A Series to Shout About: 1975, the Cincinnati Reds vs. the Boston Red Sox

Hey, I checked formatting and those asterisks were supposed to be converted to bullet points.

I move pretty slow on things like this.

Correction to the G1 post; Gowdy called Yaz the greatest defensive leftfielder of all time, not outfielder.

Game 2 (the YouTube clip is missing the Reds' top of the 2nd)

-- pitchers' duel. But not a 2023 pitchers' duel, where you'd see 20-25 strikeouts. Bill Lee and Jack Billingham were, I think, considered two of the best 20-25 starters in the game at the time: Lee had won 51 games over the past three seasons, Billingham 53 (basically the #1 or #2 metric then). In '75, Billingham struck out 155 in 293 innings; Lee struck out 78 in 260. Which is incredible from the standpoint of today. They each struck out 5 in G2: Billingham was pulled in the 6th, Lee made it into the 9th. Great curveballs, both of them. Lee's is so slow and so 12-6, it's a borderline eephus pitch--he probably threw 10-15 of these during the game. Garagiola describes Billingham's as a "sweeping curve," which made smile, having listened to Sean Casey give a demonstration the other night of how Sonny Gray's "sweeper" is not a slider...are a "sweeping curve" and "sweeper" interchangeable?

-- Billingham plunks Evan in the 2nd, clearly trying to move him off the plate; don't think Aroldis Garcia would like Garagiola's explanation of what just happened.

-- many great plays on both sides. Same inning, Bench tries to pick off Evans at second; he bounces the throw, ball gets away, Evans gets back. On the next pitch, Bench throws down to second again; Evans heads to third and gets thrown out. One of the announcers says that Evans tried to set a trap for Bench; I almost wonder if the opposite wasn't true. Lynn makes a great diving catch in center, Fisk throws out Morgan trying to steal (Morgan was 67/77 in '75), and Bench gets Lee by half-a-step on a near-perfect bunt down the third-base line.

-- intangibles watch: talking about Yaz, Garagiola says "You just can't measure the value of this fella"

-- something to see: Kuhn and Kissinger sitting together in the Commissioner's Box (Joe Cronin also there)

-- Morgan's walk in the 4th breaks up Lee's perfect game

-- time-capsule stuff: a plug for "The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola," with a "poem by Foster Brooks." Also something about a bubble-blowing contest between Kurt Bevacqua and Johnny Oates.

-- in the 8th, in anticipation of Geronimo maybe getting on base, Ed Armbrister pops out of the dugout to pinch-punt; Geronimo flies out, Merv Rettenmund pinch-hits instead. Armbrister will be back.

-- I watched the game not remembering (and not checking, of course) who won; I had a vague sense Boston went up in the series 2-0. No: the Reds tied it and then went ahead 3-2 in the top ninth off Dick Drago. One game each, heading back to Cincinnati.