1975 World Series – Game 5

Game 5

October 16, 1975

Riverfront Stadium

Attendance: 56,393

Game Time Temp: 58-degrees

Starting Pitcher (Boston): Reggie Cleveland

Starting Pitcher (Cincinnati): Don Gullett

The 56,393 in attendance for Game 5 was the largest crowd to ever see a baseball game at Riverfront Stadium (and 54,000 larger than the crowds that came to see the Bengals play in the 1990′s).

At the top of the 1st inning the Red Sox drew first blood and took an early 1-0 lead.  In the bottom of the inning the Reds had runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but weren’t able to score. 

Umpires had funny uniforms in 1975: 

Now is probably a good time to mention that Tony Perez is 0-15 in the World Series so far.  Hmm… foreshadowing?

Bottom of the 4th… Tony Perez at bat… the pitch… the swing… Perez hits a shot over the left-centerfield fence for a game tying homerun (1-1).

Sign-making hadn’t reached its creative peak yet in 1975:

The Reds add a run in the bottom of the 5th, and three more runs in the 6th thanks to Tony Perez’s second homer of the game (I think his slump is over – 2 HR, 4 RBI), giving them a 6-1 lead over the Red Sox.

Gullett threw only 54 pitches in the first six innings, and the announcer adds, “he’s young and he should be fresh and strong.”  Yet another thing you can’t say on TV today.

Even 1970′s-era Mr. Red is better than Gapper:

The Red Sox will add a run in the top of the 9th, but it’s not enough…

…and this one belongs to the Reds!

A giddy Pete Rose had this to say after the game:

“One more game, baby!  Woo-hoo!  Sliding head-first is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest.  You don’t lose your momentum, and there’s one more important reason I slide head-first – it gets my picture in the paper.”

Reds lead World Series 3-2