Editing Boston Red Sox (section)

===1970s: The Red Hat Era===
Although the Red Sox were competitive for much of the late 1960s and early 1970s, they never finished higher than second place in their division. The closest they came to a divisional title was 1972 when they lost by a half-game to the [[1972 Detroit Tigers season|Detroit Tigers]]. The start of the season was delayed by a players' strike, and the Red Sox had lost one more game to the strike than the Tigers had. Games lost to the strike were not made up. The Red Sox went to Detroit with a half-game lead for the final series of the season, but lost the first two of those three and were eliminated from the pennant race.

====1975====
The Red Sox won the AL pennant in 1975. The [[1975 Boston Red Sox season|1975 Red Sox]] were as colorful as they were talented, with Yastrzemski and rookie outfielders [[Jim Rice]] and [[Fred Lynn]], veteran outfielder [[Dwight Evans (Baseball)|Dwight Evans]], [[catcher]] [[Carlton Fisk]], and pitchers [[Luis Tiant]] and eccentric junkballer [[Bill Lee (left-handed pitcher)|Bill "The Spaceman" Lee]]. Fred Lynn won both the American League [[Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award|Rookie of the Year]] award and the [[Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player|Most Valuable Player]] award, a feat which had never previously been accomplished, and was not duplicated until [[Ichiro Suzuki]] did it in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/roy_rol.shtml |title=Rookie of the Year Awards & Rolaids Relief Award Winners — |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=October 31, 2013}}</ref><ref name="oezowb">{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/mvp_cya.shtml |title=Most Valuable Player MVP Awards & Cy Young Awards Winners – |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=October 31, 2013}}</ref> In the [[1975 American League Championship Series]], the Red Sox swept the [[1975 Oakland Athletics season|Oakland A's]].

[[File:Carlton Fisk 1976.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Carlton Fisk]], best known for his "waving fair" home run in Game 6 of the [[1975 World Series]]]]
In the [[1975 World Series]], they faced the heavily favored [[1975 Cincinnati Reds season|Cincinnati Reds]], also known as [[The Big Red Machine]]. Luis Tiant won games 1 and 4 of the World Series but after five games, the Red Sox trailed the series 3 games to 2. Game 6 at Fenway Park is considered among the greatest games in postseason history. Down 6–3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Red Sox [[pinch hitter]] [[Bernie Carbo]] hit a three-run homer into the center field bleachers off Reds fireman [[Rawly Eastwick]] to tie the game. In the top of the 11th inning, [[right fielder]] Dwight Evans made a spectacular catch of a [[Joe Morgan]] line drive and doubled off [[Ken Griffey, Sr.|Ken Griffey]] at first base to preserve the tie. In the bottom of the 12th inning, Carlton Fisk hit a deep fly ball that sliced towards the left-field foul pole above the [[Green Monster]]. As the ball sailed into the night, Fisk waved his arms frantically towards fair territory, seemingly pleading with the ball not to go foul. The ball complied, and bedlam ensued at Fenway as Fisk rounded the bases to win the game for the Red Sox 7–6.

The Red Sox lost game 7, 4–3 even though they had an early 3–0 lead. Starting pitcher Bill Lee threw a slow looping curve which he called a "Leephus pitch" or "space ball" to Reds first baseman [[Tony Pérez]] who hit the ball over the Green Monster and across the street. The Reds scored the winning run in the 9th inning. Carlton Fisk said famously about the 1975 World Series, "We won that thing 3 games to 4."

====1978 pennant race====
In 1978, the Red Sox and the Yankees were involved in a tight pennant race. The Yankees were {{frac|14|1|2}} [[games behind]] the Red Sox in July, and on September 10, after completing a 4-game sweep of the Red Sox (known as "The Boston Massacre"), the Yankees tied for the divisional lead.

On September 16 the Yankees held a {{frac|3|1|2}} game lead over the Red Sox, but the Sox won 11 of their next 13 games and by the final day of the season, the Yankees' magic number to win the division was one—with a win over Cleveland or a Boston loss to the [[1978 Toronto Blue Jays season|Toronto Blue Jays]] clinching the division. However, [[1978 New York Yankees season|New York]] lost 9–2 and Boston won 5–0, forcing a one-game playoff to be held at Fenway Park on Monday, October 2.

The most remembered moment from the game was [[Bucky Dent]]'s 7th inning three-run home run in off Mike Torrez just over the Green Monster, giving the Yankees their first lead.<ref>{{harvnb|Shaughnessy|1990|pp=145–147}}</ref> The dejected Boston manager, [[Don Zimmer]], gave Mr. Dent a new middle name which lives on in Boston sports lore to this day, uttering three words as the ball sailed over the left-field wall: "Bucky Fucking Dent!" [[Reggie Jackson]] provided a solo home run in the 8th that proved to be the difference in the Yankees' 5–4 win, which ended with Yastrzemski popping out to [[Graig Nettles]] in foul territory with [[Rick Burleson]] representing the tying run at third. Although Dent became a Red Sox demon, the Red Sox got retribution in 1990 when the Yankees fired Dent as their manager during a series at Fenway Park.<ref name=BuckyDent>{{cite news|title=Dent Dumped by Yankees|date=June 7, 1990|author-link=Nick Cafardo|first=Nick|last=Cafardo|newspaper=The Boston Globe|page=37|url=https://secure.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61640175.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+7%2C+1990&author=Nick+Cafardo%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=37&desc=DENT+DUMPED+BY+YANKEES|access-date=January 31, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715111312/https://secure.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61640175.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+7,+1990&author=Nick+Cafardo,+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=37&desc=DENT+DUMPED+BY+YANKEES|archive-date=July 15, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>