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The Shot Heard 'Round the World, the 1951 NL Pennant winner
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00:00The third and final playoff game, Ralph Branca was summoned to pitch to Bobby Thompson of the New York Giants.
00:07What followed was a two-pitch confrontation that linked two men forever.
00:11The date, October 3rd, 1951, in the site, the Polo Grounds.
00:16And the result was heard throughout the world.
00:50Because of you, I should never have been born.
00:57Because of you, Brooklyn fans are forlorn.
01:05Because of you, they yell, drop dead!
01:11Several million want my head to sever forever and score.
01:21My famous yore, thanks to your Sunday pitch.
01:30Up high or low, I don't know which is which.
01:38But come, next spring, keep throwing me that thing.
01:46And I will swing because of you.
01:55When on a baseball binge, at least one of the city's three teams would play in all but one World
02:00Series from 1947 through 1957,
02:04when the Dodgers and Giants left for California.
02:07This was the fabled era of Willie, Mickey, and the Duke.
02:11That great outburst of energy and optimism that hit New York right after the war because not only had the
02:19war ended in triumph,
02:21it was replaced by a sense of possibility and optimism that had not been there for a long time.
02:27I don't think it's possible to recreate for today's youngsters how important baseball was in New York City in the
02:361950s when there were three teams.
02:38There was a passion about New York baseball.
02:421951, baseball, the Big Apple, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants.
02:47All of a sudden, that year, baseball hits critical mass.
02:53The Dodgers and Giants always seem to be fighting for the scraps because the lordly Yankees always seem to have
02:59the head table reserved.
03:01I hated them.
03:03They won every year.
03:05I was born in the 1940s.
03:07I was a Giants fan living in Brooklyn, which was dangerous enough.
03:10You never were a Yankee fan, I don't think.
03:13You were just sort of a Yankee rooter because they would win every year.
03:17I loved the Giants.
03:19I hated the Yankees.
03:21I liked my friends, but I just hated their team.
03:24You know, we didn't even pay attention to the Giants and the Dodgers.
03:27I mean, we were so involved in what we were, the New York Yankees, the men in the gray flannel
03:32suit, as they called us.
03:33As a Giants fan, even my friends that were mostly Dodger fans, we hated the Yankees.
03:38We hated each other, but we hated the Yankees even more.
03:42You couldn't talk stats with the Yankee fans.
03:44The Dodgers and Giants fans, we knew the statistics, we knew the game.
03:48Yankee fans, I don't think they even knew who the manager was half the time.
03:53The original bedwagons.
03:55The home of the Giants was an oddly proportioned horseshoe overlooked by Coogan's Bluff.
04:00The ballpark's very name suggested that a different sport entirely was played there.
04:05The polo grounds.
04:07Polo grounds was known for cheap home runs.
04:09The cheapest of all home runs in the polo grounds is when somebody hits a high pop fly.
04:13I'd say, there's a little fly ball to short, right, Robinson's going, oh, it's in the seats, it's a home
04:19run.
04:20A second baseman's going back for it.
04:23The polo grounds, I think, was probably the most misshapen ballpark of all time.
04:28It was built almost like a big bathtub shape.
04:31And the polo grounds itself was kind of a spooky-looking ballpark.
04:35Even the field wasn't straight, and the managers in the dugouts, if they look out to the outfield,
04:39they could only see the outfielders from the waist up.
04:41Fans weren't a part of anything.
04:43I mean, the bleacher seats were so far out in right-center field, it was just a huge, cold stadium
04:50for the fans.
04:51They weren't close to the ballpark at all.
04:53In contrast to the uninviting polo grounds was Ebbets Field, which stood for all things Brooklyn.
05:00Noisy, cozy, fun, chutzpah.
05:04The people in Brooklyn are supposed to be religious.
05:07We had the borough of churches, but where the people went to pray, that altar was at Ebbets Field.
05:12You were right on top of the game.
05:14You felt connected to the players.
05:17They actually spoke to the fans.
05:19We would give them unsolicited advice.
05:22Hit to right, Gil, you'll break the slump.
05:24Hit to right.
05:25Never listen, but we felt that we were empowered.
05:28The stands in Ebbets Field were so close to the playing field that you could carry on a running conversation
05:34with someone when you were playing center field.
05:37I remember Pee Wee Wee saying about Ebbets Field.
05:40He said, if a friend of mine was in the stands, you can be darn sure I saw him.
05:47There were some of these eccentric fans.
05:49There was somebody called Hilda Chester, who rang a cowbell, and she would shout, Pee Wee, did you have your
05:57glass of milk today?
