How a ballpark rat changed sports television

Plus: Giants pluck manager from college ranks

Wednesday, October 22 View Online Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, postseason edition! We'll keep you up to speed on everything you need to know every weekday throughout the 2025 MLB playoffs. Thanks for being here.   Let's face it, rats have always gotten a bad rap.   They're routinely associated with trash, filth, disease – the worst parts of our society. People are constantly trying to get rid of them. Stamp them out. Eliminate them from Planet Earth.   But what if I told you that 50 years ago, a rat – yes, a curious rat – changed how we watch baseball on TV for the rest of our lives?   On Oct. 21, 1975, Carlton Fisk hit his famous walk-off home run in Game 6 of the World Series for the Red Sox. The most memorable part: Cameras catching his iconic pleading, urging, waving of the ball fair as it sailed toward the left-field foul pole.    The shot of Fisk was something new for viewers around the world. For decades, TV directors and producers gave audiences the game, and pretty much only the game. Pitchers pitching, hitters hitting and fielders fielding. Emotions, reaction shots of your favorite stars, were rarely captured. The Fisk wave was so popular, so refreshing, that it became standard to keep a camera on players moving forward – getting that Kirk Gibson fist pump, the Tom Lawless bat flip or even the recent Vlad Jr. grand slam toss.   But why did the camera inside the Green Monster remain on Fisk in that moment back in 1975? Was it on purpose? Was it a mid-game, genius maneuver to change how baseball was filmed on TV?   No, it was a rat. A rat did it.   "There are rodents in that wall," said legendary sports TV executive and producer John Filippelli, who was part of NBC's crew for that fateful game. "And this one was a particularly big one. It was disconcerting to [camera operator Lou Gerard], distracting to him. When the ball got hit, it was really playing around with his foot, and he just decided he was gonna stay there. … It changed sports television history."   So, how are you feeling about those rats now? Remarkable creatures. Read the full story on the entire night right here.   -- Matt Monagan STRENGTH VS. STRENGTH Most diehard baseball fans probably already know that the Blue Jays don't strike out a lot, and that Dodgers pitchers are outstanding at keeping opposing hitters from putting the ball into play. What even the most astute observers might not realize, however, is just how elite each of these teams is at these skills.   We're talking historically hard contact for Toronto and historically weak contact against Los Angeles.   • World Series Game 1, presented by Capital One: Friday, 8 p.m. ET, FOX   Since the dawn of the Divisional Era in 1969, nearly 200 teams have played at least seven games in a single postseason. The 2025 Jays batters have the sixth-highest OPS (.878) and fourth-highest slugging (.523) of any of those clubs. Of that same group, the 2025 Dodgers pitchers have allowed the third-lowest OPS (.531) and second-lowest slugging (.269).   As Mike Petriello wrote in his deep dive on the subject, "It is something like the best strength-on-strength matchup you're going to see."   It will be a fascinating game within the game to watch all series. Buckle up!   -- Ed Eagle INTRIGUING POWER One of the best power-hitting free agents who could potentially hit the market this winter has yet to take swings for a Major League team.   Japanese superstar Munetaka Murakami is slated to be posted by the Yakult Swallows of NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) this winter, and the 25-year-old slugger is expected to attract several big-name suitors. Murakami has been phenomenal in NPB: He's hit 246 homers in 892 games, including mashing 56 in 2022, the most in a single season by a Japanese-born player. That same season, Murakami became the youngest player (aged 22) in league history to win the Triple Crown. Murakami's defensive position will be crucial to his market. He played around three-quarters of his games in Japan at third base, with the rest coming at first. His willingness to be a designated hitter could also expand his potential options. Murakami will not be subject to international bonus pool limitations (like Roki Sasaki was last year) because he's 25 and has at least six years of pro experience in a foreign league recognized by MLB. For a rundown of Murakami's likely suitors and the upsides and downsides of the slugger's game, check out Mark Feinsand's breakdown of his market right here.   --  Justin Morris FROM THE SEC TO SF Even with the Rangers (Skip Schumaker) and Angels (Kurt Suzuki) off the board, today dawned with seven managerial vacancies across baseball. But another just got filled, and the Giants are going in an unorthodox direction to do it. The Giants just announced they have hired University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to be the 40th manager in team history. Although Vitello had already been floated as a potential big league manager before the Giants set their eyes on him, he's definitely an unconventional hire. Despite how many future big leaguers pass through NCAA baseball programs, as far as anyone can tell, no one has ever made the direct leap from college coach to MLB manager without previous pro coaching experience. Not exactly, at least. The legendary Branch Rickey was the University of Michigan's coach before he was hired by the Browns in 1912, but he briefly worked in the front office (before such a term was even used) before taking over as manager in 1913.   And though Eddie Stanky was serving as the head coach at the University of South Alabama at the time of his one-day managerial spell with the Rangers in 1977 and Dick Howser was hired away from his position at Florida State for his single-season stint with the Yankees in 1980, both had brought big league coaching experience to their jobs at the college level, not the other way around. All that being said, the barrier between college and professional coaching definitely isn't what it used to be. With Vitello taking the job in San Francisco, he is now the fourth active manager -- joining Clayton McCullough (MIA), Pat Murphy (MIL) and Matt Quatraro (KC) -- with some prior college coaching on his resume. -- Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru JONAS BROTHERS JOIN SU2C AT WORLD SERIES This year's Stand Up To Cancer moment at the World Series will feature a special guest. Or more accurately, three of them. The Jonas Brothers will make a special in-stadium appearance at Game 2 of the Fall Classic on Saturday to perform "I Can't Lose," the anthem for the 2025 Stand Up To Cancer initiative, which raises money for cancer research.   "As lifelong baseball fans, it's special to be part of a moment where music and purpose come together," the Jonas Brothers said in a statement as part of MLB and Mastercard's announcement earlier today of a multi-year extension of their long-running partnership. © 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. 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