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

by Mark Frost

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 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 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.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, 20th Century

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I doubted that a good-sized book was necessary to tell the story of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series even though it was a great game still fondly remembered by baseball fans almost a half-century later. Fortunately Frost's storytelling skills makes this long-ago game come alive. He provides backstories for both managers and many of the players, In particular, I enjoyed learning more about the great Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant, who started Game 6. There are weaknesses, in particular Frost's decision to not interview anyone connected to this game. Also, there are no endnotes or explanation of the works he used to put the book together. At the same time, his afterward goes on far too long. These complaints do not detract from the narrative when it gets rolling, much like a Pete Rose headfirst slide, to its dramatic conclusion. A wonderful book for any baseball fan.

[James Lidington · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit Boston-centric for my Cincinnatian self, but an excellent reconstruction of the game and its pivotal place, not just in that series, but in baseball history at the dawn of the free-agent era. I especially appreciated the insight on Sparky Anderson, who recently passed away. It was hard to ignore his role on that team, but just how much he meant to the players I think is underappreciated. Reds fans, especially ones of recent vintage, may think back on the Big Red Machine as a monolithic force in 70's baseball, but it's also important to note that team lost two World Series before it won one. Also poignant in its description of Anderson's near-fatal blunder in Game 6 surrounding Fred Norman, who Sparky came to regret leaving in the game, a move that he thought at the time might get him fired.

[Tyler Critchfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main complaint is that there were too many people to keep track of when the author described the life story of every single player/manager/broadcaster for this game. But if you love the game of baseball, you'll enjoy this one. And despite the myriad backstories, I do enjoy this format of mixing in player backgrounds with a play-by-play of the game. It's similar in that respect to Levels of the Game and The Boys of Winter.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have been just turning 12 when Game six happened in 1975, and I'm almost positive I watched the game on TV live. Thing is, with the passage of time in this TV, one is never sure if one's memories are from the actual live event, or from subsequent replays and highlights. The hypothesis of the book is that this game came at a pivotal point in baseball history and that it's drama and excitement put baseball back on the map as America's national pastime for a new generation. Frost is able to talk about one baseball game in 300 pages by providing a lot of interesting back story into the lives of the key players from the Red Sox and Reds, as well as the broadcasters and even team owners that were involved with the two teams. Particularly interesting was the story of Luis Tiant, the Red Sox' starting pitcher, and the story of Tom Yawkey, the Red Sox owner. Frost also provides some interesting dynamics among the NBC broadcast crew for the game. He even tries to paint a picture of how the game fit into the broader culture of 1975, though in a couple of instances he takes his tangents a little too far so that they don't feel like they fit all that well into the overall narratove. On the whole he presents an interesting and complete story of what many see as a pivotal game in baseball history. I'm not sure if the general reader would find the book terribly interesting but any baseball fan who was alive in the 70s would definitely connect and enjoy it.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars easy!

I read this book for a trip down memory lane, but it was much more. In 1975 I was 11 years old. The only time I got to stay up late on a weeknight was for the World Series. My affinity for the Big Red Machine fell just short of my love for the Yankees. Watching this series I was pulling for the Reds for two reasons 1. I loved to watch them play and 2. As a rule for all Yankee fans, you root for two teams - The Yankees and whoever is playing the Red Sox. Karma being a fickle son-of-a-bitch, stabbed me hard in the back the following season when the Reds embarrassed my beloved Yankees.

Being a big fan of "pitch-by-pitch" books (two others are Pure Baseball by Keith Hernandez and Nine Innings by Daniel Okrent) I loved this one. But the book was more than that. In between pitches, outs and innings, the author weaved in baseball history, player biographies, social commentary, political news and pop culture.

This book was a gem. Very highly recommended.

[Jim Spicer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a life long diehard Cincinnati Reds fan and a baseball lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this detailed look at the 1975 World Series, specifically focused on Game Six. This is highly regarded as one of the best World Series games ever and World Series ever and Frost does a masterful job of not only retelling the events of the game ... inning by inning ... pitch by pitch. But even though you know the ending (of both the game and the series) he takes the reader on an adventure packed with anecdotal story after story.

