- 22 hours ago
"Because of You".... not really
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:24Hi, I'm Brian Kenney and welcome to ESPN Classics Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame.
00:29A series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely for their mistakes, controversial moments, or
00:36questionable decisions.
00:37On October 3rd, 1951, in New York's old polo grounds, the third and final game of a playoff series between
00:47the Dodgers and Giants was played to determine the National League pennant.
00:50With one out and runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth, Ralph Branca gave up a
00:55home run to Bobby Thompson that became quickly known as the Shot Heard Round the World.
00:59Before we get to our countdown, here's how the two national powers got to that day in New York.
01:08Post-war baseball in New York was like living in a candy store with a $100 a week allowance.
01:16Those were probably the golden years of baseball because of the three teams that were involved and the players that
01:24were involved.
01:24We didn't even think that there were other teams around the country.
01:27It was just the Yankees, the Dodgers, and the Giants, and, you know, our team's better than your team.
01:32Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah? And then, you know, have a little...
01:39Jackie Robinson was better than Willie Mays, and there was this big brawl.
01:43It took out a whole section, I think, but that's how people felt.
01:48Of the fierce rivalries generated by New York's baseball trinity, the strongest was between the two National League entries,
01:55the Dodgers and the Giants, whose fan bases were as different as champagne is from beer.
02:01The Giants had always been the team of the carriage trade, the upper crust, the guys who went to ballgames
02:07in a jacket and tie.
02:09Dodger fans were known affectionately and justifiably for being loudmouth, blue-collar type, extremely loyal to their players.
02:19In Brooklyn, all we had were the Brooklyn Dodgers.
02:22That's all that gave us identification, and that's why it was so important to people.
02:27We wanted to beat them. It was that neighborhood rivalry that intensified, because two teams playing in the same city,
02:34same league.
02:35The teams hated each other. They shouted curses at each other through narrow walls between the clubhouses.
02:42Every time you went to Ebbets Field, you went to war. And every time they came to the polar grounds,
02:47there was a war over there.
02:51It hadn't always been the case. During the first half of the 20th century, the Giants dominated, winning 13 pennants
02:58and four world championships, while Brooklyn managed just five flags and no World Series titles.
03:05The Dodgers had been the doormats of the National League.
03:09They had gotten no respect. They were the Daffiness boys. They were the bums, and they're starting to build up.
03:16They've got Jackie Robinson. They've got the great players now, and they're starting their dynasty.
03:21You had a reversal of fortunes there, and the Giants fans resented the new eminence of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and
03:31the Dodgers, of course, took greatest delight in flattening the Giants.
03:36On August 11, 1951, the Giants lost, and the league-leading Dodgers won the opener of a doubleheader.
03:43The Brooklyn lead was 13 and a half games, and it appeared Brooklyn had a lock on the pennant.
03:49Then fate seemed to smile on its Manhattan-based rivals.
03:53The Giants finished 37-7 to tie the Dodgers and force a three-game playoff to decide who would play
03:59the Yankees in the World Series.
04:02It was only the second time there had been a playoff, but that's what it came down to.
04:08That's what was going to determine the pennant.
04:10Either you won the pennant and played in the World Series, or you went home.
04:15There were no playoffs. Just that.
04:20In the first playoff game, Thompson's two-run homer off Branca led the Giants to a 3-1 victory.
04:26The Dodgers evened the series on rookie Clem Labine's shutout.
04:30On October 3, a Wednesday, the rivals met before 34,320 fans at the polo grounds to decide the pennant.
04:39A strong sense of history crackled through much of the city.
04:44Twenty years from now, the fans will be talking about this afternoon, Hero, as yet unknown.
04:50But the man and the hour are about to meet.
04:53If there is a goat, his name will lack of down the corridor of time.
04:59After scoring three runs in the eighth inning, the Dodgers led 4-1.
05:04Their starter, Don Newcomb, appeared to be in control as he came out for the night.
05:08Newcomb pitching the way he was, it looked like the game was over.
05:11We thought the Dodgers had won it.
05:14Survived a great comeback by the Giants.
05:16I never felt more dejected in my life.
05:19And I knew I was the fifth hitter, and I'm dead.
05:21I don't even have a chance.
05:23And Newcomb out there throwing these little BBs.
05:28But Thompson had a chance.
05:30Three hits, one run, and one out later, Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen replaced Newcomb with Branca.
05:37The score stood at 4-2.
05:39With two men on base, Thompson represented the winning run.
05:42While on the mound, Branca expressed confidence.
