Last year, a few commentators got carried away and proclaimed the 2025 World Series as “the best World Series ever.” Indeed, Game 7, which saw the Los Angeles Dodgers come from behind late and prevail over the Toronto Blue Jays in 11 innings, was a game for the ages. But four games were decided by four runs or more. Sorry, folks, but when the viewers in the Eastern time zone turn off four games before they’ve concluded and go to bed, that’s not a “great World Series.” Let me tell you about the greatest Series this writer ever saw, the 1975 Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox.
The Birth of the Big Red Machine
The Reds had won the National League pennant in 1970 and 1972 but lost in the World Series each time. They repeated as West Division champs in 1973 and were upset by the 82-79 New York Mets in the League Championship Series. Bob Hertzel of The Cincinnati Enquirer coined the phrase “Big Red Machine” in 1969. However, the Reds weren’t really the Big Red Machine until 1975. They got there in three steps.
First, an under-the-radar May 1971 deal sent light-hitting shortstop Frank Duffy and minor-league pitcher Vern Geishert to the San Francisco Giants for young outfielder George Foster. The next step garnered more attention. At the 1971 winter meetings, in the type of blockbuster deal rarely seen today, the Reds traded second baseman Tommy Helms, first baseman Lee May, and versatile Jimmy Stewart to the Houston Astros for third baseman Denis Menke, 2B Joe Morgan, center fielder Cesar Geronimo, pitcher Jack Billingham, and OF Ed Armbrister. Reds general manager Bob Howsam was perhaps the first to realize that, with the advent of artificial surfaces in the new stadiums popping up, speed would increase in importance, even if it meant surrendering a power hitter of May’s caliber to get it. “May and Helms were well suited to Crosley Field, our old home,” Howsam told United Press International. “We needed to adjust to Riverfront Stadium, our new home. We needed speed, and Morgan and Geronimo give it to us. Menke will play third and free Tony Perez to return to first, his natural position.”
The final step came on May 3, 1975, when left fielder Pete Rose was moved to third base. Menke was traded back to Houston before the 1974 season. The Reds didn’t have another solution at third. They tried Darrel Chaney, Doug Flynn, and John Vukovich there. However, on May 2, they were batting a combined .157. Meanwhile, the Reds had an abundance of outfield depth with Rose, Foster, Geronimo, Ken Griffey, and converted first baseman, Dan Driessen. Once Rose, who had come up as a second baseman, moved to third, eventually manager Sparky Anderson settled on an outfield, from left to right, of Foster, Geronimo, and Griffey. Foster hit .300/.356/.518 and was second on the team with 23 homers. The speedy Griffey hit .305/.391/.402. Now they were the Big Red Machine.
The Cincinnati #Reds "Big Red Machine"! #MLB #ATOBTTR
— Baseball by BSmile (@bsmile.bsky.social) 2026-10-21T13:05:25.496Z
New Sheriffs
Veteran Carl Yastrzemski, the long-time left fielder now playing first base, may have been the face of the Red Sox, but there were a couple of new sheriffs in town: rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. Lynn, a left-handed-hitting center fielder, hit .331/.401/.566, 21 HR, 105 RBI, and 162 OPS+. He won the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Awards, the first in baseball history to win both in the same year. He led the AL in doubles, slugging percentage, runs scored, and OPS, and took home a Gold Glove Award for his graceful defense. Rice, a scary right-handed hitting left fielder, hit .309/.350/.491, 22 HR, 102 RBI, and 128 OPS+. He was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year and placed third in MVP voting. Unfortunately, Rice fractured a bone in his right hand in September and missed the Series. Of Lynn, Red Sox coach Don Zimmer told UPI, “In my 27 years in baseball, in terms of runs produced and runs taken away, I’ve never seen one man do so much for a team as Fred Lynn.”
Fred Lynn, Jim Rice and Carl YastrzemskI, circa 1975.