[Jack Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Frost brings us back to a time when baseball was on the verge of major changes! The ‘75 Series was between two teams with Hall of Fame talent, so closely matched that any miscue could have changed the outcome! Played almost to perfection, it brought baseball back to fans that had lost the love of the game. As he does so well, the backstory fills in the gaps and for those of us old enough to have lived through it, brings us back to a moment in time when baseball was truly “America’s Pastime “!!

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know the outcome of game 6, you know the outcome of the 1975 World Series. What you may not know is the stories of the ball players involved as told during their appearance. Luis Tiant's journey to the majors; Bernie Carbo's battle with alcoholism. The little sidebars were what made it interesting. What kept it from 5 stars was the author's editorializing after the final out. How baseball changed during the era of the 70's. A story for another time.

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine a new television network that is set up to cover baseball games, but instead of focusing on the game itself, like typical broadcasts, it focuses a level above, on the game, but also on the main broadcast, and with immediate access to the history related to the action and the players, the broadcasters, the managers, and the owners. And with full knowledge of the outcome, the stories could be planned and scheduled in order to match the action in the game and heighten the drama. This book is in a way a depiction of such coverage – it’s a meta-coverage of a game compared to what we are used to seeing on TV. The book is put together to track the game and it plays out in the same way as a game is usually broadcast, with a meta-play-by-play description of the action of this one game throughout the book, and a meta-color commentary intermixed with the play-by-play that goes beyond the color commentary of a typical baseball broadcast. For example, you might read a couple of lines of detail about a pitch, where it was placed, how long the batter stepped out of the box and adjusted his hat before the pitch – that level of detail. Then you might read a page or two of back-history of the batter, or the catcher, or some other player related to the play. And so on throughout the game. It’s like time stands still for this description, and the play-by-play and the color commentary are fully integrated and expanded to tell complete stories. This was extremely well done – you feel like you are watching the game in a kind of suspended animation in order to learn more about it, and you really feel you know the players after the game is done.

I would have given the book 5 stars, except for the very long afterward. The author spends more than 50 pages in the afterward describing the remaining careers of the players, managers, coaches, and broadcasters of the game, including a lot on the changes in the reserve clause that created free agency. What I really noticed in the afterward was an overwhelming number of opinions about players and events, much of it negative. I didn’t notice this kind of opinionating during the game description, but here it just comes across as pompous. And while the game description had a little repetitiveness, the author managed it well there. In the afterward, the author covers the same players careers immediately after the game, in the next year, in the next two or three years, and to retirement, a kind of sequential chunking of follow-up. There was a lot of repetitiveness in the way it was written. Had the afterward been written in the same way as the game description, or maybe even omitted, this would have easily been the best baseball book I’ve read in a long time. As it is, it is still pretty good. I suggest skimming the afterwards, though.

[Tung · Rating 5 out of 5]

With this book, Frost joins Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Updike, and Robert Olen Butler as my favorite authors of all time. In Game Six, Frost recounts the sixth game of the 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds (led by a Hall of Fame line-up of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench) and the Boston Red Sox (and their Hall of Fame roster of Yaz and Carlton Fisk) -- universally considered one of if not the greatest World Series game(s) of all time. Frost jumps between telling the history of baseball and the histories of each member of the Reds and Red Sox, and a pitch-by-pitch accounting of Game Six. And while doing this, he accomplishes the ideal of every good nonfiction sports writer: he makes the sports parts incredibly exciting, and makes the personal history parts incredibly engaging. Every at-bat comes off as epic, and every player bio comes off as real and unique. Frost is especially successful in framing the book through the eyes and words of two primary protagonists: Reds Manager Sparky Anderson and Red Sox starting pitcher Luis Tiant. Through both men's lives and perspectives we see the beauty of human drama reflected through the lens of sports. If you don't shed tears as Frost recounts Tiant's reunion with his father and the moment they share at the World Series, you aren't human. A friend of mine who is a huge baseball fan told me that Game Six was the most exciting baseball game he has ever watched. I haven't seen a replay of the game, but after reading this book, game six is the most exciting baseball game I've ever experienced; Frost's book is that successful. If I had the power to determine the writing future of every living author, I would have Frost write accounts of every epic and defining moment in sports, from the Miracle on Ice to the Rumble in the Jungle. (I would also end the careers of John Grisham and Stephanie Meyers, but I digress). Simply put, Game Six is my second favorite non-fiction book ever, and one of my favorite books ever period. An exceptional read.

