As we sat for a family dinner of baked ziti and Caesar salad on the deck overlooking Bristol Harbor last Thursday evening, I remarked that we were lucky to have a bonus night. It was October 22 and mild enough to eat outside.
October 22? I almost forgot.
“Today is the 45th anniversary of Carlton Fisk’s home run that beat the Reds in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series,” I said. “A toast to Carlton Fisk!”
Who can forget how the Red Sox catcher led off the bottom of the 12th inning at 12:34 a.m., Oct. 22, 1975, and launched a 1-0 pitch from Pat Darcy high off the left-field foul pole, breaking a 6-6 tie and sending the World Series to a climactic Game 7? Shot from inside the left-field wall, the video of Fisk waving, willing, the ball fair and then leaping with arms stretched overhead became an instant sports classic. We‘ve seen it a million times, right?
“And you were there,” my son-in-law Jamie exclaimed. Indeed, I was, as the 25-year-old sports editor of The Woonsocket Call.
But I thought of that game for a reason other than Fisk’s home run. Joe Morgan, Cincinnati’s All-Star second-baseman who figured prominently in Games 6 and 7, had died of a nerve disease 11 days earlier, on Oct. 11. He was 77.
Morgan, the National League MVP in 1975, came oh so close to being the hero of Game 6. With one out and one on in the top of the 11th, he smashed a drive toward the right-field grandstand just to the right of the Reds bullpen. Dwight Evans, one of the best right fielders in the game, raced back, lost the ball for a second on the warning track, stuck his glove up at the last minute and caught the ball before it landed in the first row. He whirled and fired back toward first base, doubling up the stunned Ken Griffey, Jr., and ending the inning.
Morgan did not squander his second opportunity to break the hearts of the Red Sox and their long-suffering fans. On the night of Oct. 22, in the top of the ninth of a 3-3 game, he stepped in against rookie left hander Jim Burton with Griffey on third, Pete Rose on first and two outs. With the count a ball and two strikes, Burton threw a good pitch, a breaking ball low and away. Morgan reached out and blooped a single to center in front of Fred Lynn, driving in Griffey with the go-ahead run in the Reds Series-clinching 4-3 victory.
Morgan stood only 5-foot-7 and weighted just 160 pounds. He played 22 years but is best-remembered for his eight All-Star seasons with the Reds. Also the National League MVP in 1976 and considered by many the best second baseman ever, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990, his first year eligible.
Morgan’s death was the most recent of a stunning lineup of Hall of Famers who died since late summer. Bob Gibson, the fearsome right-hander and fierce competitor for the St. Louis Cardinals for 17 seasons, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Oct. 2. He was 84. Gibson dashed the 1967 Impossible Dream season of the Red Sox by beating them three times in the World Series, completing each game. He struck out 3,117 batters and won 251 games for the Cardinals. He was 65-29 from 1968 through 1970 with 79 complete games in 103 starts, an average of 26 complete games in 34 starts per season. He was the National League MVP in 1968 with a 22-09 record and an unbelievable 1.12 ERA, a live ball era record. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1981.
Lou Brock, Gibson’s teammate and a veteran of 19 major-league seasons, died on Sept. 4. He was 81 and had survived multipole myeloma, a blood cancer. Brock, the MVP of the ’67 World Series, holds the career record for stolen bases with 938 and the single-season record with 118 in 1974. In a cruel twist of fate in 2015 his left leg was amputated below the knee as a result of an infection brought on by diabetes. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.
Whitey Ford, the best pitcher in New York Yankees history with 236 victories, died on Oct. 8 at home while watching a Yankees-Rays playoff game. He was 91 and had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Ford grew up in New York City and spent his entire 16-year career with the Yankees. He pitched on six World Series championship teams, won 10 World Series games, a record, and was the MVP of the 1961 World Series, when he pitched 14 scoreless innings and beat the Cincinnati Reds twice. He was 25-4 that season and won the Cy Young Award. He entered the Hall of Fame with fellow Yankee Mickey Mantle in 1974.
Tom Seaver, the pitching hero of the 1969 Miracle Mets, died on Aug. 31 of complications from Lewy body dementia and COVID-19. He was 75. In 20 big-league seasons this power pitcher won 311 games and struck out 3,640 batters, sixth on the all-time list. He was 25-7 in 1969, led the Amazin’ Mets over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in five games in the World Series and won the Cy Young Award. Seaver ended his career with the Red Sox in 1986 and entered the Hall of Fame in 1992.
Turning to football for a moment, Gale Sayers, the dynamic running back and return specialist for Kansas in college and the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971, died on Sept. 23 from dementia, likely caused by all the hits he absorbed, according to his wife and the Mayo Clinic. He was 77. Sayers was fast and elusive and led the NFL in rushing twice. Knee injuries limited him to just five full seasons. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 at 34 years old, the youngest inductee ever.
These were super sports heroes we Baby Boomers cheered and jeered, depending on which side we were on. We saw them when they were young, strong, dominating, their physical and mental skills at their peak. Even as they retired, gained weight and acquired reading glasses, we still saw them in their prime. They were not supposed to develop dementia, Alzheimer’s, cancer, COVID. But they did. Nevertheless, getting clutch hits, striking out batters, stealing bases, eluding tacklers and returning kicks for touchdowns is how I will always remember Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Tom Seaver and Gale Sayers.