El Tiante
Boston manager Darrell Johnson tabbed right-handed ace Luis Tiant to start Game 1 against the Reds’ lefty Don Gullett. During the regular season, Tiant was 18-14 with a 4.02 ERA, 18 complete games, and 1.285 WHIP. His father, also Luis Tiant, pitched for the New York Cubans of the Negro National League from 1935-47. The father didn’t make much money with the Cubans and didn’t want his son to play professional baseball. Thus, the son went to school in Cuba to learn electrical mechanics but dropped out once he discovered he had an electric fastball. At age 18, he joined the Mexico City Tigers of the Mexican League in 1959. Cleveland purchased his contract in 1962 and brought him up to the big club in 1964. In 1968, he was 21-9 and led the AL with a 1.60 ERA and nine shutouts. That was the same year Denny McLain won 31 games for the Detroit Tigers. New York Yankees coach Dick Howser told Dick Young of The New York Daily News, “I thought [Tiant] was a better pitcher that year than McLain.”
In 1969, however, Tiant was 9-20 for a bad Cleveland team, and after the season was traded to the Minnesota Twins. In an injury-plagued 1970, he was 7-3 with a 3.40 ERA for the Twins. “Unbelievable” is one of the most overused words in sports journalism today. A cow performing a square dance is unbelievable. A major league hitter smashing a long home run isn’t. That said, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s unbelievable that the Twins released Tiant during the spring of 1971. Didn’t try to get anybody for him. Didn’t send him to the minors to try to regain his old form. Just released him. He signed with Atlanta on a 30-day trial with their Triple-A club in Richmond. When that didn’t lead to a promotion, he was back on the market, and the Red Sox thought he was worth a chance. It paid off. Tiant won another ERA title in 1972 and was a 20-game winner in 1973 and 1974.
Game 1
At Fenway Park, with the elder Tiant in attendance, Tiant the son and Gullett battled for six scoreless innings. Then the Red Sox exploded for six runs in the bottom of the seventh, slicing and dicing Gullett and two relievers with five singles, a bases-loaded walk, and a sacrifice fly. Meanwhile, Tiant breezed along, pitching a complete-game, five-hit shutout and winning, 6-0. No Red reached third base against him. He began the game by tossing three perfect innings and finished strong with two more perfect innings. He even contributed a single to begin the six-run rally. The papers ran a photo of a bare-chested Tiant enjoying a huge postgame cigar. “I couldn’t believe what I saw,” Rose told Joe Fitzgerald of The Boston Herald American. “We’ve got nobody in the National League who throws like that, spinning high curveballs that take two minutes to come down.”
Game 2
In the second game, Red Sox lefty Bill Lee seemed to be picking up from where Tiant left off. After eight innings, he had outdueled Billingham and was ahead, 2-1, in the rain-delayed second game. In the top of the ninth, power-hitting catcher Johnny Bench led off for Cincinnati. “I decided to use intelligence instead of thinking of only power,” he said to reporters gathered around him after the game. “I even thought of bunting. I knew [Lee] wasn’t going to give me anything inside to pull. There was a wind blowing in from left field, too.” Bench poked an outside pitch down the right field line for a leadoff double. Johnson relieved Lee with right-hander Dick Drago. Two outs later, with Bench on third, Dave Concepcion hit a bouncer over the mound that second baseman Denny Doyle gloved brilliantly, but not in time to retire the batter as Bench scored the tying run.
“[Concepcion] was fooled and just tomahawked it,” Boston catcher Carlton Fisk told Vinny Di Trani of The Bergen County Record. With Griffey at bat, Concepcion stole second base when umpire Dick Stello ruled that shortstop Rick Burleson missed the tag. As Burleson argued the call, he didn’t notice that Concepcion overslid the bag. Concepcion quietly claimed the bag. From there, he scored when Griffey ripped a double into the left-center field gap. The Reds won, 3-2. Asked what he thought of the Series so far, Lee said, “Tied.”