[Shay Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved baseball all my life, and it's almost spooky how circumstances have enabled me to see or hear or attend so many important moments that have stuck with me all my life. Like the futzy tv that suddenly came to life one last time enabling me to see Jack Morris's no-hitter in 1984 before promptly dying for good. Or the random Reds game I went to while on vacation in 1971 with my parents, and saw Rick Wise not only throw a no-hitter, but hit two home runs as well--a feat never matched in all of the sport's long history. And then there was this, game six of the 1975 World Series, perhaps--along with Don Larsen's 1956 perfect game--the most famous World Series game ever played. I was literally half way around the world, serving in the Air Force, but still got to hear the broadcast on Armed Services Radio.

I was doing my job when Bernie Carbo hit his dramatic game-tying home run in the 8th inning. And although it was after midnight in Boston, it was noon time where I was, and I was in the mess hall having lunch when Carlton Fisk hit his unforgettable home run to win that game. (While still overseas, I also got to see--albeit on tape delay--Mark "The Bird" Fidrych's famous win over the Yankees in 1976 at Tiger Stadium. It was almost like being home again for this Michigan gal.) Although I remember almost nothing about game 7 of the 1975 World Series except for reading about it in the Stars & Stripes newspaper, I remember the radio broadcast of game six vividly, and it is all brought back in bright and marvelous detail in this book by Mark Frost.

Frost takes the reader through the lead-up to the game, introduces us to Luis Tiant and Sparky Anderson, and then takes us pitch by pitch through this famous contest. Then he wraps up all the broad strokes of what happened to the participants in ensuing years. The reader comes to understand the leadership of Tony Perez, the humanity of Sparky Anderson and Tom Yawkey, the struggles of Bernie Carbo and the pure wonderful joy of baseball at its best. Absolutely recommended.

[Tom Gase · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read about possibly the greatest game ever played in the greatest sport I know. It's weird, but after I read "Game Six's" author Mark Frost's "The Greatest Game Ever Played" about a year ago, I wondered if he could describe a baseball game the same way he wrote about the 1913 U.S. Open in that book. The answer--a definite yes.

On the first page, Frost dedicates the book to Vin Scully, the Hall-of-Fame announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Reading this book felt like I was watching Game Six live, but with Scully announcing. A true masterpiece, Frost doesn't just talk about heroes Carlton Fisk and Bernie Carbo, he talks about ALL the players, but doesn't ever stray too far off from the game, which was the problem in Lew Paper's recent book, "Perfect" about Don Larsen in 1956. I had almost forgot about the great Dwight Evans catch but Frost describes it perfectly.

I also loved the last 50 pages or so when Frost talked about what happened to all the players that competed in the game. I was thrilled to learn that Bernie Carbo is doing okay now. I also never realized that Evans had more home runs in the 1980's than any baseball player in the AL. Good trivia question for later. And wow, I can't believe how loaded the Boston Globe's sportswriters were in 1975--Peter Gammons, Leigh Montville, Lesley Vesser, Bob Ryan, etc.

