Ralph Branca Relives Baseball's "Shot Heard Round the World"

Ralph Branca Relives Baseball's "Shot Heard Round the World"

Hear about the infamous pitch from Branca, the reliever who delivered it, and Joshua Prager, the author of The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and The Shot Heard Round the World. 

It was 3:58 p.m. on October 3, 1951, when Bobby Thomson came up to bat against reliever Ralph Branca in the ninth inning of the third playoff game between the cross-town rival New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.  When Thomson hit Branca's second pitch for an explosive walk-off homerun, it sealed the Dodgers' collapse and won the National League pennant for the Giants.  Long a nagging rumor, only in 2001 was it finally confirmed that a Giants coach with a telescope stole the sign for Branca's fastball and relayed it to Thomson. 

Ralph Branca, whose pitching career as a Dodger, Tiger and Yankee yielded 88 victories, is a long-time resident of Rye.

Joshua Prager, currently a senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal, has three times been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing.

Dr. Dana Brand, author of The Last Days of Shea: Delight and Despair in the Life of a Mets Fan, will introduce the program and moderate the discussion.