Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America's Pastime

by Mark Frost Narrated by Andrew Garman

Overview

Boston, Tuesday, October 21, 1975. The Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds have endured an excruciating three-day rain delay. Tonight, at last, they will play Game Six of the World Series. Leading three games to two, Cincinnati hopes to win it all; Boston is desperate to stay alive. But for all the anticipation, nobody could have predicted what a classic it would turn out to be: an extra-innings thriller, created by one of the Big Red Machine's patented comebacks and the Red Sox's improbable late-inning rally; clutch hitting, heart-stopping defensive plays, and more twists and turns than a Grand Prix circuit, climaxed by one of the most famous home runs in baseball history that ended it in the twelfth. Here are all the inside stories of some of that era's biggest names in sports: Johnny Bench, Luis Tiant, Sparky Anderson, Pete Rose, Carl Yastrzemski-eight Hall of Famers in all-as well as sportscasters and network execs, cameramen, umpires, groundskeepers, politicians, and fans who gathered in Fenway that extraordinary night. Game Six is an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at what is considered by many to be the greatest baseball game ever played--remarkable also because it was about so much more than just balls and strikes. This World Series marked the end of an era; baseball's reserve clause was about to be struck down, giving way to the birth of free agency, a watershed moment that changed American sports forever. In bestselling author Mark Frost's talented hands, the historical significance of Game Six becomes every bit as engrossing as its compelling human drama.

Editorial Reviews

For many fans, the dramatic sixth game of the 1975 World Series was the last golden moment of a now-vanished age. That 12-inning nail-biter spotlighted the talents of greats like Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Luis Tiant, Joe Morgan, and Carl Yastrzemski, in the last World Series played before the advent of free agency, which changed baseball forever. To write Game Six, author Mark Frost (The Match; The Greatest Game Ever Played) interviewed virtually every participant, allowing each to recapture the full human drama of this momentous diamond battle. A flood of memories about a watershed moment in baseball history.

Harvey Araton

Mark Frost's Game Six, the gripping story of the penultimate game of the 1975 World Series, does nothing to dispel the existential wonderfulness of Red Sox Nation, in addition to paying deserved homage to the winner of that Series, Cincinnati's Big Red Machine…no matter how historic the innings or how earnest the reporting, basing nearly an entire book on one game demands a deft storyteller's touch, the ability to capture individuals and explore issues while not straying too far from the field. Frost achieves this stylistically and…convincingly. For the sake of the baseball purist, he never cheats on the strategizing during Game 6 or the dramatic moments for which it is best remembered
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Many a diehard baseball fan could tell you how Game 6 of the 1975 World Series ended—with Boston catcher Carlton Fisk dramatically waving his extra-inning home run toward fair territory, and the pandemonium that soon followed. As for the other details, Frost (The Match) mentions them all in a wonderful tale about one of the sport's seminal events. Describing pitch by pitch and inning by inning, Frost breaks down the excitement on the field, but also how each participant came to play in the October thriller. Each player has a story—from Boston's star pitcher Luis Tiant and his humble beginnings, to Cincinnati's rugged, trash-talking third baseman, Pete Rose. From Yastrzemski to Bench, Evans to Morgan, Frost covers them all, along with the managers, owners and even broadcasters, expertly weaving from the past to that famous fall night. The last third of the work covers the aftermath of the game, recapping Cincinnati's eventual World Series win in Game 7 (an oft-forgotten fact about that series), and what became of each player in the years following. With each passing baseball season, “the number of people who would later claim to have been at Game Six would increase twenty-fold,” and thanks to Frost, the reader will likewise feel like he was in attendance at Fenway Park for that World Series classic. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews

A pitch-by-pitch account of the game best known for the image of the hopping, waving, ecstatic catcher Carlton Fisk, whose 12th-inning home run won the game for the Boston Red Sox. Sports nonfiction vet Frost (The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, 2007, etc.) is a bit too fond of superlatives. Sox outfielder Dwight Evans made the "greatest catch in the history of the World Series"; at game's end Boston Globe sportswriter Peter Gammons wrote "one of the most lyrical, inspired and impressionistic columns ever written about a baseball game." And so on. All the players were larger-than-life. Carl Yastrzemski had the greatest work ethic since John Henry; Sox pitcher Luis Tiant loved his father more than anyone since the baby Jesus; Reds' third baseman Pete Rose had a "gap-toothed Huck Finn enthusiasm for the game." Sprinkled throughout the breathless game narration are allusions to historical events from the mid-1970s: the presidency of Gerald Ford, the imminent American Bicentennial celebration, the advent of Saturday Night Live. Between pitches, Frost delivers the back stories of just about everyone involved: the sportscasters and -writers, the players, the owners, the managers-even the Fenway Park organist. The diction is often of the aw-shucks variety. Reds manager Sparky Anderson once ripped a couple of guys a new one; writer Maureen Dowd was "a sharp young cookie." Fisk finally comes to bat in the 12th nearly 300 pages in. After a page-long description of the flight of the struck baseball, Frost devotes nearly 100 more pages to the aftermath of the game. He tells us what happened to everyone and claims that this particular game rescued baseball from a serious drought. Fanswon't argue the game's significance to the sport, but Frost's narrative is over-the-top and gushing, making it strictly for baseball die-hards.

From the Publisher

Praise for The Match

"Mark Frost, author of one of the sport's all-time great books, The Greatest Game Ever Played, produces another wonderful telling of a true tale . . . in The Match."—Chicago Tribune

Praise for The Match

"Frost captures an elusive magic in this improbable matchup and what it meant for those who played and witnessed it."—Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Match

"It's difficult to beat a good golf book, be it a good yarn or a picture book . . . The golf is spectacular, the course more so, the descriptions luminous."—USA Today

USA Today

Praise for The Match

"It's difficult to beat a good golf book, be it a good yarn or a picture book . . . The golf is spectacular, the course more so, the descriptions luminous."

Chicago Tribune

Praise for The Match

"Mark Frost, author of one of the sport's all-time great books, The Greatest Game Ever Played, produces another wonderful telling of a true tale . . . in The Match."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170876877
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	12/04/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

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