In the end, this is a must read, and I can't wait for Frost to come out with another book. Well done.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another winner from Mark Frost, particularly if you love baseball. He writes about baseball with the same engaging and vivid prose that we have come to expect from his earlier portraits of golfing icons Francis Ouimet and Bobby Jones. In addition to going into fantastic detail on the famed Game Six of the 1975 series, he also dives into the history of both the Reds and the Red Sox, the history of the World Series, and the history of baseball itself. He also tackles such contemporary issues as free agency with a keen critic's eye. One knock on this book is that the character sketches are not as enduring as those of his golfing masterpieces, but that is because he tries to give background of each player, instead of focusing on a few central figures to develop throughout the work. One wonders if he tries to do too much. Still, the work is great and the last 100 pages–the so-called afterword–is itself worth the price of admission.

[Andy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on game six of the 1975 World Series, considered by many to be the greatest game in baseball history. The book alternates between a chapter detailing every play in an inning with a section on a player in the game or a past game or history that relates to the game. A non baseball fan might find some of the detail of each pitch to be a bit tedious, but I found it riveting

The thing that surprised me was the suspense of the book even though I knew who won the game(and actually watched the game at the time) This is due to Frost's storytelling as well as the great individual moments of the game.

Especially interesting was the epilogue that traced the players and coaches and teams after the game. You follow the game and sadly how the "big business" of baseball has slowly robbed the game of its soul, a soul that was so evident on that October day in 1975

[Jimmie Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 11 when Game Six of the 75 World Series was played. I was a huge Reds fan and knew the Big Red Machine inside and out. I vividly remember this game and especially the fact that my parents let me stay up to watch the entire game. The game still lives on in my memory as one of the greatest sporting events ever. This game and the entire series also made me a huge fan of Boston and Fenway! Loved how the author relives the details of Game Six introducing us to the thoughts and strategies from the coaches and players. He delicately weaves in some baseball history as well. GREAT BOOK and enjoyable READ.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Enjoyable and informative.

Learned a lot of cool things. Frost is a capable writer and I have enjoyed his work. But when you buy a sports book you have to remember that the author is 99% going to be an arch liberal and this guy is for sure. He goes out of his way to insult non-pinko libs like him and it does not add to the story. Usually I can overlook this but doubt I will invest in any more of his books.

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Game Six" dissects what is often referred to as the greatest baseball game ever played, as in depth and from every angle as possible. Mark Frost amazingly takes one game and stretches it out to such a degree, but makes it interesting when one would expect it to be dry. Not being old enough to remember this game outside of the one famous clip, nor having any rooting interest in either the Reds or Red Sox, it was still captivating and seemed to flow effortlessly. Excellent.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A whole book about one baseball game. And it works. Frost does a great job of walking us through the game while mixing in all the inside stories and background on players and league at that time. Great insight and research getting quotes and such from many involved. If you are a baseball fan this is a def recommended read.

[Harold Kasselman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankly, I did not find much of new material in the book. Maybe it is because the 1975 World Series is so embedded in my memory cells, that I knew almost everything from observance or other reading material. Mr. Frost opted to write an entire book about one game, game six, of the series. The game itself was only four hours and one minute, despite going ten innings.(Today, it is an average nine inning Red Sox/Yankee game) So, what is an author to do to fill up a book? Well, there is some attempt to relate the series to contemporary America. So, we get a short history of the Patty Hearst saga and the SLA, stagflation, and labor relations between MLB and the players union. And the last twenty percent of the book is devoted to the after baseball lives of many of the players from game six, and to personal observances about the changes in the game of baseball from 1975 to today. But there are no personal interviews, not even a quote by a player looking back on the iconic game. Did every player refuse to be interviewed? Was there an attempt to locate them? It appears not. This would have made the book so much more memorable. Yes, there are a few quotes, but they were published in 1975. Coming up to bat in the last of the 10th, Fisk tells Freddy Lynn who is on deck, "I am going to try and hit one off the wall, you drive me in, so we can get this thing over with." Lynn replies, "Okay, Pudge".)
To be fair, there are plenty of good things to say about the book as well. I especially enjoyed the in depth examination of the managers of the teams, George "Sparky" Anderson" and Darrell Johnson. Frost does an especially good job at defining what kind of man Sparky was, and why he was so compatible with the Big Red machine. I found it fascinating that the notorious Captain Hook could not pull the trigger, based on his gut, and allowed Rawley Eastwick to pitch against pinch hitter Bernie Carbo who promptly hammered a three run tying home run. Likewise, Frost accurately paints Johnson as a conservative old school manager who went by the book to his detriment. He continued to leave Luis Tiant in game six despite his loss of stuff, and to the dismay of his team and the fans.(By the way, Frost does a nice job telling Tiant's parent's emigration from Cuba). That story reminded me of 1986 when John McNamara continued to stay with an exhausted Pedro Martinez that blew the ALCS. And enjoyed the story behind the iconic camera shot from the left field stands that showed the iconic Fisk waving his ball fair as he side-stepped to first base. The 75 series was one of the greatest in modern history, and Frost noted that 76 million people watched at least a part of the game. Frost also does a good job reminding readers that game seven was also an exciting game, but it has been overshadowed by the game six heroics. Yet, as Marty Brennaman says, "We won that series 3 games to 4." I'll never forget that game, and Frost reinforces why it was so memorable.