05:59Yes, Hilda, I had my glass of milk today.
06:03The Dodgers symphony, going through the stands, playing their music with Shorty and Joe Lurice.
06:09I comes from Brooklyn, and that's a great place to come from.
06:15Their fans and ballparks could not have been more different, and yet they both scuffled for the same share of
06:21the spotlight.
06:23Thus, the ever-intensifying Dodgers-Giants rivalry took on the fervor of a border war.
06:29The rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers has never been matched.
06:34I mean, there was real hatred.
06:35It was almost like a feud between the two ball clubs.
06:38When they played each other, it was basically a war.
06:41Well, I don't think in any stages of baseball, now or then, there was any more intense rivalry between the
06:49two clubs and the two cities.
06:50It was something that was embedded in all of us as Giants, and I'm sure it was with them.
06:55When Wilbert Robinson, a New York coach, had a falling out with manager John McGraw and became Brooklyn's pilot in
07:021914, the rivalry heated up.
07:05Twenty years later, Giants player manager Bill Terry casually asked, are the Dodgers still in the league?
07:12Those words haunted him, when Brooklyn beat his Giants twice on the season's final weekend to deny them the pennant.
07:18Two, three hours after the game, when the writers who had written their stories after the game were leaving the
07:23ballpark, it'd still be 20 or 30 fans out around the light pole.
07:27Giant fans arguing with Dodger fans.
07:29You could get into a fist fight with a best friend if he happened to be a Giant fan and
07:35you happened to be a Dodger fan.
07:36I was a Giant fan. I lived in Brownsville, which was a hotbed of Dodger fans.
07:40I kind of kept it low-key, because I was afraid of getting punched in the nose or something even
07:46worse.
07:47My neighbor was a Dodger fan. When the Giants played the Dodgers, we would never talk.
07:53He lived upstairs, I lived downstairs, and we would bang on the wall.
07:57I would hit the ceiling with a broom when the Giants would score.
08:00When he plays, you went in the borough of Brooklyn. Everybody were Dodger fans.
08:04You could just say, what's the score? And the other person would know exactly what you're talking about.
08:08My first recollection of the Dodgers, my dad took me to an Ebbets Field game, and I remember seeing the
08:14Dodgers beat the Giants.
08:15And from that day on, that was it. I was hooked.
08:23The Dodgers had been the doormats of the National League. They had gotten no respect.
08:29They were the Daffiness boys. They were the bums.
08:32They didn't call them bums for nothing.
08:34You know, there was a kind of an affectionate sense of, you will probably disappoint me, but I love you
08:41anyway.
08:42They were our boys. We loved them. They could do no wrong.
08:46We had a fellow named Hollis Thurston, whom they called Sloppy Thurston.
08:49I don't know if it was because of the way he dressed or the way he pitched.
08:53We had a shortstop on Brooklyn named Tommy Brown, who caught a ground ball and threw it into the upper
08:59deck.
09:00Threw it into the upper deck.
09:01The hot potato, Luke Hamlin, who was snakebissed, never failed to give up a home run at the wrong time
09:09and lose a ball game.
09:11What rooting for the Dodgers gave all of us? A respect for imperfection.
09:17We were the team of Sisyphus. We were the ones rolling the boulder up the mountains, knowing it might roll
09:22down again.
09:23We learned how to lose.
09:25From 1921 to 1946, the Dodgers won only one pennant.
09:30But after that, took two of the next four.
09:32And entering the 1951 season, it became clear these boys of summer were not the bumbling, lovable losers of old.
09:39The 1951 Dodgers were once again an outstanding team.
09:44We had Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snyder, the great center fielder, and of course Jackie, and then we had the
09:50great catcher, Roy Campanella.
09:52With their players, the players they had, they had some outstanding pitchers.
09:56Newcomb, Preacher Rowe, Carl Erskine, Labine.
10:00And Ralph Branca, who joined the Dodgers organization in 1944.
10:05Three years later, at the ripe age of 21, Branca became the youngest 20-game winner in National League history.
10:13And better yet, he was a native New Yorker.
10:16At age 25, Branca had already won 63 games.
10:21But at the start of the 1951 season, Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen figured Branca, a most willing worker, would best
10:29serve the team from the bullpen.
10:31I was the closer. It wasn't called a closer in those days, but I pitched a 7th, 8th, and 9th.
10:37And finally I started a game, and I pitched four straight complete games.
10:413-2, 2-1, 4-2, 3-1.
10:44So it made the pitching staff, it gave the pitching staff a rest.
