Bobby, who was known as "The Staten Island Scot", was the New York Giant who hit the National League pennant clinching homerun off Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Ralph Branca during the 1951 playoff game.  Bobby signed the sweet spot and Ralph signed underneath the stitching of the sweet spot of this ONL Leonard S. Coleman baseball with a blue ballpoint pen.  Bobby also inscribed the date of the historic moment after his name, "10/3/51".  They signed this baseball on October 3, 1999.

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This event was even more dramatic than it may seem to the modern sports observer, as league pennants were not routinely decided by playoff until 1969 and only occurred in years in which teams finished the regular season in a tie, as had happened in 1951.

The home run was an exclamation point on a dramatic season for the Giants. Although some had considered them a pre-season favorite to win the pennant, they faltered badly in the early going. By mid-August, they were 13 1/2 games behind the league-leading Dodgers. But the Giants went on a late-season tear, winning 37 of their final 45 games to tie the Brooklyn team on the final day of the season and force the three-game playoff.

The teams split the first two games, forcing the decisive contest on October 3rd at the Polo Grounds. The Dodgers took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Giants' cause appeared lost. But Thomson's homer turned what looked like a certain defeat into a 5-4 victory. The moment was immortalized by the famous call of Giants play-by-play announcer Russ Hodges who cried, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"

Waiting to hit behind Thomson in the on deck circle was a young man who would hit a few home runs of his own: rookie Willie Mays.

Thomson remained with the Giants through the 1953 season. That winter, he was sent to the Milwaukee Braves in a multi-player deal. His career intersected with another of the game's all-time greats in 1954. During his first spring training with the Braves, he suffered a broken ankle. The injury allowed rookie Hank Aaron, the future home run king, to earn a place in the Milwaukee lineup.

The Braves traded Thomson back to the Giants during the 1957 season, and he was in the lineup for the club's final game at the Polo Grounds. The Giants moved to San Francisco for the 1958 season, but Thomson was gone, traded to the Cubs. He spent two seasons in Chicago, before closing out his career in the American League with the Red Sox and Orioles.

Bobby Thomson was a .270 career hitter with 264 home runs and 1026 RBI in 1779 games. He was selected an All-Star in 1948, 1949, and 1952.

Thomson, the youngest of six children, arrived in the United States at age two with his family; his father, a cabinetmaker, had moved to New York shortly before Bobby's birth and sent for his family later. Raised on Staten Island, Thomson served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and reached the major leagues in 1946. After retiring, he worked for a paper company.

Trivia

Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield was born October 3, 1951—the very day Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World.

Scottish baseball team, the Edinburgh Diamond Devils, named their home "Bobby Thomson Field." It was opened by the man himself in 2003, while he was in Scotland to be inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame

The UK Chapter of SABR (The Society of American Baseball Research) is named the Bobby Thomson Chapter.

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca (born January 6, 1926 in Mount Vernon, New York) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. From 1944 through 1956, Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944-53, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953-54), and New York Yankees (1954). He batted and threw right handed.

Branca was known as a very good starter during his years in Brooklyn. A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. Unfortunately, he is also remembered for one infamous relief appearance in a 1951 playoff game against the crosstown rival New York Giants. Branca entered the game in the ninth inning and surrendered a walk-off home run known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson, giving the Giants the National League pennant.

Branca later learned from Detroit Tiger Ted Gray that the Giants had stolen the signs to the two pitches he threw Thomson. That rumor was confirmed in The Wall Street Journal 2001, when Giant Sal Yvars admitted that he relayed to Thomson the stolen signs for Branca's fastballs.^[1] Joshua Prager detailed the revelations in a book entitled The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and The Shot Heard Round the World. Thomson acknowledged to Prager that the Giants had stolen signs in 1951 but denied that he had foreknowledge of the pitch he hit off Branca for the pennant-winning home run.

Branca was engaged to be married to Ann Mulvey, whose cousin, Father Pat Rowley, was a priest. When Branca asked, "Why me?" Father Pat told him, "Because God knew your faith would be strong enough to bear this cross." Ralph married Ann a few weeks later. He would not only rarely express bitterness over the gopher ball, but begin a friendship with Thomson that lasted into each man's old age, including many joint television appearances. Branca's experience is in stark contrast to that of Donnie Moore of the California Angels, who gave up a dramatic home run to Boston's Dave Henderson in the 1986 American League Championship Series, and committed suicide three years later.

In a 12-year career, Branca posted an 88-68 record with 829 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA in 1484.0 innings pitched. He would later indicate that a back injury suffered during spring training in 1952, and not the reaction to the previous year's home run, cut down on his effectiveness and cut short his career.

"The Shot Heard Round The World" is reputed to be the most exciting moment in the history of baseball and has forever immortalized the Polo Grounds. After the Giants left New York City for San Francisco in 1957, the stadium remained empty for five years until the Mets occupied it during the 1962 and 1963 seasons. Nostalgia ran wild when the Giants and Dodgers returned to the Polo Grounds to play the Mets. In 1964, the Mets moved to Shea Stadium in Queens, and the Polo Grounds was demolished. Branca was interviewed at the demolition site when the wrecking ball was thrown against the wall. Thirteen years after Bobby Thomson's electrifying home run, he watched the stadium come crumbling down. The site is now occupied by a housing project.

Branca lives at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, where he has been a member for about 40 years. He is also a member of the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

Trivia

• The book Carl Erskine's Tales from the Dodgers Dugout: Extra Innings (2004) includes short stories from former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine. Branca is prominent in many of these stories.

• Branca originally wore the uniform number 12, but switched to number 13, one of the few players of that time to wear it, due to a long-standing superstition that the number brings bad luck. After the Shot Heard 'Round the World, he briefly returned to number 12, but then changed back to 13.

• Ralph and Ann Branca's daughter Mary married a later Dodger player, later manager of the New York Mets, Bobby Valentine.

• Ralph was a contestant on Concentration, where he won 17 straight games.

• In his final spring training appearance, Branca was relieved by Sandy Koufax, who is also connected to Thomson as the slugger was his first major league strikeout victim.

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