[Andrew R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read all 3 of Frost's historic golf books this summer (The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Grand Slam, and The Match), so how, especially as a Mass. native, could I not also read Game Six? It didn't disappoint.

I turned 16 in the summer of '75. The Red Sox had rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice (and very young Dwight Evans and Rick Burleson), to go along with veterans like YAZ, Rico, Fisk, Tiant, and a lefty the press nicknamed Spaceman.

The Big Red Machine was in its Prime, with Rose, Bench, Morgan, Perez, and a 41 year old, white-haired manager that looked 60, called Sparky.

Frost took this reader back to that day, those days really, and did it in a style similar to his golf books. It brought back so many great memories it had me checking out YouTube and old Boston Globe articles written by a young Peter Gammons. I also learned about Tom Yawkey, the old, long-time owner of the Red Sox who to me at the time, was just an old rich guy. He died in '76.

Bostonians will never forget about Louis Tiant's style and grit, nor will we ever forget about Bernie Carbo's home run to tie up the game. In fact, I checked out an excellent ESPN Outside the lines on Carbo, who thankfully had the underlying will, along with key support of players like Bill Lee and Fergie Jenkins, to bring him back from hell.

The afterword of the book was equally interesting, going over the beginning of free agency and the work stoppages.

If you like Frost's storytelling, and you're either from Boston or a long-time hockey fan, "Searching for Bobby Orr" is written in a similar style with excellent historical context.

Finally, in reading this book, I had tears in my eyes a few times, but none more than reading about Sparky Anderson's Hall of Fame speech. If there ever was a GREAT simple man, it was Sparky.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll be attending my first game at Fenway Park in the fall, so I picked up Mark Frost’s book “Game Six”—about the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds—to prepare. I had read Frost’s biography of golfer Bobby Jones already, and found it to be one of the best-written bios I had ever read. I had high hopes for how compellingly he might write about baseball, a sport I have more interest in than golf. At first, I’ll admit, I had fears about how he’d write a book about just one World Series game (one in a best-of-seven series), but I quickly learned that he was not going to have any problem. Frost writes about game six like it’s a Super Bowl. Putting all the emotional weight of the series on that game. His writing puts your butt in a seat, sitting anxiously beside 35,000 others as the events of that night unfolded. But as well as he manages it, I still wonder if it might have been even better had it been structured differently. Most of the book is about the season leading up to Game Six, but it jumps back and forth. Why not just tell the story of the season chronologically? Another aspect that I tended not to like…Frost has obvious respect for almost all the players in his narrative, and it made me question his objectivity. Writers do tend to write about people they admire, or they grow to admire them during the research process, but I always prefer writing that sounds neutral. That way I can trust I’m getting the facts, and not a rose-colored version of them. But at the end of the day, I picked up this book to read a compelling retelling of the events of the 1975 World Series. This book certainly delivers.