The Throw-In
Armbrister was one of 10 players born in the Bahamas to play in the major leagues. The Astros signed him as an amateur free agent. He began playing in the Astros system in 1967 when he was 18. He showed potential as a hitter but not as an outfielder. The Astros converted him to third base, where his defense was disastrous. Modern metrics have replaced fielding average as a measure of defensive prowess. At that time, however, those metrics didn’t exist, and whether one puts stock in fielding average or not, the fact that he never fielded higher than .894 as a minor league third baseman tells you all you need to know. When the Reds picked him up, he wasn’t a major part of the deal. Armbrister was tried at third for Triple-A Indianapolis, but after he committed six errors in 19 chances, the Reds returned him to the outfield, where he made strides defensively. He had brief stays with the big club in 1973 and 1974. Armbrister was with the Reds for all of 1975, hitting .185 in 59 games. He would become a significant, albeit controversial, figure in the Series.
Game 3
The Series moved to Riverfront Stadium. This game featured home runs by Fisk, pinch-hitter Bernie Carbo, and Dwight Evans for Boston, and Bench, Concepcion, and Geronimo for Cincy. Evans’ homer was a two-run shot off Rawly Eastwick that tied the game, 5-5, in the ninth inning and sent the game to extras. In the bottom of the 10th, Geronimo led off with a single off Jim Willoughby. Armbrister was called upon to pinch-hit for Eastwick and lay down a sacrifice bunt.
Armbrister’s bunt bounced high in front of home plate. Running to first, Armbrister bumped Fisk in fair territory as the latter fielded the ball with his bare hand, causing Fisk’s throw to second base to sail into center field. Geronimo made it to third and Armbrister to second on the play. Immediately, Fisk and Johnson argued with home plate umpire Larry Barnett, claiming interference, in which case Armbrister and Geronimo would have been declared out. On NBC-TV, analyst Tony Kubek saw it the Red Sox’ way: “Fisk has got to have room. Armbrister, right in his way, I have got to say right there he interfered with him.” The Red Sox were upset that Barnett wouldn’t even agree to consult the other umpires on the play. It was the first Series for all six umpires. Major League Baseball was criticized for its new system that rotated postseason umpires annually rather than choosing them on merit.
Once the dust settled, Roger Moret was brought in for relief. Rose was walked intentionally, and one out later, Morgan won the game for the Reds, 5-4, with a single to center field. After the game, the hot topic was the Armbrister play, and the parties had much to say.
Armbrister: “I don’t feel I interfered. I didn’t step back to get in his way.”
Barnett: “It was simply a collision. It is interference only when the batter intentionally gets in the way.”
Fisk: “You might as well throw a cross-body block on the catcher, knock him down, and go to first. It’s a damn shame to have a call like that in such a game. I think it was a double play ball except for the interference.”
Johnson: “A man has to have a chance to field a ball. He can’t be touched by a runner until he has a chance.”
Writing for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Hal Lebovitz reproduced the rule: “If in the judgment of the umpire a batter-runner wilfully and deliberately interferes with . . . a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play the ball shall be dead; the umpire shall call the batter-runner out for interference and shall also call out the runner who had advanced closest to home plate . . .” So, Barnett was correct as to the rule, but his judgment continues to be debated to this day.
Game 4
A five-run fifth inning, a great catch by Lynn, and some gutsy pitching by Tiant led the Bosox to a 5-4 victory. Tiant pitched all nine innings, giving up nine hits and four walks while striking out four. This stat would cause today’s broadcasters to fall out of the booth: Tiant threw 163 pitches, three games’ worth for some of today’s starters. The Reds made Red Sox fans sweat in the ninth. Two men reached base, and then Griffey’s long drive looked like a sure double before Lynn ran it down on the center field warning track. “I didn’t have a good curve like I did the last time against them,” Tiant said. “I stayed mostly with fastballs.”