05:47Branca came into the mound and relieved me.
05:50And when I left the mound, he patted me on the back and said,
05:52Don't worry about the big fella. I'll take care of everything.
05:55I got to the mound, and Justin just threw the ball and said, Get him out.
05:58I called myself an SOB all the way to the plate.
06:03Just, you SOB. Give yourself a chance to hit you, SOB.
06:07And he threw the first pitch right through the middle, and he took it.
06:10And the guys told me later they wanted to kill me when I took that first strike.
06:16And the next pitch, I tried to throw up and in.
06:18And he hit the ball, you know.
06:20I still remember just getting a flash of it coming in and let it go.
06:26There's a last shot.
06:28I can't be, I believe.
06:29The Giants love the pennant.
06:31The Giants love the pennant.
06:33The Giants love the pennant.
06:36That home run the Bobby Thompson hit was a shot heard around the world, and it was heartbreaking.
06:44It was a very, very bitter defeat.
06:46The players, I think, felt it for the fans as much as we did for ourselves.
06:50The bar of Brooklyn was like a funeral.
06:52They were six and eight deep at the bar, but they were crying in their beard.
06:56Poor old Ralph Branca walks into the game, handed the ball, and two pitches later, it's all over.
07:02He just made a bad pitch, and he pulled the ground, and it was only 251 feet to the left
07:07field.
07:07You make a bad pitch, you're in trouble.
07:09I saw Ralph Branca sitting on...
07:10It was Newcombe, really, and not to get down on Newcombe, because he was a good player.
07:18It was Newcombe who gave up a 4-1 lead, or 4-2 lead, or something like that.
07:24Let them back in the game.
07:28On the landing of a stairway in the clubhouse, crying.
07:34Ralph was heartbroken.
07:36They kept saying, why me, why me, why me?
07:39When the ball game comes down to one pitch, one hit, one goat, one hero,
07:45it's easy to encapsulate the entire 1951 regular season, all 157 games, in that one pitch.
07:55Bobby hit the home run, and he's the hero, and somebody had to be the villain.
08:00Somebody had to throw the pitch.
08:01There's a hero and a goat for every game.
08:04Bobby Thompson came out as the hero because he hit the home run,
08:08and therefore, we must blame Ralph Branca.
08:14You've just seen why Ralph Branca is blamed for the Dodgers losing the 1951 pennant.
08:19Before we give you the top five reasons you can't blame Branca,
08:21here are a few more points in his favor.
08:23We call them the best of the rest.
08:31What cost the Dodgers the victory was the fact that the Dodgers won the coin toss and decided to open
08:44at Ebbets Field,
08:45rather than opening it to polar grounds, and that really was the damaging thing.
08:52They decided that they wanted the home field advantage first.
09:06Another best of the rest, Roy Campanella.
09:10Outstanding behind the plate, the 1951 National League MVP did not play in Game 3 because of an injury.
09:16When Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen asked bullpen coach Clyde Soukforth who had the better stuff, Carl Erskine or Branca,
09:24Soukforth told him of Erskine bouncing his curve in the dirt.
09:27And so a weary Branca got the call to face Thompson.
09:30But Erskine tended to add a low curveball that could only be caught by Campanella.
09:38Be more of a ground ball pitcher.
09:40He threw more curves.
09:41He was trickier.
09:43Erskine was the man with the most dynamic curveball, sometimes too dynamic.
09:49And so when he was dropping the curves in the bullpen, Branca was summoned.
09:54What Erskine told me about the curveball that hit the dirt, he said whenever he was warming up,
10:00his last curveball prior to going in, he would break it in such a way that it would often hit
10:06the dirt
10:06because Campanella would say to him, bury the curve.
10:12Make sure it hits the ground.
10:14I, the catcher, I'll catch it.
10:17I had a hard overhand curveball that broke straight down.
10:20The polar grounds had a long area behind home plate.
10:23And Campanella was not catching that day, Rube Walker.
10:26And Rube was a great receiver, good arm, but he was very slow.
10:29I think Dressen must have said, you know, we don't need any wild pitches in this situation.
10:33Let me have Branca.
10:36The Giants come back.
10:38New York won 37 of its last 44 games.
10:42You had this dominating season by the Brooklyn Dodgers.
10:46I mean, who's going to worry about a 13-and-a-half game pennant lead?
10:50But the Giants played this miraculous baseball, 37-and-7.
10:56Coming out of that August 11th doubleheader, the surge begins.
11:00They won 16 in a row and started to narrow the gap.
11:05We weren't playing bad.
