Games Six: Cincinnati, Boston and the 1975 World Seriesby Mark Frost
Syndetic Solutions - [Book Review for 9781401323103] Book Review : Publishers Weekly
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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.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Syndetic Solutions - [Book Review for 1401323103] Book Review : BookList
: From BookList, September 1, 2009, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. : *Starred Review* For baseball fans of a certain age, the words game six mean only one thing: Boston versus Cincinnati, game six of the 1975 World Series, the 12-inning marathon that was decided by one of the most dramatic home runs in the sport's history. Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk's hooking line drive bounced off the foul pole, fair by inches, and Fisk, in a now-iconic image, stood at home plate, waving the ball fair as it neared the pole. Using the game itself, inning by inning and pitch by pitch, as an elaborate frame story, Frost moves dexterously back and forth in time, providing context not only about the individual players but also about the two teams and the historical moment in which the game was played. Great events in sports history provide fertile ground for narrative nonfiction, and Frost, also a talented novelist, uses his storytelling skills to great advantage here (as he has in three previous books about golf). Even fans who think they remember game six perfectly will be pleased to relive the key moments. In addition to Fisk's game winner, there's Luis Tiant's gallant pitching effort through the first several innings, keeping Boston in the game, and there's Bernie Carbo's three-run, pinch-hit homer to tie it up in the eighth, after the Reds had finally worn Tiant down and taken a 6û3 lead. Frost re-creates those and many other moments vividly, but it is the backstory that makes the whole book throb with sporting life. For anyone who knows baseball, Frost turns a single remembered moment (Fisk's homer) into a living tapestry of why the game holds our imaginations across generations. And it still doesn't matter one bit that the Red Sox lost the series to the Reds in game seven. Ott, Bill. : | distributed by Syndetic Solutions, LLC.: |
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