Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Fisk, Perez linked by '75 Series

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BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Carlton Fisk exults after seeing his drive hit the foul pole to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        No one has to tell Carlton Fisk he hit the most memorable home run of the Greatest World Series Ever Played, but Tony Perez hit the homer that won it.

        So isn't it fitting during the 25th anniversary season of the Reds' last-at-bat victory over the Red Sox in the 1975 World Series, Perez and Fisk go into baseball's Hall of Fame together?

        “It was definitely a crusher when Tony hit that,” Fisk recalled Tuesday of Perez's two-run homer in the sixth inning that put the Reds on the board in Game 7.

        “He always had a knack for breaking the game open or sealing the game shut.”

        Fisk should know. He caught that night in Fenway Park for the Red Sox, as well as 2,226 regular-season games for Boston and the Chicago White Sox during 24 fiery seasons. Fisk and Perez were Red Sox teammates in 1980, when their families became acquainted.

        “He's a terrific guy, a man of ultimate integrity. I'm happy and proud to be at the same podium as he is,” Fisk said. “As a teammate, we knew if we could get to him with the game on the line, we'd have a chance.”

        Despite his longevity and 351 homers that are the most ever by a catcher, Fisk's legacy is the 12th-inning homer he body englished off Fenway's left-field foul pole to win Game 6 for the Red Sox and send the '75 Series to the final game.

        But less than 24 hours after Fisk rounded the bases to the strains of “The Hallelujah Chorus” booming from the Fenway organ, Perez brought the Reds to the brink of their first world championship in 35 years.

        Perez drilled Bill Lee's eephus pitch over the left-field net for a two-run homer that cut Boston's lead to 3-2. The Reds won it 4-3 on Joe Morgan's two-out, RBI bloop single in the top of the ninth.

        “If there's one guy on that team we didn't want to keep the same flow or pattern it was to him,” Fisk said. “You had to invent a way. We definitely came up with the wrong formula on that pitch.

        “The eephus pitch was sort of on (Lee),” Fisk said. “I think we both concluded we should throw a breaking ball. The fact it was one of those slow eephus ... it wasn't quite where we wanted it when it got to the plate.”

        Fisk is the first catcher elected since former Red Johnny Bench in 1989; they are the only Hall catchers who began their careers after 1946.

        Fisk feels the position is underrated, which is why he believes he didn't get the call last year in his first year of eligibility when '70s and '80s peers Robin Yount, Nolan Ryan and George Brett were elected.

        “I have to feel I was as good at my position over the same period of time as they were at their position,” Fisk said. “What gets lost in the translation is just how difficult it is.”

        Fisk, 53, spent a nervous morning at his Lockport, Ill., home. When the call came, he, his wife and children wept amid screams in the kitchen.

        There was only one question. He caught 1,421 games for the White Sox, 805 for the Red Sox. Since he had a falling out with both clubs, which hat would be on his plaque?

        It looks like Fisk, born in Vermont, raised in New Hampshire, immortalized in Boston, is leaning to the hometown team. He's patched up things with the Red Sox in the past year as a special assistant to general manager Dan Duquette.

        But as for his relationship with the White Sox, “There are some very definite scars from our relationship.”

Join the discussion on our Reds forum

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