7/10

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough good things about this book. Game Six chronicles, in exquisite detail, one of the greatest baseball games ever played. And that's not just my opinion. "That was the best game I ever played in," said Pete Rose about game six of the 1975 World Series, even though his team lost the game.

I was 17 during the 1975 World Series, watching intently, as it was yet another chance for the Red Sox, my favorite team since I was ten years old, to break their drought of WS championships. I watched in horror, in game three, as Ed Armbrister interfered with Carlton Fisk in the tenth inning, on a bunt play, which led to a Reds victory (most of us believe game six would have been the end of the series if that interference had been called). That non-interference call is listed as one of the ten worst calls in baseball history, by the way. Game six was probably the crowning moment of one of the greatest World Series ever played. I say that, and my team lost.

Mark Frost makes this game come alive as he goes through the preparations for the game, and then gives a pitch-by-pitch detailed account of the game. We learn histories of players and managers. I was trying to eat lunch at work when I read the account of Luis Tiant finally seeing his father again after over a decade of separation as his father was stuck in Cuba, unable to leave because of the tyrant, Fidel Castro. It's hard to eat lunch when you're crying. I gained a new respect for manager Sparky Anderson, who was a giant among men when it comes to the great game of baseball. His death, almost two years ago, makes it even that much more emotional.

I laughed, I cried, I cheered. Then I was sad again, when Frost continues the story, and goes into many of the things that happened after this World Series, including the advent of free agency. I almost wish he had left that out of the book. He also chronicles that horrible strike of 1994, the one that eliminated the World Series for the first time in history. I remember how angry I was at that strike. I didn't pay to attend a baseball game for at least 5-6 years after that. I almost stopped paying attention at all. But my anger and disappointment doesn't hold a candle to Tony Kubek's. Kubek was calling games for the Yankees' TV station at the time. Here's what Frost says about that. "When the strike ended the 1994 season, Tony Kubek wrote acting commissioner Bud Selig a sixteen-page letter detailing the many ways in which he believed the sport had lost its way, and offered solutions for how he thought those critical problems could be addressed. Selig never answered him.
"Kubek resigned from the Yankees that winter and never called another baseball game; he's never even watched one since, so distraught is he at what has happened to the game he loved, a disaster for which he holds players and owners equally accountable."

To end this on a better note, I can't really review this without including Frost's account of the game winning home run, that even that has become an institution in the game of baseball.

Bench signaled for the sinker, inside, and Darcy delivered. It didn't have his usual hard kick, cutting low and inside, and probably would have finished out of the zone, a pitch most hitters couldn't do much with, but Pudge Fisk, unusual for such a tall right-handed man, was a notorious inside/low-ball pull hitter, and that, finally, was Darcy's one and only mistake.
Fisk saw it, liked it, reached down, and crushed it.
In the broadcast truck, director Harry Coyle tried to hail his left field cameraman, Lou Gerard, stationed inside the Green Monster scoreboard, on his headset. Fisk's ball was headed straight down the left field line, a high towering shot, exactly the kind of flight path they'd planted a camera in there to pan up and capture. Gerard, at that moment, stood frozen in terror at his post, staring down at the biggest rat he'd ever seen in his life--the size of a frickin' housecat--that had just crawled across his foot. Half-paralyzed with fright, he couldn't swing his camera around; he held the close-up he'd established on Fisk.
Fred Lynn jumped up from the on-deck circle to align himself with the left field foul line, the first person in the park to realize this was going to turn out well; he jumped straight into the air. As the ball reached the apex of its flight, it began to hook to the left, toward the yellow foul pole and screen. With his great bat speed, and the way he jumped on inside pitches, Fisk hit dozens of foul "home runs" a year, and this might be another one; and in any other ballpark in baseball, absent the short left field wall, it undoubtedly would have been.
The crowd rose to its feet.
Carlton Fisk didn't run. He turned sideways and took three abbreviated hops down the first base line, wildly waving his arms at the ball like a kid in a Little League game, urging, willing, begging it to stay fair.
Pete Rose turned and sprinted down the left field line, following the flight of the ball toward the pole, willing it to turn foul, and never saw Fisk's dance toward first.
Tony Kubek stepped forward right into the Reds dugout, alongside Sparky and everyone else in the club, all of them craning their necks forward to keep the ball in sight.
Eyes fixed on the training room television, Luis Tiant [starting pitcher for the game] sat up in the whirlpool. Hearing the deep rumbling about to crescendo in Fenway all the way down in the depths of the old building, Bill Lee jumped off the training table nearby and started shouting.
In the owner's box, Tom Yawkey and Duffy Lewis stood up, their hands reaching out for each other.
In the broadcast booth, Dick Stockton, taking his turn back on play-by-play, his voice hoarse with emotion as he narrated: "There it goes, a long drive, if it stays fair..."
Thirty-five thousand people locked in a suspended passage of time--less than four seconds by the clock--and then, yes, the ball crashed off the screen near the very top of the left field foul pole.
"...home run!" finished Stockton, then wisely realized that the best thing now was to sit back and let the magic of the moment speak for itself.

