Game Six of the 1975 World Series-a must-win game for the Boston Red Sox, down three-games-to-two to the Cincinnati Reds-was a wild, seesaw affair. The Red Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Fred Lynn's three-run homer in the first inning, but the Reds came back and took a 6-3 lead into the eighth, when Bernie Carbo's pinch-hit, three-run homer tied the game. In the ninth inning the Red Sox failed to score despite loading the bases with no outs, and the game headed into extra innings with the score knotted at six.

It was 12:33 a.m. by the time Carlton Fisk stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom half of the twelfth against Pat Darcy, the eighth Reds pitcher of the night. On Darcy's second pitch, Fisk lofted a high shot down the left field line. Millions of television viewers watched Fisk wave wildly as he made his way down the first-base line, willing the ball to stay fair. When it glanced off the foul pole-a fair ball-John Kiley , the Fenway Park organist, launched into Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" as the native Vermonter circled the bases in triumph. The home run touched off a celebration throughout the region-in Fisk's native Bellows Falls, church bells rang out in the early-morning stillness.

Many consider Fisk's game-winning blast the exclamation point on the greatest baseball game ever played. In Game Seven, however, current Vermont resident Bill Lee couldn't hold on to another 3-0 lead, and the Reds took the series with a 4-3 victory. The Red Sox were once again denied their first World Series championship since Green Mountain Boy of Summer Jean Dubuc pinch hit for the victorious Bosox in the 1918 fall classic.

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