Fisk's most famous baseball moment came in the 1975 World Series against Cincinnati when his 12th-inning homer won Game 6 for the Red Sox. You know the scene - while running down the first base-line he's waving the ball fair with his arms. That video footage is shown over and over when promoting the game of baseball.
Fisk played 11 seasons with the Red Sox and another 13 with the Chicago White Sox. In a Boston uniform
Fisk wore the No.27 on his back - wearing a Chicago uniform Fisk turned the numbers around, and wore No.72.
If the 11 time American League All-Star catcher was looking for Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams "cornfield" in Iowa, he was only 263.7 miles off course.. The fan favorite catcher, caught up in this years World Series frenzy may have had a hankering to get back on a playing field with a bunch of Hall of Fame favorites. If it were Shoeless Joe Jackson's "cornfield" he was looking for, Fisk should have made sure he had a driving map from AAA with the best routes mapped out between Illinois and Iowa before getting behind the wheel.
For the most part Carlton Fisk was scandal free during his major league career in Boston and Chicago. That's not to say his career was trouble-free. On June 22,1993 Fisk broke Bob Boone's record for career games caught with his 2,226th game behind the plate. Six days later Fisk was unceremoniously and abruptly released by the Chicago White Sox. Fisk was notified of his dismissal in his hotel room in Cleveland while on a road trip with the team. He was ordered to turn in his equipment and fly back to Chicago immediately, and alone. It was then rumored the end of Fisk's tenure in Chicago was the culmination of years of conflict with White Sox management, particularly team majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf. ( Fisk made mention of the fireworks between himself and Reinsdorf in his Hall of Fame induction speech.) Later in that 1993 season when the White Sox made post-season play, Fisk attempted to go in the clubhouse to wish his former teammates good luck - Fisk was thrown out of the clubhouse. Only in September of 1997 did fences begin to mend when the White Sox retired Fisk's No.72.
Carlton Fisk was also known for his long-standing feud with Yankee catcher Thurman Munson. Fisk also had long-running battles with two other YankeesLou Piniella and Deion Sanders. During a game Sanders hit a pop-up and didn't run it out. Fisk yelled at him, "there's a right way and a wrong way to play this game- you're playing it the wrong way - the rest of us don't like it - someday you're going to get this game shoved right down your throat."
Former White Sox manager Jim Fregosi once said of Fisk - "Pudge works harder than anyone I know - he's the ultimate professional."
Monday night Carlton "Pudge" Fisk drove his pick-up truck to the "WRONG FIELD OF DREAMS"
Tom Hannon
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