10:48If you asked him to come to the mound, he made so many appearances.
10:52You're going to see how many innings he pitched that year, and the year before, and the year before that.
10:57Never say no, and he gave his all.
10:59Meanwhile, the Giants, who had high hopes for the 1951 season, lurched from the starting gate in full retreat.
11:07The Giants started the season with a record of two wins and 12 losses.
11:12And everybody, the newspaper men said, they're out of it.
11:16For none.
11:17The Dodgers swept the Giants in an April series, and an urge to pour it on vocalized by Jackie Robinson
11:23infused the team with a new ferocity.
11:25When Jackie came, he kind of jumped the rivalry up a notch.
11:28Not because he was a black African-American, but because he was such a good player, and probably the most
11:35fierce competitor I ever played against.
11:38As a rookie in 1947, Robinson silently absorbed unmeasured pain.
11:44But by 1951, he had grown accustomed to unleashing that pain in a cold fury.
11:50In the other dugout, his intensity was matched by the Giants' feisty umpire-baiting manager, Leo DeRocher.
11:58You know, it's tough to ask somebody not to fight back, and he controlled himself pretty well.
12:06After a couple of years, then he could really, you know, let himself go.
12:11He could beat you by making a key play, or he could beat you with his mouth.
12:15Leo and Robinson had a tremendous animosity and rivalry.
12:20They used to ride each other mercilessly.
12:32Leo was once going out on the field after him because they used to make him personally.
12:36They were both intense competitors.
12:38Once, Leo DeRocher had managed the Dodgers.
12:41So when he shifted his allegiance to the Giants in 1948,
12:45Brooklyn viewed that as an act of betrayal and sacrilege.
12:49Well, I'm glad to see him go from Brooklyn.
12:54I don't think he'd help the Giants at all, but the Giants needed a pitcher to better manage him.
12:59When I saw the headline in the paper, I didn't believe it.
13:03DeRocher to manage Giants.
13:04It was just unbelievable.
13:05I can think of nothing that even comes close to such a shock.
13:10It was an upset in the center.
13:12It sounded like Smoke of the Bears starting a forest fire.
13:15America's fourth story of the year.
13:17Across the river from Manhattan, Brooklyn baseball drops a bombshell.
13:21We were stunned.
13:23Had he gone to another team and another league, all right, big deal, another guy goes by.
13:28But then he goes to the Giants, the rivals, you know.
13:31You can't do this.
13:32This is not coaching.
13:33But by early May of 1951, the turncoat DeRocher and his players floundered in the churning
13:39wake left by the Dodgers.
13:41The Giants were desperate for help.
13:48On May 25th, 1951, the Giants brought up a youngster from Westfield, Alabama named Willie Mays.
13:56After his first 26 at-bats, Mays was hitting 038.
14:00Here I am in the clubhouse crying and, you know, I want to go back to Minneapolis and the center
14:06field of, uh, you just go out and catch the ball.
14:08Leo DeRocher knew exactly how to handle Willie Mays.
14:11And the way he handled Willie Mays is he got on us.
14:15You could look at him and tell from his action, from his movement, that he was a natural.
14:21He was a diamond in the rough.
14:23All I need is, you know, just polishing up here and there.
14:25After that, I relaxed.
14:27I think I, uh, started remembering what I had to do at the plate.
14:31And I just went from there.
14:33Mays started...
14:35Mays tracked down a deep drive by the Dodgers' Carl Ferrello to right center.
14:39Then, spun around furiously and in the same whirling motion through a laser that nailed
14:44Billy Cox at home.
14:46He brought a joy of playing.
14:48Every day was like Christmas Eve to him.
14:50You could sense on the team.
14:52Our team got a little bigger.
14:54The pace got a little faster.
14:57With Mays added to the roster, the Giants only had one problem.
15:02What to do with Bobby Thompson.
15:04I'd heard about this kid going to join us because I was a center fielder at the time.
15:08Bobby got benched, then ended up on third because Hank Thompson wasn't doing the job.
15:13And that was all right with me as long as I was playing.
15:15Bobby Thompson was not that good a center fielder.
15:18He had tremendous speed, but not always the best judge of a ball.
15:21Sometimes overran balls.
15:23Bobby was not hitting at the beginning of the season.
15:25For a while, he was flirting with the 200 mark.
15:28While Thompson and the other Giants struggled, the Dodgers played scorched earth baseball,
15:33led by the profane passion of Jackie Robinson.
15:37Leo DeRocha told me he was the toughest bench jockey he'd ever seen.