The $2.50 Man
It may not have the same ring as The Six Million Dollar Man, but it aptly describes Perez. He was a 17-year-old living and working in a sugar factory in Cuba when the Reds signed him as an amateur free agent in March 1960. The Reds gave him $2.50 to pay for his visa. That was it. No money even for equipment. Somebody whom Perez described to Hertzel simply as “a man from the United States” gave him money for a flight to Geneva, New York, where he played D-ball, the lowest rung on the ladder. He loved playing in Geneva and thought it was the ultimate. “Then I watch on television and I want to get to the big leagues,” he told Hertzel.
Perez worked his way up that ladder and was in the big leagues to stay in 1965. He emerged as a reliable RBI machine, hitting 222 home runs and driving in 828 runs from 1967-1974. After a slow start to the 1975 season that saw him hitting .195 on May 16, he finished the season slashing .282/.350/.466, 20 HR, and 109 RBI. Before the season, he declined to waive his right to refuse a trade. It was a lucky break for the Reds.
Game 5
Throughout the Series, Anderson penciled Perez into the cleanup spot of the batting order, with Bench following in the fifth slot. But after four games, Perez was 0-for-14. For Game 5, Anderson switched them in the order. He also told Perez that if he went hitless in the Series, that’s how his grandchildren would remember him someday. The $2.50 Man responded by hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning off Reggie Cleveland to tie the game at 1-1, and a three-run homer off Cleveland in the sixth to pad the Reds’ lead to 5-1. They would go on to win, 6-2. “It didn’t surprise me,” Perez said of being switched in the order. “I felt more relaxed though.” Now the Series was headed back to Fenway with the Reds up 3-2 in games.
Game 6
Fifty-one years ago, in old Boston town, Pete Rose faced Luis Tiant and flied out to left field. A simple enough start to what would be the greatest baseball game ever played.
— Mark Armour (@markarmour04.bsky.social) 2026-10-22T01:18:11.857Z
Three consecutive days of rainouts postponed Game 6, but it was worth the wait. Like Game 7 in 2026, Game 6 in 1975 will be forever remembered as one of the greatest of all Series games. The washouts gave Johnson the luxury of coming back with Tiant. Anderson started right-hander Gary Nolan. The Red Sox got off to an early lead in the bottom of the first when Lynn hit a home run with Yastrzemski and Fisk on base. In the top of the fifth, Tiant proved to be human after all. With one out, he walked pinch-hitter Armbrister and gave up a single to Rose. The runners scored on Griffey’s triple over Lynn’s head. With two outs, Bench drove in Griffey with a single off the Green Monster to tie the game at 3-3.
The Reds got two more runs in the seventh on Foster’s two-run double, and when Geronimo knocked Tiant out of the game with a home run to lead off the eighth and give Cincinnati a 6-3 lead, it looked like the Reds were six defensive outs away from popping corks. However, in the bottom of the eighth, Lynn led off with a single that struck pitcher Pedro Borbon and Rico Petrocelli walked. In came Eastwick, who retired Evans and Burleson without a run scoring. With the pitcher’s spot due next, Johnson turned to left-handed-hitting Carbo to pinch-hit.
Carbo began his career with the Reds. They made him their No. 1 pick in the 1965 June Amateur Draft, ahead of Bench, whom they picked second. Anderson, Carbo’s manager in the instructional league, thought him eccentric, but worked with him to turn him into a good outfielder. Carbo got his shot at full-time play with the Reds in 1970, when he hit .310/.454/.551, 21 HR, and 63 RBI. But Carbo slumped in 1971 and was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals early in the 1972 season. By 1974, he was with the Red Sox, and now he was batting against his former team in a crucial situation.
