by Mark Frost
First published 2009
Mark Frost takes readers inside Fenway Park on October 21, 1975, after three days of rain delays have built anticipation to a fever pitch. The Cincinnati Reds lead the World Series three games to two and need just one more victory to claim the championship. The Boston Red Sox face elimination on their home field. What unfolds over twelve innings becomes what many consider the greatest baseball game ever played. The Big Red Machine mounts one of their signature comebacks while Boston stages an improbable late rally. Clutch hits fly off the bats of Hall of Famers like Johnny Bench, Carl Yastrzemski, and Pete Rose. Luis Tiant takes the mound under manager Sparky Anderson's watchful eye. The game twists through extra innings until one of baseball's most famous home runs ends the marathon in the twelfth. Frost captures not just the players but the entire cast of characters who made the night unforgettable, from sportscasters to groundskeepers to the fans packed into Fenway. He reveals how this World Series marked the end of baseball's reserve clause era, with free agency about to transform American sports forever.
Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, baseball, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-events, sports
Setting: Boston, Cincinnati, Fenway Park
Period: 1975
416 pages · Hardcover · Hyperion