15:41He never saw such venom come from one person's mouth,
15:45as came from Jackie Robinson's mouth, dugout to dugout.
15:48He would say anything about you, your mother, or your wife.
15:53The bench jockey between the two ball clubs, and especially DeRocha and Robinson,
15:58was vile sometimes.
16:00He wouldn't dare print some of the things that were said.
16:03DeRocha was a very, very sharp dresser and very, very kept guy.
16:08He used a lot of cologne.
16:10Jackie used to say, you're wearing Lorraine's perfume again.
16:13I can smell it over here.
16:14You're wearing Lorraine's perfume again.
16:16He'd infuriate DeRocha.
16:17Jackie Robinson was not an easy guy to get along with.
16:20Jackie Robinson was mean.
16:22He was tough.
16:23He was hard.
16:23He played to win.
16:25He tormented the Giants.
16:28Through early August, the Dodgers had won 13 of 15 against the Giants.
16:32And Robinson, who had played for DeRocha, remained unmerciful in his taunting.
16:37It looked like we were buried.
16:39And of course, when the Dodgers got fired in front, Charlie was laughing.
16:44Their Dodger clubhouse was right next to the Giant clubhouse.
16:48All there was was a wooden door separating the Giants and Dodger locker rooms.
16:52The door was locked on both sides, and it was just a little alleyway there, about 8 or 10 feet.
16:56And they had open theirs, and Jack was beating on the door with the bat.
17:02Dressen encouraged the players to pound on the door and yell, you guys are dead.
17:08You'll never catch us.
17:09And singing songs.
17:10And inside the very quiet Giant locker room, the Giants were really letting this penetrate.
17:16Fanning the flames even further, Dressen and DeRocha had a history that went back quite a time.
17:22It was a funny combination, because they played together in the Cincinnati Reds many years before.
17:29They also shared a dugout.
17:30But even then, there was acrimony between them.
17:35Dressen was a coach under DeRocha.
17:37DeRocha referred to him as my right arm at one point.
17:40And there was an underlying rivalry then, because Dressen always felt that he was the better baseball man.
17:46Leo DeRocha had a terrible influence on anybody who worked for him.
17:50And in a way, they wanted to be like him, and also to beat him.
17:54But, I mean, Charlie Dressen just wasn't as smart as Leo.
17:58He once made the remark,
18:00If you guys don't know how to win, I'll think of something.
18:03Which, of course, is one of the most ludicrous remarks ever made by anyone.
18:07But in a way, it shows what kind of a guy he was.
18:10He was very cocky.
18:11Any time we played the Dodgers, Charlie Dressen was much like Leo.
18:15They were two little bainty cocks trying to outdo the other.
18:18On August 11th, after winning the opener of a doubleheader against the Boston Braves,
18:23the Dodgers widened their lead over the Giants to 13 and a half games.
18:27It seemed more of a coronation than a pennant race.
18:30And his players on the raw edge.
18:33Master manipulator DeRocha changed his approach.
18:36He was making all kinds of changes, and then suddenly in August, no more changes.
18:39It just seemed like the pressure fell off of everybody, and we started playing baseball.
18:45So, Leo kept egging us on.
18:48Just, you know, nice and easy.
18:51You know, who's going to be the hero today?
18:54Come on, you guys. Let's go out and win another one.
18:56That kind of thing.
18:57You know, we had a big lead.
18:59Suddenly, that lead evaporated.
19:01It went from like 13 games to 6 games in like a week.
19:04It was just amazing.
19:06I mean, you know, one day they're 13 and a half.
19:08Then it's 10. Then it's 8.
19:10To help their comeback along, the Giants invented a 10th position.
19:14That of Spy, a stealer of signs.
19:17This guy, Hank Shenz, when he arrived on June 30th, it's doubtful that DeRocha knew what he was getting.
19:24But very quickly, he saw what he had in the sky.
19:28One of the things that he did was steal signs with a telescope.
19:33The clubhouses were out in the center field, and there were windows in the giant offices looking down onto the
19:38field.
19:39So the Giants positioned Henry Shenz there.
19:43You needed someone who knew how to read signs well, to very quickly decipher the signs.
19:49And Shenz turned out not to be that good at it.
19:52And so DeRocha turned to his right-hand man, Herman Franks.
19:55The stolen signs were relayed Pony Express style, from the Giants' bullpen to reserve catcher, Sal Evars.
20:02They've got an electrician who was attached to the buzzer to the bullpen and the buzzer to the dugout.
20:08I was the fellow that was decoying the signs.
20:11I had a ball in my hand.