(282-284)

In spite of the somewhat "downer" of an ending, I proclaim that Game Six is the best book on baseball that I have ever read. Mark Frost hath rendered a masterpiece. If you like baseball...no, if you LOVE baseball, you should read this book, no matter who your favorite team is.

[Jeramy David Spicer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Game Six by Mark Frost? Man, this book is a home run (see what I did there?). As a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan, born in '81, I grew up hearing legends about the Big Red Machine, stories passed down from my dad and uncles, filled with awe and a touch of wistful nostalgia. I never got to see those guys play, but the spirit of that team, that underdog mentality, has always been a part of my fandom.

Frost captures that spirit perfectly in this book. He takes the 1975 World Series, that legendary clash between the Reds and the Red Sox, and turns it into this gripping, suspenseful thriller. You can almost feel the tension in the air, hear the roar of the crowd, and taste the sweat of the players.

Frost dives deep into the details, from the intricate strategies to the personal lives of the players. It's like he was sitting in the dugout, whispering secrets with Sparky Anderson. And while I was naturally rooting for the Reds every step of the way, Frost gives both teams their due. It's a testament to his skill as a writer that he makes you appreciate the talent and determination on both sides.

If you're a baseball fan, a history buff, or just someone who loves a good story, Game Six is a must-read. It's a captivating blend of sports drama, historical fiction, and a touch of the supernatural (or maybe that we just me) that will keep you hooked from the first pitch to the final out. Plus, it gave me a newfound appreciation for the "Big Red Machine" and the legends I grew up hearing about.

[Robert S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Game Six of the 1975 World Series is considered by many individuals to be the greatest game of baseball to ever be played. Something that is a considerably tall order considering the long history of the sport and the number of thrilling games that it has seen over the years. Game Six certainly had all of the elements that can be found in the greatest game: Fantastic pitching, clutch hitting, the highest of stakes, the specter of history, and much more.

It's difficult for me to state my own opinion, given my history of baseball is limited compared to many of the individuals who state their opinion on the matter coupled with my own personal preference. As a Red Sox fan, its difficult to not see Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS as arguably one of the greatest games to ever played, and so on.

Mark Frost makes a fairly compelling argument in Game Six with an in-depth analysis of the game that could make ESPN's 30 for 30 jealous. Frost takes it one step further by providing commentary to what was happening in the country at the time, what was happening in baseball, and gives the reader an overall feeling for the time period. This ultimately helps and hurts the book because it often feels at times it is merely extending the page length instead of adding something more.

Game Six will definitely appeal to the hardcore baseball fan, the casual Red Sox or Cincinnati fan, and those looking for a good analysis of a baseball game.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be hard to conceive of a book about just one game being a page-turner. But this book is truly that. Granted it is arguably the greatest World Series game ever, but still. Mark Frost alternates the game's play by play with back stories about the main characters - the players, managers, announcers, TV and league execs. There's also a great analysis of the changing labor economics of baseball and what free agency hath wrought. As one who fell asleep before Fisk's home run (I can freely admit that now), I felt I was watching it live - even more so. I never would have known Sparky Anderson (Reds Manager) was sneaking a cigarette!

