"Now Batting #27 Carlton Fisk......" from 1969 to 1980 that's what you might have heard watching the Boston Red Sox play. Carlton was named Rookie of the Year in 1972 in fact he was the first unanimously American League winner. He was an 11x All-Star Catcher. He's best known as the Original 'Pudge' (The other was Ivan Rodriguez also a Hall of Fame Catcher as well).
Most of Carlton's career he was injured with knee injuries in fact in June 1974 he was bowled over by Leron Lee of the Indians & the doctors told him he'll never play again well.....Pudge with his feisty determination showed the doctors wrong by being behind the backstop again at spring training only to re-injured it leaving him to appear in 79 game appearances but it was good enough to help the Red Sox on to the post season with the help of 2 rookies Jim Rice & Fred Lynn (Another member of this set more on him later in the series) as well veteran Carl Yastrzemski. After Boston swept the 3x defending World Champion Oakland A's in the 1975 ALCS where Carlton hit .417 they were heading to the World Series to take on the Cincinnati Reds. It was in Game 3 in Cincinnati where Carlton hit the first Home Run of the series then in the bottom of the 10th inning with pinch-hitter Ed Armbrister at bat chaos occured when Fisk collided with Ed as he was hesitating after bunting the ball having Fisk throw the ball errorlessly into centerfield causing Catcher Interference which moved the winning run into scoring position Carlton & Red Sox Manager Darrell Johnson disagreed with the call you tell me by looking at the photo of it. Unfortunately umpire Larry Barnett didn't see it that way later in the inning the Reds won it on bloop hit giving them a 2-1 edge in the series.
Close up action of the bump.
Left to right Barnett watches Carlton collide with Armbrister at the plate.
Later on in the series what most fans remember of this series is what happened in Game 6 with the score deadlocked at 6 thanks to a Bernie Carbo pinch-hit Home-run to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th. Carlton found himself in the top of the 10th hearing Pete Rose "Man isn't this the most exciting game you ever played in." with Carlton replying "Some kind of Game." Then Carlton proceeded to come up in the bottom of the 12th with no outs in the on deck circle Carlton turned to Fred Lynn saying "Freddy I am going to hit one off the wall. Drive me in" instead on 1-0 pitch from Pat Darcy Carlton swung & hit the ball close to the Left field foul pole but somehow Fisk was waving the ball with some english to ween it fair giving the Red Sox a 7-6 victory to force a Game 7. Most people can thank a rat for the iconic scene for NBC Cameraman Lou Gerard saw this rat scurry by him instead of following the ball he kept the camera directly on Carlton as he waved it fair.
"....The 1-0 Delivery to Fisk. He Swings ....long drive left field if stays fair it's GONE!!!!! HOME RUN!!!! The Red Sox win!!!! & the series is tied, 3 games apiece......" -Ned Martin calling it on the radio.
Moments after hitting the winning Home Run the organist broke out in the infamous 'Halleljuah Chorus" by Handel. Then came the aftermath once the game was over the fans had left the park looking forward to Game 7 Carlton however couldn't find a place to sleep so he had to drive all the way New Hampshire cause all the hotels in the Boston area were booked solid due to the series & the surrounding areas so picture if ya will ya win a world series game & your denied a place to stay over night.
It was also in the decade of the 1970's that Fisk would be compared to another catcher in the American League that being 1 Thurman Munson. During some of the heated rival games between the Red Sox & New York Yankees the 2 would be at each other's throats neither one like the other. The 2 would battle on who really deserves to be the starting catcher for the All-Star games through out the whole decade.
After the 1980 season Fisk was declared a free agent even though he waited for the Red Sox to resign him unfortunately they didn't so instead Carlton changed his color of Sox from Red to White joining the Chicago White Sox where he would concluded his Hall of Fame career until 1993. It wasn't the only thing that he changed he went from wearing #27 to reverse his fortune by wearing #72 both Boston & Chicago would go on to retired those numbers after Carlton was inducted to Baseballs Hall of Fame in 2000. Funny thing he was inducted to the Hall the 25th Anniversary of the that famous World Series & he was inducted along with former teammate of his Tony Perez (Tony went in as a Cincinnati Reds though) & the Rival Manager of the Reds Sparky Anderson. Another thing most people perhaps didn't know was that his sister Janet married Rick Miller a teammate of Carlton's when they were in Boston. I could go on & on about Carlton's career how he almost led the league in Home Runs in 1985 but Darrell Evans (Another member of this set) beat him by 3 Evans had 40 & Fisk 37 both were old veterans of the game. Fisk was 37 when he hit that many home runs while Evans was 38. Instead I'll end this post before it becomes a novel. So does Carlton Fisk deserve to be in the set I would say without a doubt he deserves to be what's your take my reader. Waiting on deck is Darrell Evans until then remember what Rogers Hornsby once said about signing autographs for little kids "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Commuinst."
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