20:13If there was no buzz, it was a fastball.
20:15If there was a breaking ball, I threw it up in the air.
20:17But everybody, as far as I know, wanted the signs.
20:20And I say everybody was taking the signs.
20:23But their elaborate espionage produced no sudden offensive surge.
20:27The batting averages actually dropped during the period that they were supposed to be stealing the signs.
20:33Only three of the Giants' ballplayers had improved their averages from sort of mid-season on.
20:40So how could you prove that they benefited by that?
20:43If you look at the numbers, if you look at the statistics, the Giants did take off.
20:47They started winning around the time they started stealing signs.
20:50But they started winning not because their hitting improved.
20:53The reason they begin to win is the pitching comes together.
20:56The ERA drops, I think, by almost a full run in the second half of the season.
21:00So one wonders if they were stealing signs and getting an advantage.
21:03And was it really helping them all that much?
21:06Beginning on August 12th, the Giants went on a 16-game winning streak.
21:10Often, it was Bobby Thompson who delivered the key hit.
21:14We just kept playing and didn't think about it.
21:19Until we got, you know, a lot closer.
21:23And then we started to think about it a little more.
21:27Bobby was very conscious of his hitting form.
21:29He changed his stance.
21:31He started coming out of a crouch.
21:32Going from 232 in the first half to 359 in the second half.
21:37Can it be attributed to his getting into a crouch and screaming out at the ball?
21:42He got as many key hits as anyone in our club all during that stretch when we were closing the
21:47gap on the Brooklands.
21:48He and Monty Irvin were two out hitters that just got big hits for us all the while.
21:53Going into September, the Dodgers found their seemingly insurmountable lead had melted down to only seven games.
22:00But it seemed like good ball at that time was not good enough.
22:05We were playing better ball.
22:07They won two out of four.
22:09We won three out of four.
22:11Dressing used only a few of the Dodger pitches.
22:13There were three or four pitches he never used, which made the other pitches work even harder.
22:17We just didn't play well.
22:19We didn't execute well.
22:20We didn't hit well.
22:21The pitching staff got overworked.
22:23Dressing used basically five or six pitches.
22:26And literally ran us into the ground.
22:28The time just went boom, boom, boom.
22:30And there was a lot of pressure, a lot of mental and physical pressures.
22:33With less than two weeks of the season remaining, the Giants found themselves little margin for error.
22:39At that point, I thought, we can't afford to lose another game.
22:42And we did lose a game to Cincinnati on the road.
22:45And I'll never forget leaving Cincinnati.
22:47I thought, well, that's it.
22:49We can't do it.
22:50But that turned out to be the Giants' last loss in September.
22:54Meanwhile, the Dodgers, locked in a death spiral, dropped six of nine.
22:59On the last scheduled day of the season, the two sat tied to top the league.
23:03Having a victory in 44 games, the Dodgers fell behind 6-1 in Philadelphia.
23:08I don't think there was a household in Brooklyn that didn't have the radio on from Philadelphia.
23:14While Dodgers fans lit candles, the Giants could only sit and squirm and stew
23:19on their train ride home, waiting for a final from Philadelphia.
23:23We actually were a half a game ahead.
23:26And we had the champagne.
23:27We had all the goodies.
23:29And as we started back from Boston, someone kept coming in telling us what was happening
23:33in Philadelphia.
23:34By listening to the Dodger broadcast from station to station on a train, they found that the
23:40Dodgers were losing.
23:41I remember Larry Jansen, you know, grabbing hold of me.
23:45Hey, Bobby, we weren't the champs.
23:47We found out when we got off the train in Grand Central Station, we weren't the champs.
23:51The Dodgers rallied to win 9-8, and Jackie Robinson making a game-saving catch in the 12th and belting
23:59a homer in the 14th.
24:00Both Brooklyn and New York finished at 96-58, so there would be a playoff.
24:06Best of three, the World Series for the winners, and inconsolable winter for the losers.
24:12Both teams were good enough to compete for the pennant.
24:17As they prepared for the best-of-three playoff, a question burned throughout New York.
24:22Who would have home field for the first game?
24:25That issue was resolved by that staple of impartiality and dumb luck, the coin flip.
24:31Dressen made the decision on a coin flip to start the game at Ebbets Field.
24:37I don't know what was in Charlie Dressen's mind.
24:40I think he made a poor judgment call.
24:43I would prefer to have the last games at my home park.
24:46It was a surprise, to say the least, that we would get two games in the Polar Grounds
24:50and one at Ebbets Field.
24:52The Dodgers pitched Ralph Branca, who had won 13 games.
