18. The 1975 World Series restored fan interest across the country
In 1975 the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox faced off in the World Series. During the series, which went the full seven games, fan interest increased with each. An average of 36 million viewers per game watched the series on television, broadcast by NBC. For the climactic game seven, over 51 million watched, ensnared by the drama of the preceding six games. Game six, a twelve-inning affair won by the Red Sox with a walk-off home run has often been called the greatest game of all time. Not even three consecutive days of rainouts, which postponed the Saturday and Sunday games scheduled for Fenway Park, could curtail fan interest. The last five games of the series were played at night, with most ending shortly before midnight. The series captured fan attention which baseball hadn’t seen since the golden days of the 1950s.
It wasn’t decided until the ninth inning of the seventh game when the Reds scored the winning run in the top of the inning and retired the Red Sox in the bottom. After years of decline, interest in the World Series surged. Jim Murray, the preeminent sportswriter of the day, wrote that all baseball had needed was “54 young men in red stockings” to restore its claim to America’s top sporting event. The two weeks of the 1975 World Series did indeed draw national attention, though with five of the seven games played at night it did not have the impact on daily life as did those of earlier eras. Skipping work, or surreptitiously listening via a transistor radio while in class were no longer necessary. Still, the 1975 World Series temporarily restored the Fall Classic to its past glory and is still considered by many the greatest World Series in history.