RALPH BRANCA, PITCHER
1951 BROOKLYN DODGERS
Most of us love Ralph. We just don’t want to see him working as our closer for the Astros in the 2017 Post-Season. We also reserve the right to change our minds in October.
Our wonderful Astros baseball icon, SABR Chapter namesake, history colleague, and fun-to-be-with baseball friend – Larry Dierker – asked this question of me as a comment at today’s Baseball’s Loudest Pin Drop Falls Again column:
“Have you checked where the ’51 Giants were (this date in history) compared to the current Astros? This may be our chance to make history.”
I knew in general, but I did the checking. And here’s precisely what I found about yesterday’s date in history for the 1951 National League and this year’s 2017 American League West Division:
NL STANDINGS THRU 8/11/1951
| Tm | W | L | GB | RS | RA | pythW-L% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRO | 70 | 36 | .660 | — | 618 | 458 | .634 |
| NYG | 59 | 51 | .536 | 13.0 | 561 | 504 | .549 |
| PHI | 58 | 52 | .527 | 14.0 | 509 | 453 | .553 |
| STL | 51 | 53 | .490 | 18.0 | 447 | 491 | .457 |
| BSN | 51 | 55 | .481 | 19.0 | 498 | 456 | .540 |
| CIN | 49 | 58 | .458 | 21.5 | 411 | 490 | .420 |
| CHC | 46 | 59 | .438 | 23.5 | 443 | 508 | .438 |
| PIT | 44 | 64 | .407 | 27.0 | 506 | 633 | .399 |
AL WEST DIVISION STNDINGS THRU 8/11/2017
| Tm | W | L | GB | RS | RA | pythW-L% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU | 71 | 44 | .617 | — | 668 | 510 | .621 |
| LAA | 59 | 58 | .504 | 13.0 | 501 | 510 | .492 |
| SEA | 59 | 58 | .504 | 13.0 | 554 | 560 | .495 |
| TEX | 55 | 59 | .482 | 15.5 | 560 | 554 | .505 |
| OAK | 51 | 65 | .440 | 20.5 | 505 | 603 | .420 |
My Answer to Larry Dierker (and I’m responding here for the first time): Dierk, sad as it seems, the best chance for replicating the amazing comeback of the ’51 NYY Giants now mathematically belongs equally to either the 2017 LA Angels or the 2017 Seattle Mariners. Unfortunately, the success of either would leave the door open for the Astros to make history by repeating the crash and burn failure of the ’51 Brooklyn Dodgers – via something equivalently cruel as Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” at the Polo Grounds and – look – we don’t want any part of that kind of history-making.
Please, baseball gods. Spare us that one. We don’t want it in base form – and we sure as hell don’t want it in all the cruel ways that baseball sometimes tailor customizes the pain of major disappointment.
Right, Ralph Branca?
********************
Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 13, 2017 at 1:33 am |
Now that we have the benefit of hindsight, there is not only the aspect of the relative performance of the ’51 Dodgers and Giants over the last ten weeks of the season. There is also the question of the Giants’ use of a telescope to steal signs during that period. Let’s hope nothing like that enters the equation again.
Bill Hickman
August 13, 2017 at 2:57 pm |
The schedule was only 154 games in 1951so the teams chasing the Astros this year have a few more games to catch them. However, if memory serves, the last comeback of that magnitude was the 1914 Braves. I’d bet my bottom dollar that the 17 Astros win their division.