The most moving parts of the book though did not involve anything on the field - it was the reunion of Luis Tiant with his parents - he had not seen them for more than 10 years during which time Luis had achieved baseball success, married and had children of his own. The scene where they reunite at Logan Airport is forever etched in my psyche in all the best ways.

[Brendon Desrochers · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was readable, not boring, had some good detail that I appreciated. Ultimately, the tone became easier to pinpoint when Marty Brennaman was the first person the author thanked in the acknowledgements. The book was the wrong mix of bitter and wistful and maudlin and a bit naive. Its tone felt like it was straight from a Brennaman broadcast, and that's not a compliment. I'm glad I read this, I guess, but I doubt I would have been able to get through it if I weren't a big fan of the Red Sox (or the Reds).

It mixes in research and anecdotes with the play by play, which is nice, but it strangely lacked many direct quotes, which made me wonder what of the information and stories were from interviews vs. reports/clippings. That was slightly annoying but easy to get over because it was clear the author did his background research. But that slight annoyance was barely in my memory by the time the book ended, because the last 60 pages were like a never-ending newspaper screed...er...column about what's wrong with baseball and its decision-makers compared to the good ol' days.

[Robert Melnyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good account of one of the greatest baseball games ever played. Although I am a huge Yankees fan, I have always thought that the 1975 World Series between Boston and Cincinnati was the best World Series I ever saw, based on drama, competition, and excitement. Game 6 of that World Series was probably one of the greatest baseball games ever played, so I thought I would give this book a try. It did not disappoint. The book gives not only a good account of the game itself, but also does a great job in covering the participants (players, coaches, owners), their history in the game and how they came to be part of this World Series. This is a great read for baseball fans, but I will admit that if you are not a baseball fan, this book will probably not be quite as interesting for you as it was for me :-).

[Ken Heard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Mark Frost's "Game Six" is like listening to the broadcast of that 1975 World Series game. He almost goes pitch by pitch for the entire game and intersperses anecdotes about the players between the action.

It tends to get long in parts (you can only read so many paragraphs about the pitch count going 2 and 2), and repetitive at times, but overall it's a fun read with a lot of info. The parts about Louis Tiant and attempts to reunite with his family in Cuba are great. Also, looking back nearly half a century later and knowing the full context of some of the players provides a better insight into Frost's stories as well.

It was a great, unbelievable game and Frost conveys the excitement well. The account of Carlton Fisk's 12th inning, leaning home run is worth the price of the book alone.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

so many storylines…

Mark Frost chronicles pitch by pitch the events of the sixth game of the 75 World Series. There is drama enough in this game, but Frost expands the story, giving biographical information about each important player, and also explaining the trends behind some of what happened that night. What is also noticeable, is the long afterword to the book. Frost attempts to explain why these two great teams didn’t become bigger dynasties. he believes this was the last moment of an old regime, and that the new world of free agency changed everything. Unfortunately, the Red Sox and the Reds did not change along with the system. Their stubbornness and short sightedness brought this glory moment to a much swifter conclusion than anyone would have thought on that October night.

[Daniel Lipsher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember watching Game 6 (and Game 7) of the 1975 World Series, but not in the detail that this book goes into. And that detail is both the book’s strongest and weakest elements. Learning about the lives and careers of everyone involved in that Series — including players, managers and broadcasters — before and after Game 6 was interesting and enlightening. But the pitch-by-pitch description of the game devolved into tedium. A good ballgame is captivating because of the larger drama and entertainment it offers. Hanging on a description of every pitch through 12 innings can turn a great game into insufferable boredom. A good retelling of one of the most compelling games ever played that would be improved by brevity (much like this review, I suppose).