree.
Specifically, Major League Baseball has interpreted Rule 7.09(l) as saying "a catcher trying to field a batted ball that remains in the immediate vicinity of the plate cannot be protected because of the right of the batter-runner to begin his advance to first.
Barring an intentional action on the part of either player, contact in this instance is incidental, and is not interference..." (Jaksa/Roder Umpires' Manual, 1997 Edition.
But by the 8th they were down 6–3 in the bottom of the eighth when pinch hitter Carbo with two outs and two batters on base, hit a three-run homer into the center field bleachers off Reds fireman Rawly Eastwick to tie the game.
Denny Doyle was on third base when Fred Lynn lifted a soft fly ball to short and shallow left field.
After Reds left fielder George Foster made the catch, Doyle tagged up and attempted to score the winning run.
After the game, Red Sox third-base coach Don Zimmer told the press, "I was yelling 'no, no, no'[10] and with the crowd noise, he (Doyle) thought I was saying 'go, go, go.
In the top of the eleventh inning, right fielder Dwight Evans made a spectacular catch of a Joe Morgan line drive and doubled Ken Griffey Sr. at 1st base to preserve the tie.
[16] During Martin's three decades with the Red Sox, he called the entire career of Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski, and was behind the microphone for some of baseball's most memorable moments, including the final win of the Red Sox "Impossible Dream" season of 1967, Carlton Fisk's game-winning home run off the foul pole in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, Yastrzemski's 400th home run and 3000th base hit in 1979, and Roger Clemens' first 20-strikeout game on April 29, 1986.
– Martin on NBC Radio, calling Carlton Fisk's 12th inning game-winning home run at Fenway Park, October 21, 1975, off Pat Darcy of the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds have not lost a World Series game since Carlton Fisk's home run, a span of nine straight wins.
However, commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in and vetoed the deal, thus allowing Boston to re-sign Lynn, Fisk, and Burleson.
[24] The Red Sox would win more than 90 games in each of Zimmer's three full seasons (1977–1979) as manager, only the second time they had pulled off this feat since World War I.
They went undefeated in the postseason, sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies (winning Game 3 in their final at-bat) to return to the World Series.
As a result, Fisk was technically a free agent and he signed a $3.5 million deal with the Chicago White Sox, beginning with the 1981 season.
In 11 years with the Boston Red Sox, Fisk was selected to seven All-Star games, and batted .284 with 161 home runs and 568 RBI.
In a pregame ceremony from the Monster Seats, Fisk was cheered by the Fenway Park crowd while the shot was replayed to the strains of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, the song longtime Fenway Park organist John Kiley originally played following the home run.
Thirty years later, the video of Fisk trying to wave the ball fair remains one of the game's enduring images.
ET early on the morning of October 22, 1975, when Fisk drove a 1–0 fastball from Cincinnati right-hander Pat Darcy high into the air, heading down the left-field line.
The drama of the series convinced him to remain a journalist with the Post and, in his column, he speculates "Where would I be today if Fisk’s ball had gone foul?