As Carbo strode to the dish, he didn’t expect to bat. He thought Anderson would call for left-hander Will McEnaney, after which Johnson would counter with a right-handed batter. Recalling the game in 2005 for Al Doyle of Baseball Digest, Carbo said, “When I got into the batter’s box, I was still looking for Sparky. Then I turned to Johnny Bench and said, ‘Sparky’s going to let me hit?’” Carbo worked the count to 2-2 and “made one of the worst swings ever” on a slider, barely fighting it off and sending it foul. “Bench said it was worse than a Little Leaguer’s swing,” said Carbo. “Rico said I swung like a pitcher.” The next pitch was a fastball, and Carbo drove it over the center field wall for a game-tying homer. His two pinch-hit home runs tied a Series record. “When I got to third,” recalled Carbo, “I shouted at Pete Rose, ‘Don’t you wish you were as strong as me?’ Pete shouted back, ‘Isn’t this fun? Isn’t this the greatest game?’” Rose had no inkling as to how great it would become.
The game went into extra innings. It appeared Morgan had hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning to put the Reds ahead. But Evans raced to the right field fence, reached over, robbed Morgan, and fired the ball into the infield to double up the baserunner Griffey. The game remained tied at 6-6 until the bottom of the 12th, when Fisk led off against Pat Darcy. Fisk drove Darcy’s 1-0 pitch deep down the left field line. Fisk knew it was leaving the yard, but didn’t know whether it was fair or foul, so he stood at home plate, waving it fair. “Since the wind was blowing out,” he told reporters afterward, “I was afraid the ball might hook around the pole. I’m sure the wind took the ball 15 feet towards foul territory.” Luckily for Fisk, the wind didn’t take it 15 feet and one inch. The ball struck the foul pole for a game-winning home run. It was 7-6, Red Sox, and the Series was tied. “If they wanted something to sell baseball,” said Rose, “then this game was it.”
The Rat and the Camera Man
The iconic replay of Fisk waving the ball fair was purely accidental. NBC cameraman Lou Gerard was stationed inside the Green Monster. Director Harry Coyle directed that Gerard’s camera follow the ball with Fisk up. However, just as Fisk connected, Gerard felt something sniffing at his shoes. He looked down to find a rat at his feet, just long enough that he didn’t know where the ball went. So, he kept his camera trained on Fisk and caught Fisk waving the ball fair on his way to first. Thus was born the Reaction Shot, a staple of every sports telecast from then on, all thanks to a rat. Now, cameras are trained everywhere on every possible person who could have a reaction, both on and off the field. If you’re at a postseason game, do you want to know how to get on TV? Just bury your face in your hands after a big play. Of course, nobody will see your face. But it might lead to a career as a hand model.
Game 7
The seventh should have felt anticlimactic, but this one also had its share of thrills. Against Gullett, the Sox took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third, thanks to an RBI single by Yastrzemski and bases-loaded walks to Petrocelli and Evans. The Reds started to chip away against Lee in the sixth. Rose singled through the right side of the infield. One out later, Bench hit what looked like an inning-ending double-play grounder, but Rose broke it up with a hard slide. Perez then hit a shoulder-high blooper pitch from Lee over the Green Monster to cut the lead to 3-2. Afterward, Rose said, “Don’t give me any credit for breaking up the double play. Tony got the big hit.” Don’t worry, Pete, I won’t. I’ll give you credit for what you did next, though.
The Reds tied the game in the seventh on Rose’s RBI single off Moret. It remained tied in the ninth when lefty Jim Burton took the mound for Boston. Griffey led off with a walk. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a groundout. Rose walked to bring Morgan to the plate. Burton got ahead in the count, 1-2, and then Morgan got a piece of a low, outside breaking pitch and dropped a soft fly ball single into shallow center field where not even Lynn could catch it. Griffey scored, and the Reds won the game, 4-3, and the Series after McEnaney retired Boston in order in the bottom of the ninth.
The second guessers were out in full force, wondering why Johnson didn’t go to Drago, his best reliever, in the ninth. “[Burton] was the best man at the time for the hitters that were coming up,” he said. “Drago pitched three innings last night.” Morgan thought Burton made a good pitch to him. “A few years ago, I would have struck out on the same pitch,” said Morgan. Rose was 10-for-27 in the Series and was named its MVP. He told David Condon of The Chicago Tribune, “I feel wonderful. I’ll keep playing until I get 3,000 hits.”
