72 Days 'til the NFBC and our next chance to achieve that one fantasy moment for which we'll always be remembered before we ride off into the sunset.
The Carlton Fisk World Series game was recently named by the MLB Channel as the greatest of the last 50 years. The 1975 World Series itself is considered by many as the greatest ever. For me, it is.
I've been lucky enough to get to watch several incredible World Series in my lifetime, last year's epic Cards-Rangers Series among them. Others that have been indelibly etched in my mind's eye are the Twins-Braves 1991 thriller that included the Jack Morris 7th game 10-inning shutout, the 2001 Series where the Diamondbacks ended the Yankees 4-year run in a Series that featured a pair of Yankees 9th inning game-tying home runs before Luis Gonzales capped a Diamondback's comeback of their own over Mariano in Game 7, and of course the Mets return to dominance in 1986 over the Red Sox with a little help from Billy Buckner.
Like the 1975 Topps were my first baseball cards, 1975 was my first World Series, at least the first that I can remember watching. I remember staying up late to watch every exciting game, well past my bedtime, TV on in my room, volume low so my parents wouldn't hear that I was still up. I remember being in the schoolyard each following day and all the other 3rd graders talking about the Series, what they saw the previous night, and who they were rooting for. I was rooting for the Red Sox. Not because of the curse, or Yaz, or many of the other reasons most of the country rooted for the Red Sox. I rooted for them because my father did. He always liked the Sox, probably because as a Brooklyn Dodgers and then Mets fan, he'd root against the Yankees. I'm guessing the Red Sox helped him achieve that. The Sox obviously didn't pull it out, but the Series remains one that I'll always cherish.
What further cements the 1975 World Series as the greatest for me is that at my young age at the time, I knew little of the history and backround to the Series that helped create the great anticipation for it and great memories of it that it did for others. Hype meant nothing to me. As an 8-year old, I had no knowledge of the Red Sox curse, nor had the context for which to understand that the Big Red Machine was one of the greatest lineups in history, and was too young to realize that baseball was fading as America's pastime and that this great World Series helped restore baseball's status as America's greatest sport. All I knew is that I was watching incredible and exciting baseball and that I loved it. I was hooked for life. Topps and the 1975 World Series. I haven't looked back since.
I do see the greatest 3B in history wearing his Phillie uniform 
Plus he's a fan of LOTR 
) but I'll try.
