Bellmore Filmmaker Keeps His Eye on the Ball

Bellmore resident Sal Del Giudice recently won the Best Documentary Award at the Long Island International Film Expo in Bellmore for his film "Miracle Ball, Hunt for the Shot Heard Round the World."

"To win anything is just an amazing feeling," Del Giudice said. "To win it in my own backyard in Bellmore is incredible this theater and whole thing is run two blocks from my house and to have the theater filled with my friends and family, there was just no better feeling in the world. And they actually clapped when the movie was over. I'm really proud of the whole process and that we won."

The movie chronicles a two-year search of Syosset resident Brian Biegel for the famous 1951 game and Pennant winning home run in the playoff game between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The ball seemed to disappear as several people claimed they caught it, but no one could prove they had the real baseball.

"That's why it will live on forever; it's in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame," added Del Giudice. "It's the shot heard around the world. There's a reason why they called it that - because it transcended all media and traveled around the world [through television.]"

Del Giudice further explained the significance of that baseball game and moment in local sports history.

"The New York Giants [were playing] against the heavily favored Brooklyn Dodgers, to win the pennant and face off against the New York Yankees in the World Series. There are still people today who can't get over the fact that the Dodgers lost that game. The one main artifact of that moment, lost in time...nobody knows where it was. We set out to find it and whatever we needed to do, we did. We left no stone unturned."

Biegel, the director, said he got the idea to make the movie from a reward that was advertised in a sports collectables magazine.

"I never knew that the Thomson ball was missing and they offered a $1 million  reward to anyone who could prove they had the actual baseball," he said.

Biegel added that his father has long claimed to have found the famous Thomson baseball at a bargain shop. Biegel approached Del Giudice with the idea of filming his search to prove his father's claim right or wrong.

"His dad had an old baseball and his dad was convinced that that was the actual baseball that Bobby Thompson hit," said Del Giudice. "He came to me with this idea and we went into production almost immediately. I'm a huge baseball fan. I thought it was an incredible idea and I'm very proud of our work."

The two conducted numerous interviews and consulted photography and forensic experts at the NYPD to determine whom exactly caught the ball that day. They pieced together a puzzle of clues in an effort to solve the nearly 60-year-old mystery.

Del Giudice is working on another documentary with Biegel and two feature film projects.

For more information on Miracle Ball, visit theshotheardaroundtheworld.com.

Download the movie