This Day in Red Sox History- Oct 22nd, 1975; Fisk Waves it Fair

Before the 2004 and 2007 World Series and historic comeback in the 2004 ALCS, this was the closest the Red Sox came to World Series triumph since the roaring twenties: The iconic image of Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk using all the body english he could muster to wave fair a fly ball he hit off of Cincinnati reliver Pat Darcy in the bottom of the 12th inning of Game 6 in the 1975 World Series.

So engrained is the image in the psyche of Red Sox Nation [before they even started selling plastic cards- NANESB!] that the fact that the Cincinnati Reds would win the deciding Game 7 the following night was almost an afterthought. Fisk himself joked that he liked to tell people that the Red Sox won the World Series that year 3 games to 4.

It would be another 11 seasons before the Red Sox got anywhere near a deciding game in the World Series, and that too would evaporate with a ground ball rolling between the wickets of one Bill Buckner- at which point certain Boston sportswriters began what amounted to a cottage industry with talk of a curse.

Whether or not there was some otherworldy voodoo or hexes at work, all that came to an end 8 years ago with the Red Sox advancing to the World Series on an improbable comeback when they were three outs away from getting swept in the best-of-7 ALCS by their hated archrival, the New York Yankees. From there, Boston swept the St Louis Cardinals for their first World Series title in 86 years. The curse was gone- but one look at the animated Fisk makes one wonder if there ever was a curse to start off with.