The shot heard round the world

While the world watched and listened daily for the reports of the Korean war, sorry , it was officially a police action, the baseball world churned along.

The Yankees did what they seemed to bred to do, which is run away and hide from the pack, and with that the only thoughts were, how will a Brooklyn / Yankees World Series play out.

Nobody counted on the New York Giants, and so week by week they marched closer to the Dodgers, past the Phillies, then 10 games, 9, until the last weekend, and they forced what was inconceivable a month before.  A playoff with the Dodgers. A best of 3.

So the Giants won in Ebbets Field, and the Dodgers won at the Polo Grounds, forcing a 3rd and deciding
game. Russ Hodges called the game on radio for the NY Giants, and of course the old Red head, Red Barber called the game for the Dodgers.

The game was a close one, and heading into the bottom of the 9th, Alvin Dark got a single, and down 2 runs, the Giants suddenly had 2 men on, with the winning run at home plate, and Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca set to face Bobby Thompson.  Thompson took a pitch, and with the count 1-1, he hit a Branca fastball into the bleachers and into history. Branca walked slowly off the field, in defeat while Thompson was hoisted on his teammates shoulders and carried off the field as the hero.

They called the miracle comeback that brought the Giants back into this improbable playoff as " The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff.

This week the game and we as fans lost Bobby Thompson at age 86, and the every time I see this clip played, and here Russ Hodges , giddy in the moment, scream out " the Giants win the pennant " repeatedly, I get into the same moment, as the Carter home run in 1993, " touch em' all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life". And neither did Thompson. Sadly the Giants Cinderella story ended with a World Series loss to the Yankees, but for one summer, in 1951, New York truly was the capital of all things baseball.

Years later both the Dodgers and Giants would pack up and move to the west coast, and renewed rivalries in LA and San Fran, but for this wild summer, it culminated on a turn of the wrist, and a moment before the pitch, the writers were ready to proclaim the Dodgers as pennant winner, but a second later, the Giants had won, and story re-written. The game can change in an instant.

Farewell Bobby, the game has lost a hero.

Branca clowns it with nemesis Thompson.