Bernie Carbo and Mark Grych enjoyed a reunion that was decades in the making.
The former Boston Red Sox outfielder recently reconnected with Grych, an East Longmeadow, Mass., man who claims to have caught the home run ball Carbo hit in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series and kept it ever since. The Carbo-Grych meeting occurred Saturday at the Boys and Girls Club in Springfield, Mass., according to Mass. Live’s Shannon Young, and the ball naturally was a hot topic of conversation.
“I’ve kept the ball for 42 years, I’ve never had any intent in selling it — I always wanted to keep it as a keepsake … It was important to me,” Grych said. “I’ve been a Red Sox fan, my whole family has been Red Sox fans: my dad, my dad’s dad. So having that reminds me of them and the Red Sox.”
Grych and Carbo had interacted years before Saturday’s meeting, and Carbo even signed the ball for him.
“He used to do promotions for Casey Chevrolet in Chicopee,” Grych said. “After the World Series, my cousin Mary arranged for us to go down and meet with him.”
Carbo signed Grych’s ball for a second time Saturday.
“Casey’s Chevrolet and doing that commercial and seeing a gentleman I did the picture with and signed the ball all those years (ago) … It just brings back good memories,” he said. “I love coming back here.”
Carbo’s home run lives in Red Sox lore, as it tied the game in the eighth inning and set the stage for Boston’s dramatic 12th-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds. But Boston ultimately lost the World Series to the “Big Red Machine” in seven games.
Thumbnail photo via YouTube/MLB