11:06They were playing tremendous.
11:07And we're winning, winning, winning.
11:09Leo kept egging us on.
11:11Just, you know, nice and easy.
11:14You know, who's going to be the hero today?
11:17Come on, you guys.
11:18Let's go out and win another one.
11:19All of a sudden in August, it just seemed like the pressure fell off of everybody.
11:25And we started playing baseball with great concentration.
11:29The last part of the season was very difficult on the Dodgers because, you know, we had a big lead.
11:35Suddenly that lead evaporated.
11:37And we just didn't play well.
11:38We didn't execute well.
11:39We didn't hit well.
11:41From that 13-and-a-half game lead on August 11th, the Dodgers, who had been 70-35,
11:47went 26-23 for the rest of the regular season.
11:51Why blame that loss on Ralph Branca?
11:54It's unfair.
11:55You could have blamed any day during the season when the Dodgers lost a game.
11:59I could have gotten a hit in September in a certain game.
12:03Or Jackie could have.
12:04Or Campy could have.
12:05Or Peewee could have.
12:06And we'd have won that game and we wouldn't have had to play in the playoffs.
12:09So it wasn't that one pitch that beat us that year.
12:12It was a team effort.
12:14We lost it.
12:15A baseball team should be arrested if they can't hold a 13-and-a-half game lead with, you know,
12:2240-some-odd games to go.
12:23It wasn't Ralph Branca who blew that 13-and-a-half game lead.
12:26I mean, the Dodgers choked.
12:27This was a team loss.
12:29This was a team that collapsed with one of the great leads.
12:32Unfortunately for Ralph, he just threw the final pitch of that collapse.
12:35There's no blaming Ralph Branca for what was, in effect, a Buffalo stampede through August and September by the New
12:43York Giants.
12:45Can't blame him.
12:48Did reason number five suit you?
12:50If not, try this one on for size.
12:52Reason number four.
12:56Tired arms.
12:57As the pennant race tightened, Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen mishandled the pitching staff.
13:05Dressen's handling of the pitching staff all through the second half of the 1951 season was just abominable.
13:13And he overused his starters.
13:14He didn't use a lot of his relievers.
13:17The pitching staff got overworked.
13:19I think we had 12 or 13 pitches.
13:21But he just used his basic five and literally ran us into the ground.
13:25Down the stretch, we pitched with short rest, just trying to stem the tide of the Giants.
13:32And so all of us were tired.
13:34And I think he overworked them.
13:35Newcomb particularly.
13:37LeVoyne was pitched a lot.
13:39And Erskine pitched a hell of a lot of games that year.
13:43On the final day of the regular season, the Dodgers were forced to use seven pitchers to beat the Phillies
13:489-8 in 14 innings.
13:51Among those relieving was 20-game winner Don Newcomb, who had pitched a shutout on the next-to-last day
13:57of the regular season.
13:59The very next day, he pitched five and two-thirds innings of shutout relief.
14:04By the time he was called upon to start Game 3, Newcomb had nothing left in the tank.
14:10Newcomb, who has always claimed he was exhausted, and probably was, is looking around for help.
14:16He wants to get out of here.
14:17I wish that Charlie Dresden had taken me out when we had a 4-1 lead to start the ninth
14:23inning and bring Ralph in, or bring Erskine in, somebody, to finish up the ball game.
14:28My arm was so tied, it took me, literally, I threw from the sixth inning until about the eighth inning
14:34before I got loose.
14:35I had pitched two innings Sunday, eight innings Monday, and I was the first man in the bullpen on Wednesday.
14:41The Dresden's handling of the bullpen and the pitching staff all through that last part of the second half of
14:47the season really cost the Dodgers the pennant.
14:52Gil Hodges' defensive positioning in the ninth inning came back to haunt the Dodgers.
14:58It's tough to put all the blame on Ralph Branca.
15:00A lot of people had something to do with that inning becoming what it did.
15:05You can blame Gil Hodges as much as you can blame Ralph Branca.
15:08If he was out of position, it was his fault, and it was Charlie Dresden's fault.
15:12That should have been noticed and corrected.
15:14When the Giants' Alvin Dark led off the ninth with a single, first baseman publicably played directly behind the runner
15:21when the likelihood of a steal attempt was, at best, remote.
15:25The Giants were down by three runs. Dark isn't going to go anywhere.
15:29And the next batter was a left-handed hitter, Don Mueller.
15:32Mueller hits a ground ball between first and second that probably Hodges would have gotten if he had been off
15:40the bag.
