No. 1951.10.03 · Postwar Era
The Shot Heard 'Round the World
Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning homer off Ralph Branca is one of the famous swings in the sport. The Giants had stolen the sign.
October 3, 1951, the Polo Grounds, the third and final game of a National League playoff. The Dodgers led 4–1 going into the ninth. Alvin Dark and Don Mueller singled, Whitey Lockman doubled, and it was 4–2 with runners on second and third. Mueller hurt himself sliding and was replaced by a pinch runner. Don Newcombe came out. Ralph Branca came in.
Thomson hit a three-run homer. The Giants won, 5–4, and Russ Hodges's call entered the language. For decades that was the whole story. Later research, especially Joshua Prager's, and the accounts of the participants, established that the Giants had been stealing signs with a telescope in the clubhouse beyond center field. Herman Franks relayed them to the bullpen, and the bullpen relayed them to the hitter. Thomson later said he knew what was coming.
The homer was real. The information was stolen. Branca spent a life as the man who threw the pitch. He also spent it as the man who was pitched against with a telescope in the building behind him. Both facts belong in the record.
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