a day ago
The 1975 Red Sox remembered on the 50th anniversary of their legendary World Series vs. the Reds
As part of the celebration this week, the Sox welcomed back numerous former players to watch from the Legends Suite at Fenway. On Tuesday's NESN telecast, the broadcasters wore 70s-era attire and a 70s-era graphics package was implemented for the third inning. Wednesday's series finale will give out replica 1975 pullover jerseys to the first 7,500 fans in attendance.
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Fisk, 77, was among the ex-players in the ballpark, and he was greeted with a raucous ovation after being shown on the videoboard in the middle of the third inning.
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'I think it's cool,' Sox manager Alex Cora said of the celebration. 'Obviously, the players involved were studs. Different type of baseball, but at the end of the day, a bunch of Hall of Famers going at it.
'If you go back and watch some of those games, they're fantastic. We can all talk about the Fisk homer, but the whole series was a back-and-forth.'
In the half-century since the '75 Sox endeared themselves to New England, the franchise has seen its infamous 86-year title drought snapped, and went on to win four championships in a 15-season span.
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But for those who witnessed the 1975 World Series — and for those who played in it — the memories remain ingrained as a singular moment in club history.
Right fielder Dwight Evans, who played in Boston from 1972-1989, was best-known in the series for his spectacular catch to rob Joe Morgan of an extra-base hit in the 11th inning of Game 6.
During an interview with NESN on Monday, Evans described the moment he realized the magnitude of what he was taking part in.
'It was Pete Rose coming to me at third base, when [Reds manager] Sparky Anderson changed the pitcher,' Evans said. 'And Pete says, 'This might be the greatest game I've ever played in.' And I was 23, but I'm just looking around, and I just didn't see it. But I woke up right around then and realized how important it was.'
But while the celebration took hold this week, it was without one treasured member of the team: ace Luis Tiant, who died in October at age 83.
Known as 'El Tiante,' the Cuban lefthander played for six major league teams during his 19-year career, including eight seasons in Boston. In the 1975 World Series, the Sox won all three games Tiant pitched — including an 155-pitch complete game in Game 4.
'Going to spring training and just being with him for the first time, we knew he was a character,' slugger Jim Rice said of Tiant. 'He's the type of guy who kept you loose, he got on you — but he got on you in a positive way.
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'Even in spring training, he grew on us a bit and became a pain — but that's what we miss about him.'
Cora was born on Oct. 18, 1975 — the second of four days of rainouts between Games 5 and 6 of the series — and later grew up idolizing some of the players from both sides.
'I used to have a poster of Davey Concepcion in my bedroom, kind of like, wow. He was amazing,' Cora said. 'Tony Perez, being back home and always around, that always caught my attention. Just a bunch of good players.'
Coincidentally, the Reds hosted their own 50th anniversary reunion celebration last week at Great American Ball Park, bringing back 23 members of the 'Big Red Machine' squad that won back-to-back titles in '75 and '76.
Reds manager Terry Francona, who also managed the Sox' first two championship teams of this century, enjoyed watching the celebrations unfold from both sides over the past week.
'I literally just saw the guys that beat their [expletive] over the weekend,' Francona said on Monday. 'But I will look forward to [the Sox celebration], because seeing Yaz is great, and Fred Lynn was one of my all-time favorite players.'
What a pair of rookie outfielders the Red Sox had in 1975: Fred Lynn (left) in center field, and Jim Rice in left. They drove in 100 runs apiece during the Sox' AL-pennant winning season.
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As Rice reflects back to what made that team so beloved, he feels part of it was the team's homegrown core — between himself, Evans, Fisk, Fred Lynn, Carl Yastremski, and the many others who remain Red Sox royalty all these years later.
'When you think about having a dynasty, you think about a team like Steinbrenner put together for the Yankees,' Rice said on NESN. 'But we were all Boston Red Sox, a dynasty.'
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Matty Wasserman can be reached at