24:56Monty Irvin hit a solo home run, and in eerie foreshadowing, Bobby Thompson slugged his
25:0231st homer of the season, a two-run shot.
25:05Giants three, Dodgers one.
25:07We won the first time, we came back in the Polar Grounds.
25:10We were on a roll.
25:12The adrenaline was right to the top of the bottle.
25:14Despite a disgruntled chorus of disagreement from the Dodger faithful,
25:19Charlie Dressen elected to start a rookie in Game 2, the forgotten Clem Labine.
25:24Nobody expected that.
25:26We didn't expect that.
25:27Possibly there was enough tired arms that he finally said, well, I've got to get somebody else in here.
25:33Labine responded with an overpowering performance, shutting out the Giants 10 to nothing.
25:38The two teams had played 156 games, and they were going to have to play one more.
25:44This is a game between the first and the first-place teams of the National League.
25:49Giants, the Dodgers, the final game of the day this year.
25:52Oh, this is going to go on.
25:59From trailing one to nothing, the Giants threatened in the second inning,
26:03when Whitey Lockman singled, and then Thompson scalded what looked like a short double into the left field corner.
26:09Instead, the double turned into double trouble.
26:12What are you doing?
26:16He just assumed that Whitey was going to go to third.
26:19He put his head down, chugged into second, and there was Whitey Lockman.
26:22My roommate's still on second, and you're not supposed to do that.
26:27I was just so determined.
26:28I knew I was going to be on second.
26:3020-game winner Don Newcomb was dominating, and he nursed that one to nothing lead into the seventh.
26:37But with Irvin on third and one out, Thompson strode to the plate,
26:41still stinging from his earlier base running blunder.
26:44I don't even have a chance of Newcomb out there throwing these little BBs.
27:01But the Giants no sooner got even than they got behind.
27:16When Thompson failed to make two fielding plays in the eighth,
27:19helping the Dodgers to a 4-1 lead, he felt despondent.
27:23An inning later, the Giants were down to their last three outs.
27:26Down to the dugout, never felt more dejected in my life.
27:30We just weren't good enough to go beyond this point.
27:354-1 lead, ninth inning, most important game in the history of baseball.
27:40And Newcomb is pitching BBs to these guys.
27:42No way we could lose it.
27:44It looked like curtains for the Giants.
27:46I really felt like they didn't have a chance.
27:48This is what everybody would come all your life for.
27:51That one game is going to make the difference of being in the World Series.
28:07That's twice as that.
28:12Hodges was holding Doc on.
28:14Why would he be holding Doc on when he had a 3-1 lead at the time?
28:18If Hodges had been playing off the bag, he would have gobbled up Newell's grounder
28:22and probably got a 4-side at 2nd and maybe even a double play.
28:25It gave him a spark, and they took advantage of it.
28:29Knocked up, unraveled, throw up, white, and straight down to the ground.
28:31He's still the long, but that's the line.
28:33Now the start comes in.
28:34Here's the runner on his way to third.
28:36It's half-gold bobbles the ball briefly.
28:37Down and into second base with a tagline.
28:39It's not good.
28:41As he's put in the third, he must have wrenched his ankle or his feet.
28:45During the delay, Charlie Dressen decided to remove a tired Newcomb.
28:49With the Dodgers leading 4-2 and Giants on second and third with one out,
28:54he called for an even more weary Branca.
28:58It was like a phone call from the governor.
29:00We're saved.
29:01We've got a shot now.
29:03He had Erskine out there, and he had Branca.
29:05The thing is, Erskine was a curveball pitcher and had one of the best change of paces.
29:11Clyde Soepforth was the Dodger bullpen coach.
29:14He supervised the warming up of the relievers and so forth.
29:19Charlie checked with him, and Erskine apparently has thrown a couple of balls in the dirt.
29:25And Sookie says that he thinks Branca's the best choice.
29:29So Chuck brings in Branca.
29:32My arm was so tied, it took me from the sixth inning until about the eighth inning before I got
29:36loose.
29:37I got to the mound and Justin just threw the balls.
29:39I said, get him out.
29:40That was all he said.
29:41I was down there with Don Mueller.
29:43It just took my mind completely off the game.
29:46And I found myself doing things I'd never done before.
29:50I called myself an SOB all the way to the plate.
29:53Just USOB.
29:55Give yourself a chance to hit USOB.
29:58So anyway, I got to home plate, and I look out.
30:02There's Branca.
30:02I hadn't even known that they'd changed pitches.
30:06First pitch right through the middle, and he took it.
