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Red Sox second baseman Denny Doyle will always be remembered for his head-long dash from third base in the ninth inning of Game Six of the 1975 World Series (1975), which most baseball commentators call the greatest World Series game ever played. With the game tied 6-6 after Bernie Carbo's eighth inning pinch-hit homer (his second of the series) and the sacks drunk in the bottom of the ninth, American League Rookie of the Year Fred Lynn lofted a pop-up to shallow left field, hardly deep enough for even the speediest ballplayer to score on a sac-fly. (Left field at Fenway Park is more of a bandbox than a playing field, with the fabled "Green Monster" wall beginning at the left-field line beginning less than the then-advertised 315-feet from home-plate.) The ball off Lynn's bat was nothing more than a foul-out to shallow left, and Doyle was not Lou Brock. Against the better judgment of the majority of Red Sox fans and the baseball gods, the diminutive second baseman Doyle took off, chugging towards the plate, where George Foster's throw nailed him, Reds catcher (and future Hall of Famer) Johnny Bench applying the tag. It was the second out of the inning, and when Rico Petrocelli, the next batter after Lynn, grounded out, it was time for extra innings.
Game Six began on Tuesday, October 21, 1975 at Fenway Park and ended the next day, in the wee small hours of the morning, at the venerable ball-yard, when Red Sox catcher (also a future Hall of Famer) Carlton Fisk hit a walk-off home run that just missed going foul. The 12th inning event is immortalized on Fisk's Hall of Fame plaque. But before getting into extra innings, there had been the ninth, and if Doyle had scored, it would have been moot, Fisk hitting what was one of the most dramatic dingers ever launched in October baseball. Controversy surrounded Doyle's dash for home, which would have won the game for the BoSox if he succeeded. However, the play, in both execution and final result, was deemed suicidal, and after the contest was over, Doyle was pestered with the proverbial question asked of all losers (even those bound up in the winning cause that was Game Six): Why?
Third base Don Zimmer had said "Go!", Doyle patiently explained. Disingenuously, Zimmer -- who would wind up in the Red Sox Nation's doghouse for helming two superb teams in 1977 and '78 and bringing them in second-best to the hated New York Yankees -- explained that he had said "No!" to Doyle, who he felt was chomping at the bit. But for that play, Game Six would not be remembered for what it was: The greatest game ever played in post-season competition. And for that, we have keystone sacker Denny Doyle to be thankful for, and perhaps also Red Sox Nation villain Don Zimmer, for issuing the command Doyle either misunderstood or didn't on that cold October night-night so long ago.
Pete Rose would later claim that it was the '75 World Series that brought fans back to baseball after the erosion of fan support during the first generation of television sports broadcasting (1947-1975), again making it (albeit temporarily during the 1980s and early '90s) America's favorite past time. And Denny Doyle played a role in the high drama that made that so. You can look it up.
