Oct. 3, 1951: "The Giants Win The Pennant!"
Most of us have heard the call by Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges:
“Branca throws. There’s a long drive. It’s going to be — I believe! — The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands. The Giants win the pennant! And they’re going crazy! They’re going crazy! Oohhh-oohhh!”
The date was October 3, 1951. It was 3:57 PM at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, the hallowed ground of Coogan’s Bluff hovered nearby. The home team New York Giants had runners on first and third, with one out; right handed batter and third baseman Bobby Thomson was batting with the Brooklyn Dodgers leading 4-2 in the deciding Game Three of the special playoffs to decide which of the two tied National Leaguers would take the pennant and go on to the World Series to oppose the mighty New York Yankees.
The story of the year to this point had been the incredible comeback of the Giants from 13.5 games back of the Dodgers late in the season to tie for first on the last day. Now something was about to happen to put a cap on the experience that would practically be all that any of us saw for the next forty to fifty years. Bobby Thomson was about to hit a line drive homer into the left field stands off right handed Dodger relief pitcher Ralph Branca that would win the game and the pennant for the Giants, 5-4, in a walk off blast is still remembered and revered as “The Shot Heard Round the World!”
Bobby Thomson celebrates his famous "shot heard round the world."
The death of 86-year old Bobby Thomson yesterday, August 17, 2010, at his home in Savannah, Georgia came after years of declining health, but it now no longer brings about the pleasantly magical memory of his famous home run also, but also the more recent disclosures that came out in fact and evidence just prior to the fortieth anniversary celebration of “the shot heard ’round the world” back in 2001.
According to an Inside Baseball story from 2001, it is now known that the Giants had been stealing pitch signs by binoculars from their clubhouse in dead center field over what roughly appears to be the period of their great comeback in 1951 – and that includes the period of their playoff games with the Dodgers and one particular time at bat for Bobby Thomson. Of course, if it’s true, those shenanigans at the Polo Grounds would not explain nor help the Giant’s’ also improved play on the road, but it sure puts a taint upon the thrilling memory of Thomson’s shot.
Thomson’s home run has always been one of my most cherished baseball memories. The thought that he may have known what pitch was coming is a real spoiler. I still don’t like to think of it very often, but his death, and my dedication to the truth, won’t allow me to escape the conclusion that he most probably did know what was coming when he swung. Bobby Thomson’s responses to the straightforward question in a 2001 interview by Joshua Prager cause him to come off more as an “artful dodger” than a “moral giant.”
Examine that segment of inquiry, read more; then decide for yourself. Here’s how writer Joshua Prager described that part of his 2001 interview with Bobby Thomson at age 77:
Mr. Thomson, now a widower, has never spoken publicly of sign-stealing and has never raised the subject with Mr. Branca. ‘” guess I’ve been a jerk in a way,” he says. ‘That I don’t want to face the music. Maybe I’ve felt too sensitive, embarrassed maybe.”
Mr. Thomson sits on his couch, wearing the tweed jacket and tie he wore to church that morning. Suddenly, he uncrosses his legs, squares his feet with his shoulders and puts his fists together, right over left, as if gripping a bat. He hunches his torso forward and turns his head toward his left shoulder. He looks out of unblinking eyes into his fireplace.
Did he take the sign?
From the batter’s box, “you could almost just do it with your eyes,” Mr. Thomson says.
His hands relax. He drops his arms to his sides.
Did he take the sign?
“I’d have to say more no than yes,” he says. “I don’t like to think of something taking away from it.”
Pressed further, Mr. Thomson later says, “I was just being too honest and too fair. I could easily have said, ‘No, I didn’t take the sign.’ “
He says, “It would take a little away from me in my mind if I felt I got help on the pitch.”
But did he take the sign?
“My answer is no,” Mr. Thomson says.
He adds: “I was always proud of that swing.”
For a much more detailed account what writer Joshua Prager says transpired on the sign-stealing set-up, check out the whole 2001 story at this link: http://joshuaprager.com/wsj/articles/baseball/
Tags: Baseball, Bobby Thomson, History
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 18, 2010 at 3:04 pm |
It’s all part of THE GAME.
August 18, 2010 at 8:23 pm |
I think we never will know for sure if Thomson benefitted from a stolen signal on The Shot. Here’s what Dave Anderson wrote in today’s NY Times:
“When I asked Thomson in 2001 at his home in Watchung, N.J., if he had watched Yvars for a sign when he faced Branca in the ninth inning on Oct. 3, 1951, he said:
‘I was in no mind-set to think about Sal Yvars. Durocher had asked us, I think in July, ‘Who wants the sign?’ I used the signs off and on,’ meaning during the season, ‘but not when I hit the home run. Like I say, I was in no mind-set to think about Sal Yvars.’
“Over the years, I often played in Bobby Thomson’s annual charity golf outing at Plainfield Country Club in New Jersey to benefit arthritis research. After the last tournament, in 2007, before he moved to Savannah, I received a thank-you letter from him, as many others did. Next to his signature, he wrote: ‘Dave, you were with us from the start. Thank you so much. In case you’re interested, I did not get a sign. Bobby T.'”
Maybe Thomson stole the sign, maybe he didn’t. Maybe the Dodgers should not have called in Branca to pitch to Thomson, knowing Thomson already had taken him yard in the series. Maybe if Campy had been catching, Branca would not have thrown Thomson two straight inside fastballs.
What impresses me most is that Thomson never gloated about the Shot, and he always treated Branca with dignity and respect. According to news accounts, they even became friends.
By the way, I read Prager’s book, and I was left with no doubt that the Giants were stealing signs throughout their incredible run. Whether Thomson checked the sign for a speck of a second before Branca’s pitch, Thomson may not have been sure of the answer himself. As fans, I don’t think we should be hard on Thomson, or think less of the event.
August 19, 2010 at 9:38 pm |
Even if he knew what the pitch was, you still have to hit it.