Retro : The Greatest Innings Ever Played

Prime Ticket’s “Baseball’s Greatest Games” series more than lives up to its title this week when it replays the sixth game of the 1975 World Series, arguably the sport’s greatest game.

The Oct. 21 contest is remembered for Carlton Fisk’s 12th-inning home run, which gave the Boston Red Sox a 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds, tying the series at three games a piece.

But the game was much more than just that one play. Forgotten by many fans was another home run, a base-running blunder and great defensive play, which all set the stage for Fisk’s home run.

Dick Stockton, now a play-by-play announcer for CBS’ major league baseball telecasts, was in his first season as the Red Sox announcer. In those days, NBC would add the home team’s regular announcer to its World Series broadcast booth.

“The thing I remember is that people were tired of the World Series,” Stockton said. “There had been three rainouts. There had been a northeaster (storm) in New England and people were wondering, ‘Why are we still playing this thing?’ When the sixth game was about to start, it didn’t have the electricity most post-season games have.”

Boston had taken a 3-0 lead on Fred Lynn’s 420-foot three-run homer in the first inning. The Reds tied the game in the fifth on Ken Griffey’s two-run triple and Johnny Bench’s RBI single.

Cincinnati pulled ahead 5-3 in the seventh on George Foster’s two-run double. In the eighth, Cesear Geronimo’s homer gave the Reds a 6-3 lead.

But the Red Sox rallied in the eighth. With two on and two out, Boston manager Darrell Johnson sent Bernie Carbo to pinch-hit for reliever Roger Moret. Carbo then slammed Rawly Eastwick’s 3-2 pitch into the center field seats, tying the game.

“I was flying around the bases,” Carbo recently told ESPN’s “Major League Baseball Magazine.”

“When I got to third base, I yelled to Pete Rose, ‘Pete, don’t you wish you were this strong. Pete, don’t you wish you were this strong.’ Pete looked at me and said, ‘This is fun. This is fun. This is what it’s all about.’ ”

“I think more about Carbo’s home run than Fisk’s, because it was a big pressure thing and we see Fisk’s home run all the time,” said NBC’s Joe Garagiola.

Boston had a chance to win the game in the ninth. With no outs and Denny Doyle on third, Foster caught Lynn’s looping drive down the left-field line. Doyle misinterpreted third base coach Don Zimmer’s command to stay on third base and was thrown out trying to score.

A key Boston defensive play in the 11th inning kept Cincinnati off the scoreboard. Evans caught Morgan’s drive which seemed to be headed for the right-field seats. His throw doubled Griffey off first.

Stockton and Garagiola had alternated innings doing play-by-play when the game reached the 10th. Stockton called the 10th, Garagiola the 11th, so fate gave Stockton the chance to announce one of the game’s most remembered home runs. In a way, Stockton’s call foreshadowed the play, although missing the field.

“Here’s Fisk. The wind is blowing out. We’ve had three homers tonight, all to right field or center field,” Stockton said as Fisk came to bat.

Pat Darcy’s first pitch was high.

Then the second pitch and Stockton’s home run call: “There it goes. A long drive. If it stays fair. Home run.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything because it happened so fast,” Stockton explained recently. “It was a ball down the left-field line. If it stayed fair it was a home run; (if not) it was just a foul ball. It ended one of the really more dramatic World Series games of all time. I just let him go around the bases and that was it.”

“Fisk’s home run was unbelievable,” Garagiola said. “It was hard to believe that this was the end of the game and that the Red Sox had won.”

The legend of Fisk’s home run has grown over the years. NBC for years has used the reaction shot of Fisk waving the ball fair in its opening for baseball telecasts. Luck played a part in NBC getting the shot.

“The camera that got that shot was shooting inside the scoreboard,” director Harry Coyle said. “Sitting about two feet to the right of the cameraman was a rat. The cameraman had one eye on the rat and one eye on the viewfinder. He couldn’t tell if the ball was coming at him or not, so he stayed on Fisk. It was a case of a rat changing the course of television coverage.”

“Baseball’s Greatest Games” airs today at 8 p.m. and repeats late Saturday at midnight on Prime Ticket.