As per Russ Hodges call, with a new meaning. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/08/17/2010-08-17_bobby_thomson_dies_after_long_illness.html
The man who hit the most famous home run in baseball history is gone. Bobby Thomson, whose "shot heard 'round the world" capped a best-of-three playoff and the Giants' miracle comeback to win the 1951 National League pennant over the Dodgers, died Monday night at his home in Savannah, Georgia. He had been in declining health for years, but died peacefully, according to his daughter Megan Thomson Armstrong. He was 86. Of baseball's historic walk-off home runs - Bill Mazeroski's in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Joe Carter's in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series, Carlton Fisk's in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series - Thomson's shot off of Ralph Branca into the left-field seats of the Polo Grounds on Oct. 3, 1951, will always be regarded as the granddaddy of them all. The dramatic blast capped the Giants' incredible charge to the pennant after they had trailed the Dodgers by 13 1/2 games as late as Aug. 11. Beginning on Aug. 12, the Giants won 16 straight games and went 37-7 down the stretch to force a tie with the Dodgers at season's end. In the playoff series that ensued, the Giants won the first game, 3-1, on a two-run fourth-inning homer by Thomson off Branca and the Dodgers came back to win the second game, 10-0, behind the six-hit pitching of Clem Labine. That set the stage for the deciding game, which the Dodgers led, 4-1, going into the ninth inning. But Dodger starter Don Newcombe, who had logged 272 innings that season, tired in the ninth, surrendering a leadoff infield single to Alvin Dark, another single to Don Mueller, and then, after Monte Irvin fouled out, a two-run opposite field double to left field by Whitey Lockman. On the play, Mueller severely sprained his ankle sliding into third and as he was attended to and finally removed from the game for pinch-runner Clint Hartung, Dodger manager Charlie Dressen summoned Branca from the bullpen to replace Newcombe with Thomson coming to the plate. "I was sorry to see Don hurt," Thomson had said, "but the delay really helped me. I walked out to talk to (Giants manager) Leo (Durocher) and he said: 'If you ever hit one, hit one now.' I could see he was plenty excited too and I calmed down a bit. On my way back to the plate, I said to myself: 'You're a pro. Act like one!'" Like Newcombe, Branca had been used extensively as Dressen desperately sought to hold off the surging Giants, and after pitching 1 1/3 innings of relief in the last game of the season and eight more innings the next day as the Dodgers' starter in the Game 1 of the playoff, he didn't expect to be called on again two days later. But when Dressen called down to the bullpen, Clyde Sukeforth, the bullpen coach, reported that Carl Erskine, warming up with Branca, had just bounced a ball in the dirt, and the Dodger manager told him to send in the burly righthander from Mount Vernon, N.Y. Branca's first pitch was a called-strike fastball. His second pitch, another fastball, Thomson hit on a low rising liner toward left. As Dodger leftfielder Andy Pafko drifted back to the wall, the ball sailed over his head into the seats for a 5-4 victory, and from the broadcast booth Giants announcer Russ Hodges could be heard screaming, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" "Right away after I hit it I thought it was a home run," Thomson had said. "Going around the bases, I could hardly breathe. I was starting to hyperventilate." Although Thomson and Branca actually became friends years after their careers ended and capitalized on the historic home run by doing card show autograph sessions together, their relationship became strained again some 50 years after the fact when an article by Joshua Harris Prager in the Wall Street Journal quoted backup Giants catcher Sal Yvars' detailing an elaborate sign-stealing scheme on the Giants' part during that 1951 season. The story, which was later incorporated into a book, essentially credited the Giants' historic comeback - and by extension Thomson's home run - to their ability to steal the opposing teams' signs. Branca took that as his exoneration while Thomson insisted he didn't know what pitch was coming. "Bobby was a really good guy," Branca said from his home in Rye, N.Y. "He was just doing his job and I was just doing mine. I don't condemn him for knowing what pitch was coming. I condemn the leaders of the Giants - (manager Leo) Durocher, (coach) Herman Franks (team captain) Alvin Dark. Bobby was always a class act and I'll miss him." "The Flying Scot", as he was known, took the high road when the Wall Street Journal story came out. Branca maintained the sign-stealing story vindicated him; that Thomson knew what pitch was coming. "Ralph has a right to believe what he wants," said Thomson who, through their mutual fate, had formed a close, lifetime friendship with Branca. "But I can assure you nobody gave me any sign. I was looking for a fastball and that's what I got. We're married to each other by this. This is the first sign of any trouble between us and it's nothing big. We're too damn old to let it bother us now." In some ways, the home run was a bit of a mixed blessing in that, with it, came future expectations that Thomson was never able to meet. Thomson hit .293 with 32 homers and 101 in 1951 and had similar seasons in '52 and '53, but he never achieved superstar status. After the '53 season in which he hit .288 with 26 homers and 106 RBI, the Giants traded him to the Milwaukee Braves for pitchers Johnny Antonelli and Don Liddle, both of whom played key roles in their winning the world championship in 1954. For Thomson, the '54 season was a complete bust as he broke his ankle sliding into third base in spring training and appeared in only 32 games for the Braves. He would never again approach 100 RBI and was traded four more times before retiring in 1960 with a lifetime .270 average, 264 homers, 1,705 hits and 1,026 RBI for 15 years. Thomson was born in Glasgow, Scotland and moved with his family to Staten Island when he was 2, where he later attended Curtis High School before serving in the United States Air Force in World War II. Thomson moved to Savannah a few years ago to be close to his daughter, Nancy Thomson Mitchell, and her husband Charles "Chuck" Thomson, who cared for him when his health began failing. Thomson was preceded in death by his wife, Elaine "Winkie" Thomson, and his son, Bob Thomson Jr. In addition to his daughter and her husband, Thomson is survived by his other daughter, Megan Thomson Armstrong of New Jersey; his daughter-in-law, Judy Thomson; and six grandchildren. Megan said he had many wonderful relatives and friends in the New York area, especially in Staten Island. "New York was a big part of his life." Private services will be held in Savannah and in Watchung, N.J. "He touched many, many people," said longtime friend, Esther Daniels. "Bob never talked about his home run unless he was at an event and somebody asked him about it. He didn't walk around telling people who he was." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wnndl?hl=en.
