My Hero Bobby Thomson Dies

When Bobby Thomson hit the home run that won the 1951 National League Pennant for the New York Giants against the hated Brooklyn Dodgers I nearly drove off the road listening as Russ Hodges shouted, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"
 
Well, Bobby Thomson has died at 86, and a part of me has died, too.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5471194

Sorry.  :(

Apparently he was a Scot. Didn't know that.

R.I.P. slugger.

I have a framed and signed 8x10 color photo of him on my wall, right next to the one of Duke Snider.

59 years ago, good God!!
Can you imagine how thrilled he must of felt?

Michael,

I knew I would find your message when I got to Roadfood----
he was your hero,

but he almost broke my heart. 

He and Ralph Branca became famous forever (well almost) with one pitch and one swing of the bat. 

Touch 'em all, Bobby ----you were "The Man" that fall day in '51. 

Hardly a man is now alive,
Who remembers that famous day and year. (Longfellow)

Maybe the single greatest moment in the history of baseball.

Mr Traveling Man---The shot heard round the world-------

Thinking about it, it could very well be the single greatest moment-----
People remember where they were and Gowdy's call. 

The people of Pittsburgh have a different moment in mind.....

 What a great moment in baseball history. Sorry to hear of "The Flying Scot's" death.

That homer may have been my first imprint of a baseball memory in my 8th year of life.

On that famous day and year I happened to be looking for a ship at my union hall on Beaver street in Manhattan. No jobs came up that day, so at about 11am I called my friend Charley. a student at Juilliard, who lived on 123rd St and asked if he'd join me at the Polo Grounds to see the game. We got there early enough to get in and stand throughout the game - no seats available that we could afford. I don't really remember, but I think the bleacher seats (actually no seat at all) we got cost about $2. 

I've always been , at best, a casual baseball watcher - hardly a fanatic- but I'd always liked the Giants and that year the Giants had come from way back to tie it up at the end of the season. and I'd developed a particular liking for Eddie Stankey - the guy who kicked the ball out of  the second baseman's glove to be safe at second and keep the Giants alive.

Bobby Thompson was not a particularly colorful player - he was a competent journeyman who became a national hero that day , we all mourn his passing.

Cheers, John 

the ancient mariner

People remember where they were and Gowdy's call. 

 
The famed "The Giants Win The Pennant" call belonged to announcer Russ Hodges.

buffetbuster


The people of Pittsburgh have a different moment in mind.....

Howard------Russ Hodges, of course, my mistake, blame it on my immaturity.

Great story John Old Boy, it sure must have been an exciting moment. 
Even though it has been called "A Day That Will Live Forever In Infamy"
-----------in Brooklyn at least. 

Howard Baratz

the ancient mariner

People remember where they were and Gowdy's call. 

 
The famed "The Giants Win The Pennant" call belonged to announcer Russ Hodges.

That's what I said.

Hodges was on radio---Gowdy on Tv and on the other (better) side Ernie
Harwell and Red Barber.  4 Hall of Famers.

Because there is always 2 sides to every story, check here for a live interview with Ralph Branca done today on WFAN Radio in NY.

It's been pretty well documented that Bobby often knew what pitch was coming via sign-stealing that year, although he always denied it happend for that at-bat.

Ralph Branca strongly implies otherwise:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/audio-on-demand/wfan-audio/#

Ken---I was a died in the wool rabid DODGER fan but
 that is all sour grapes--------

I wood-a won that race, but I tripped.
I could-a been #1 but the other guy cheated.
I should-a been elected but not enough people voted for me.

Thompson hit a homer and-----The Giants Won The Pennant,
The Giants won the Pennant.  

It didn't make much difference who represented the National
League----the CURSED Yankees won the World Series. 

I hated the Yankees, and will forever.  Amen. 

Sign stealing is a time-honored baseball tradition. The teams that complain about it are doing it, too.

I have a confession to make. While I was there at the Polo Grounds that day, I didn't really see Thomson swing and hit the home run. Like a large part of the crowd we were on our way to the exits when he came to bat, but when the crowd erupted with a huge noise we turned around and I did see Thomson rounding the bases and crossing home plate. And , of course, we stayed for while longer whooping it up with everyone else. 

Cheers, John 

I'm still pissed I was at the Consession stand getting a beer when he did it!
Think about the people who actually were, or maybe taking a leak!

enginecapt

buffetbuster


The people of Pittsburgh have a different moment in mind.....

Yeah, that's better!

Did something ever happen in Pittsburgh involving sports?

Mazeroski's homerun happened when i was 7 and my mom let me stay home from school to watch the game. I like it better than Thompson's home run because the Yankees lost which makes everything better for me.

Anytime the Yankees lose is a bellwether moment.

Couldn't Thomson have taken Favre with him?

I couldn't help wondering why anyone would wish for the death of Brett Favre.

But then I saw who posted it.

You'll get over it. 
 
I'm really not wishing him dead, actually.  I don't know if you follow football, but Brett Favre is a National Football League quarterback who used to play for the Green Bay Packers (Green Bay is in Wisconsin), New York Jets (New York is in the state of New York) and the Minnesota Vikings (Minnesota is not a city, it is a state).  In 2002, Favre began talking about retiring, and for the last several years he has made a big drama as to whether or not he will return.  He announced his return to the Minnesota Vikings, who play in Minneapolis, today.  Many people, even those who used to be big fans of his (such as myself) have grown tired of his act, and a lot of wish that he would go away.  That's of what I was referring to in my comment.  Given the news of the day (which you apparently didn't hear), I am surprised that you would actually think that I was literally "wishing him dead".  Then again, I can only control what I say, not how others choose to interpret or perceive things.
 
Enjoy the rest of your night.
 
 

I follow football (a sport involving two groups called teams that meet in competition on a field that can either be outdoors [traditional] or in an enclosure [a more modern innovation]), and I am quite familiar with Brett Favre's history. While people may well be tired of his seeming inability to make up his mind, I tend to doubt that many of his fans (generally people who follow avidly a person or team, sport or all three) or his detractors would wish him dead. Perhaps you thought that when Bobby Thomson died (died means death, and death is an absence of life) he really just went off to, say, Mississippi (one of the 50 states of the United States of America, located in what is often called The Deep South), and that's why you said you wished he'd taken Favre with him.