Game Six

July 20, 2009
Many a diehard baseball fan could tell you how Game 6 of the 1975 World Series ended—with Boston catcher Carlton Fisk dramatically waving his extra-inning home run toward fair territory, and the pandemonium that soon followed. As for the other details, Frost (The Match
) mentions them all in a wonderful tale about one of the sport's seminal events. Describing pitch by pitch and inning by inning, Frost breaks down the excitement on the field, but also how each participant came to play in the October thriller. Each player has a story—from Boston's star pitcher Luis Tiant and his humble beginnings, to Cincinnati's rugged, trash-talking third baseman, Pete Rose. From Yastrzemski to Bench, Evans to Morgan, Frost covers them all, along with the managers, owners and even broadcasters, expertly weaving from the past to that famous fall night. The last third of the work covers the aftermath of the game, recapping Cincinnati's eventual World Series win in Game 7 (an oft-forgotten fact about that series), and what became of each player in the years following. With each passing baseball season, “the number of people who would later claim to have been at Game Six would increase twenty-fold,” and thanks to Frost, the reader will likewise feel like he was in attendance at Fenway Park for that World Series classic.

July 15, 2009
A pitch-by-pitch account of the game best known for the image of the hopping, waving, ecstatic catcher Carlton Fisk, whose 12th-inning home run won the game for the Boston Red Sox.

Sports nonfiction vet Frost (The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, 2007, etc.) is a bit too fond of superlatives. Sox outfielder Dwight Evans made the"greatest catch in the history of the World Series"; at game's end Boston Globe sportswriter Peter Gammons wrote"one of the most lyrical, inspired and impressionistic columns ever written about a baseball game." And so on. All the players were larger-than-life. Carl Yastrzemski had the greatest work ethic since John Henry; Sox pitcher Luis Tiant loved his father more than anyone since the baby Jesus; Reds' third baseman Pete Rose had a"gap-toothed Huck Finn enthusiasm for the game." Sprinkled throughout the breathless game narration are allusions to historical events from the mid-1970s: the presidency of Gerald Ford, the imminent American Bicentennial celebration, the advent of Saturday Night Live. Between pitches, Frost delivers the back stories of just about everyone involved: the sportscasters and -writers, the players, the owners, the managers—even the Fenway Park organist. The diction is often of the aw-shucks variety. Reds manager Sparky Anderson once ripped a couple of guys a new one; writer Maureen Dowd was"a sharp young cookie." Fisk finally comes to bat in the 12th nearly 300 pages in. After a page-long description of the flight of the struck baseball, Frost devotes nearly 100 more pages to the aftermath of the game. He tells us what happened to everyone and claims that this particular game rescued baseball from a serious drought.

Fans won't argue the game's significance to the sport, but Frost's narrative is over-the-top and gushing, making it strictly for baseball die-hards.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 13, 2009
Game Six of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds has become one of the most storied contests in the history of baseball. It may seem that there is nothing new to say about the game, but Frost (The Greatest Game Ever Played) manages to bring a fresh perspective. He captures all the excitement and tension of the game, and his book reads like a novel, full of suspense and larger-than-life characters. Frost combines play-by-play coverage with background stories on players and coaches, the history of the World Series, and info on baseball's complicated relationship with its fans and the media. Alternating between past and present, Frost provides the context to understand the significance of this historic game. Verdict Readers need not be baseball fanatics to appreciate this well-written account. Highly recommended.-Michele Martin, MLIS, Petaluma, CA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2009
For baseball fans of a certain age, the words game six mean only one thing: Boston versus Cincinnati, game six of the 1975 World Series, the 12-inning marathon that was decided by one of the most dramatic home runs in the sports history. Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisks hooking line drive bounced off the foul pole, fair by inches, and Fisk, in a now-iconic image, stood at home plate, waving the ball fair as it neared the pole. Using the game itself, inning by inning and pitch by pitch, as an elaborate frame story, Frost moves dexterously back and forth in time, providing context not only about the individual players but also about the two teams and the historical moment in which the game was played. Great events in sports history provide fertile ground for narrative nonfiction, and Frost, also a talented novelist, uses his storytelling skills to great advantage here (as he has in three previous books about golf). Even fans who think they remember game six perfectly will be pleased to relive the key moments. In addition to Fisks game winner, theres Luis Tiants gallant pitching effort through the first several innings, keeping Boston in the game, and theres Bernie Carbos three-run, pinch-hit homer to tie it up in the eighth, after the Reds had finally worn Tiant down and taken a 63 lead. Frost re-creates those and many other moments vividly, but it is the backstory that makes the whole book throb with sporting life. For anyone who knows baseball, Frost turns a single remembered moment (Fisks homer) into a living tapestry of why the game holds our imaginations across generations. And it still doesnt matter one bit that the Red Sox lost the series to the Reds in game seven.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)