Today in 1975 began what’s sometimes called the greatest baseball game of all time, game 6 of the World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox.
The game ended when Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk hit a home run off the left field foul pole in the bottom of the 12th inning.
The video clip is unforgettable.
After swinging, Fisk sees the ball is close to going into foul ground.
He waves his hands to the right three times, trying to will the ball fair, and then he puts his arms straight up in the air as the crowd at Fenway Park roars and fans out onto the field to celebrate.
That iconic clip was actually only shown on replay, and as the Boston Globe reported, it was only captured at all by accident.
The man behind the camera that night was Louis Gerard.
He said in 2012 that the director wanted him to follow the ball if Fisk hit it.
But there were two problems: one was a big piece of metal blocking his camera’s range.
The other? A rat that he said was crawling up his leg and “staring me in the face.”
The director said, okay, point the camera at Fisk instead.
That dramatic moment has not only been replayed countless times over the years, it essentially created the reaction shot, leading to many other dramatic moments in big plays throughout the world of sports.
And hopefully without more rats on camera operators.
Meanwhile in the UK, authorities in Bath sent a ticket to a couple from Surrey, Paula and Dave Knight, for driving in the lane reserved for buses.
They got the ticket because a security camera spotted their license plate in the lane.
Except that the couple wasn’t in the bus lane that day.
They weren’t driving, and they weren’t in Bath.
The camera had mistaken a pedestrian’s sweater for a license plate because the lettering kind of resembled the Knights’ license plate.
The authorities ended up canceling the fine.
How Carlton Fisk’s 1975 home run changed TV sports forever (Boston Globe)
Bus lane camera mistakes woman’s sweater for number plate (BBC)
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