30:08Pitched a body.
30:09A great call up to the end.
30:11The guys wanted to kill me when I took that first strike.
30:14And the next pitch I tried to throw up in the end.
30:17I still remember just getting a flash of it coming in, and boom, and let it go.
30:23Branca's throw.
30:47It's pure heaven.
30:48It's the home run.
30:50Soon as the ball left his bat, it was a rocket.
30:53I remember hyperventilating as I kind of pranced around the bases.
30:58And I'll never forget, I got within leaping distance of home plate, and I'd never done that before.
31:04And I took one big jump on home plate.
31:07I was the last guy to get to home plate, and I'm on deck.
31:11I didn't realize what had happened.
31:13I didn't realize we had won the ball game.
31:15Willie Mays was the first to jump on Bobby Thompson's back when he touched home plate.
31:21I was trying to be too much of a pitcher in a tense situation.
31:25And he'd make a bad pitcher in trouble.
31:26Charlie should have known that Thompson could hurt Branca.
31:29Some of these managers were old-fashioned enough to ignore reports.
31:33You know, they played by the seat of their pants.
31:36I don't remember going from the mound to the clubhouse.
31:39That was the longest walk.
31:40Mob box to the clubhouse.
31:42At 600 feet, it felt like it was 60 miles.
31:46And Jackie patted me on the thigh and said,
31:48Hey, what do you think they put in in that spot?
31:50The worst pitcher they had or the best pitcher they had?
31:53Okay?
31:54Somebody caught me up on his shoulders.
31:57And I still remember, it was like a bucking bronco.
32:01You know, and people are just swarming around us.
32:05You know, it's utter chaos.
32:24But then things started quiet down.
32:27And Perry Como, as one of his representatives,
32:30asked me if I wouldn't go on his show.
32:33And they offered me $500.
32:35And I thought, well, I sure could use $500.
32:39But really, at a time like this,
32:41I'd like to just go home and share this moment with my family.
32:45And Ann was waiting for me to go to dinner.
32:47And we were going to be married in 17 days.
32:51And Wither was a cousin of hers named Father Rowley.
32:54And I just said to him, but why me, you know?
32:56And he said, God chose you
32:58because he knew your faith was strong enough to bear this cross.
33:01And that really was a very big relief for me.
33:05And Thompson beat me that day.
33:06So what?
33:07He beat me in ballgame.
33:08At two minutes before four on October 3rd, 1951,
33:12in front of 34,230 spectators and 20,000 empty seats,
33:18on a darkening field hard by Coogan's Bluff and the Harlem River,
33:22a Scottish immigrant from Staten Island named Thompson
33:25clubbed a ball that was out of the strike zone
33:27and sent it into legend, lore, and history.
33:31This is a ninth inning that you dream about.
33:35You know, basic, basic, pop up, line drive, double, home run,
33:39and you're in the World Series?
33:40Come on.
33:41What is this?
33:42This doesn't happen.
33:42My brother was the first family member I met when I got home.
33:47He said, Bob, do you realize what you did?
33:50Something like that might never happen again.
33:53And for the first time in my life, I realized,
33:57well, maybe this thing was a little more than just beating the Dodgers.
34:04Four hours to celebrate.
34:06They had to play the Yankees,
34:08to whom they eventually lost the World Series in six games.
34:11However, amidst the cigars and champagne,
34:14a debate lingered,
34:15whether Thompson and the other Giants really had stolen the signs.
34:19Do I think he took on the pitch?
34:21I don't know.
34:21I think it's up to each person to decide.
34:23We were 13 and a half games behind them when we started.
34:26Everybody was taking the signs,
34:28and they were glad to get them.
34:30The notion that that won the pennant for the Giants,
34:33I think, is kind of ludicrous.
34:34I frankly don't believe it.
34:36And like everything in baseball,
34:38it adds to arguments.
34:40It adds to palaver.
34:42It adds to conversation,
34:43which is all to the good.
34:44Put Sal Ivar's behind the batting cage
34:47and let him watch ballplayers swing at pitches they know are coming
34:51and see how many of them get hits or home runs.
34:54It's not that easy, even if you know.
34:57Or, or, we can hold up Sal Ivar's numbers.
35:03He batted 236 with the exception of 1951.
35:09Him stealing signs,
35:12why didn't he use those signs on himself?
35:17Maybe he sucks that much.
35:23There's a lot of times,
35:24I swear to me, I believe.
35:26The Giants won the pennant.
35:28The Giants won the pennant.
35:30The Giants won the pennant.
35:31The Giants won the pennant.