15:40If Hodges had been playing off the bag, he would have gobbled up Mueller's ground and probably got a four
15:46-side at second and maybe even a double play.
15:48You're winning four to one. His run means nothing.
15:52That was the blunder of the whole series.
15:56I hope you're beginning to question who's really to blame here.
15:59If not, not.
16:03The Say Hey Kid.
16:06With runners on second and third, Charlie Dresden chose to pitch to a man who had homered off Branca to
16:12win game one of the playoffs.
16:13The alternative was clear.
16:15Willie Mays, a rookie, was on deck.
16:19The last three months of the season, Bobby Thompson drove in more big runs than anyone that I've ever seen
16:25on a ball for three solid months.
16:27Not only had he hit that home run off Ralph Branca before in the series, he had already knocked in
16:35one of the runs that day with a single.
16:38So there was no question that he was hot.
16:40That would dictate at a minimum you think about walking him.
16:43Why would they face a veteran experience like Bobby Thompson, instead of this nervous kid like Willie Mays?
16:52That was the guy to get out.
16:55Although he hit .276 for the year, Mays had slumped in the final weeks of the season.
17:01Willie Mays, of course, in 1951 wasn't Willie Mays yet.
17:06He was a kid who was, by his own description, scared.
17:09Mays did not want to bat.
17:10He was hoping that somehow it would end with Thompson because he was scared.
17:14I was so scared.
17:16But my fear was they're going to walk Bobby.
17:19Bobby just hit a home run off of Branca the day before in Brooklyn.
17:23And I said, they're going to pitch to me.
17:25Had Bobby done something to maybe walk or whatever and Mays came up, who knows what would have happened.
17:30He was really frightened.
17:32He was a rookie.
17:33And, heck, probably Ralph had a better chance against Mays than he did against Thompson.
17:38You want to walk the guy, face Willie Mays.
17:42If he hits a hard ground ball, you've got a good chance for a double play.
17:46And out of the...
17:48And why wasn't that considered?
17:54The Giants cheated.
17:57Throughout their late season charge and into the playoffs, the Giants were...
18:01They did not cheat.
18:02They averaged less runs, less home runs during the 44-game run of 37-7 than they did before
18:11when they were a mediocre team.
18:14They won those games mostly because they're pitching and they averaged two less runs allowed.
18:23Maybe the pitchers were cheating, but we were not cheating with their back.
18:30Stealing the catcher's signs by using a unique, if unethical, system.
18:36The Giants were cheating in the sense that they were not just stealing the signs from the catcher of the
18:43opposing team.
18:45They were stealing it electronically.
18:47The Giants did the most despicable...
18:49You know, stealing signs from off the field, out of their locker room with a telescope.
18:55If a guy uses his eyes peering in, that's one thing.
18:59But when you've got someone swirled away in a clubhouse, that's another.
19:03Mounted behind a window in the Giants' clubhouse in center field
19:07was a high-powered military telescope used in World War II.
19:12We got an electrician attached to the bullpen, a buzzer, and one to the dugout.
19:18And we had an open bullpen out there.
19:21And I was the messenger.
19:22I was the guy selected to give the signs to the hitters.
19:26If there was no buzz, it was a fastball.
19:30If there was a buzz, I had a ball in my hand, just flipping it up in the air.
19:35So the Dodgers can say, well, we didn't lose it.
19:37It was stolen.
19:38We was robbed.
19:39The Dodgers fans said, look, the Giants won 16 games in a row, 13 of them at home.
19:45Isn't that suspicious?
19:46I'm sure all of those Dodgers must wonder that even if by using those signs
19:51to help them win even one game in that winning streak,
19:55you know, if they changed one game in their favor,
19:57that would have been enough to make the difference in the final result of the pennant.
20:02The Dodgers were the victim in the last game of what the Giants had been doing for much
20:11of the season, stealing signs.
20:13If any one of a number of big hits by the Giants was caused by a stolen sign earlier in
20:19the season,
20:20or if indeed Bobby Thompson's home run was caused by a stolen sign, then Ralph's not to blame.
20:26I had made a good pitch, and the guy happened to hit a home run.
20:29I mean, it was a good pitch, and give him credit for that.
20:32I mean, even though he knew what was coming.
20:38Well, there you have it.
20:39The top five reasons you can't blame Ralph Branca for the Dodgers losing the 1951 pennant.
20:43After winning the National League flag, the Giants ran out of miracles in the World Series,
20:47losing to the Yankees in six games.
20:49Thanks for watching.
20:51I'm Brian Kenney.
Comments