BY DAVID MADDEN Sun Staff Writer
NORTH STONINGTON – Former Boston Red Sox player Bernie Carbo is probably best known in New England for a pinch-hit, three-run home run he hit in game six of the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds to tie the score 6-6.
Instead of being the greatest moment of his life, Carbo said he cried after the game feeling empty and unfulfilled.
Carbo’s entire career was marred by drug and alcohol abuse and ended when he was just 33 and he later attempted suicide by car-exhaust asphyxiation.
After a number of personal tragedies, including his mother’s suicide and his three daughters’ imprisonment, Carbo turned his life around and founded the Diamond Club Ministry in 1993, which teaches both the fundamentals of baseball and Christianity.
A part of Carbo’s ministry is to travel all around New England in the summer and speak about his faith, baseball and the mistakes he made in his life.
Sunday night, Carbo spoke at the Unity Baptist Church in North Stonington.
“In the Diamond Club Ministry I go to prisons, detention centers and halfway houses. I work with inner city kids and go to methadone clinics. I celebrate recovery, I go to schools and I’ll be speaking at this church tonight,” Carbo said.
Carbo said neither of his parents were Christian and that he always thought the key to happiness was to achieve success and baseball was his focus through his childhood and early adult life.
“I thought the world told me if I fulfilled my dream to be a major league baseball player, be famous, hit home runs in the World Series, have a huge house and two cars I would be happy because I fulfilled everything this world told me I could do,” Carbo said.
“I turned to the drinking in the emptiness I had, I really didn’t have any joy or happiness.”
The evening service started with a song from Carbo’s wife Tammy and then transitioned into a screening of an ESPN Outside the Lines piece Carbo did on his battles with addiction and his other personal problems.
After another song, Carbo spoke to the congregation of approximately 30 about his problems in his youth, coming into the majors, detailed his extensive drug use and ultimately how he came to his faith.
“I just don’t want anyone to be separated from God. That’s my burning desire, to let people know there is hope, redemption and a chance to be reborn,” Carbo said.
Despite his personal problems during his career, Carbo is still avid in his love of baseball and the Boston Red Sox in particular.
“I love Boston, I love Fenway Park, I love Red Sox Nation. I want them to win. The more they win the more doors it opens for me,” Carbo said.
“When I talk to young kids I tell them to go home and ask their grandma and grandpa if they remember Bernie Carbo and they will if they’re Red Sox fans,” Carbo said.
As for the famous home run Carbo hit in the World Series, time and perspective have allowed him to enjoy that moment more now than in 1975.
“Thirty-six years ago I hit a home run when I was caught up in the world and today God is using that home run to show His grace,” Carbo said.