Carbo's shot was just the end of the first movement, however. A couple more crescendoes and a grand finale were yet to come. In the bottom of the ninth, Cincinnati outfielder George Foster threw out Denny Doyle at home plate when Doyle tried to score from third on a pop fly. In the top of the eleventh, Red Sox rightfielder Dewey Evans robbed Joe Morgan of a home run with a reeling, leaping catch that Reds' manager Anderson called the best he had ever seen.
It was already early morning, and a bright full moon was suspended above the center-field flagpole against the black sky, when Carlton Fisk dug in at home to lead off the bottom of the twelfth. When Fisk stroked the ball high toward the Green Monster, the hearts of Red Sox fans from Concord, New Hampshire, to Pawtucket, RhodeIsland, skipped a beat. Was it fair or foul? Ancient Fenway was generous this time: the ball caromed off the foul pole and into fair territory for a home run.
The following night, the Reds won the seventh game and the world championship on a bloop single in the ninth inning. In the Globe, Gammons wrote: "She is in retreat this morning, Olde Fenway; resting. Her affair with Kismet fell through at the very last, and while it was good, it was not to be this time."
It was not to be this year, either. When Rick Burleson singaled to score Butch Hobson in the 15th inning Sunday, Fenway's dismal affair with the 1976 ended. As the right field bleachers clock steadily ticked off the final minutes of the season, a sign hanging below it already proclaimed next spring's hopes: "WE'LL GET 'EM NEXT YEAR! SOX of '77 NO. 1." As Burleson singled, the clock solemnly proclaimed "6:09," then shut off.
Outside the park, a fan stopped at the corner of Jersey St. and Brookline Ave. to buy a hot dog from an old vendor, his dark beard peppered with white hairs.
"See you next year," the fan said. "OK, have a good winter," the vendor called back, smiling from beneath his grey stubble. Behind them, Fenway Park loomed majestically, smiling quietly from beneath the late afternoon shadows.