35:33The Giants won the pennant.
35:35And they're going crazy.
35:36They're going crazy.
35:43Most Americans have this image
35:45of Bobby Thompson swinging and hitting that home run
35:49and everybody at the time listening to Russ Hodges
35:52make his famous home run call.
35:53The Giants win the pennant.
35:55The Giants win the pennant.
35:56But actually, most people did not listen to Russ Hodges.
35:59In fact, in New York City alone,
36:00there were all sorts of options.
36:02They were listening on the Giants radio network.
36:05They were listening on the Dodgers radio network.
36:06In addition, this was the first nationally televised
36:09live sports event.
36:11They could listen on the Liberty network
36:13and the Mutual network,
36:14which were nationally broadcast networks.
36:16So it was only those people listening in New York
36:19to the Giants broadcast
36:20that heard Hodges make the call.
36:23The only reason that we have this artifact,
36:25which has become so much a part of American culture,
36:28is that a Brooklyn Dodger fan decided
36:30that he would tape that last half inning of the game
36:33so he could hear Hodges cry when the Giants lost.
36:36And instead of hearing Hodges cry,
36:37he gets this momentous home run call,
36:40perhaps the greatest home run call in baseball history.
36:43The Giants win the pennant.
36:45The Giants win the pennant.
37:03It's really not what happened.
37:05It was actually a Giants fan who decided to record this
37:08and then gave it to Hodges.
37:13I've got to say one thing.
37:14That was the only day I ever did a cartwheel in my life.
37:17I was never so disgusted in my life.
37:20I was working in a hardware store at that time
37:22and my boy said,
37:23did you hear?
37:25Thompson hit a homer.
37:26I walked into the store
37:27and I was going to throw the TV set into the garbage,
37:31but the boy stopped me.
37:32It cost too much,
37:33so I threw the radio into the garbage.
37:34This is a calamity.
37:36Someone died or someone in your family was arrested.
37:40Our lives were defying by what the Dodgers did that day.
37:43I was born and raised in Brooklyn.
37:45And when Bobby Thompson hit the homerun,
37:47my childhood had ended.
37:48I mean,
37:49if someone that night
37:50had pointed out Bobby Thompson to me
37:52and handed me a gun,
37:53I mean,
37:54I wouldn't have hesitated.
37:55It's a day that I'll never forget.
37:57Anyone involved with the club
37:58will never forget, really.
38:01We had it won.
38:02What I consider the most exciting
38:05and the most important game
38:06of the 20th century
38:08excelled in point of suspense,
38:13excitement,
38:14and memory
38:15was Bobby Thompson's homerun.
38:18Bobby Thompson's homerun
38:20decided something.
38:22The Giants win the Bennett.
38:24The Giants win the Bennett.
38:26The good Lord was with me, I guess,
38:28and that's all I can say.
38:32Yes, sir.
38:34Because of you,
38:35there's a song
38:37in my heart.
38:39Because of you,
38:42my technique
38:43is an art.
38:46Because of you,
38:49a fastball high
38:50became an inky,
38:52dinky fly.
38:54Now Leo
38:55and Leo
38:56won't part
38:57my famous shore
39:00thanks to your
39:02Sunday pitch
39:04up high or low.
39:07I don't know
39:08which is which,
39:10but come
39:11next spring,
39:13Ralph,
39:13keep throwing me
39:15that thing
39:15and I will swing
39:17because of you.
39:22Because of you,
39:24I should never
39:25been born.
39:27Because of you,
39:29Dodger fans
39:30are forlorn.
39:33Because of you,
39:34they yell,
39:35drop dead.
39:36And several million
39:38want my head
39:40to sever
39:41forever
39:43in scorn.
39:45One lonely bird
39:47had a word
39:47for my ear.
39:49The only girl,
39:51what a pearl
39:52of good cheer.
39:54I lost the game,
39:56but wound up
39:57with the dame.
39:58She took my name
40:00in spite of you.
40:07Bobby Thompson
40:07was always modest
40:09about his home run
40:10and Ralph Branca
40:11became the very essence
40:12of the good sport
40:13for the way
40:13he handled his fate.
40:15For years,
40:16the two appeared
40:16at card and
40:17memorabilia shows
40:18together and raised
40:19money for charity.
40:20Without that moment,
40:21Thompson said,
40:22we'd both be
40:23long forgotten.
40:24Tethered to each other
40:25and to history,
40:27they showed
40:27an uncommon grace.
40:29For ESPN Classics
40:31Battle Lines,
40:32I'm Rich Ozzie.
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