Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive! for automatic updates (sign-up block found in right side-bar)
As a Free Bonus for subscribing, you’ll get instant access to my two Special Reports: Memorable World Series Moments and Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!
“Shot Heard ‘Round the World” Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:
Today we welcome Bill Schaefer to Baseball History Comes Alive as he shares with us his personal reflections on the Giants’ magical 1951 season, which culminated in Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World!” I think you’ll find Bill’s essay interesting. -GL
SNAP SHOTS FROM A GIANTS FAN, THROUGH A SURREAL SEASON
On a sultry August afternoon in 1950, from our perch in the Polo Grounds upper deck, my father and I watched Eddie Stanky drill an apparent single to right field. Why, then, did Eddie bolt out of the batter’s box and run for his life? Then we saw Carl Furillo swoop in from his shallow position in right, scoop the ball and unleash a missile to Gil Hodges at first base! Stanky was out by an eyelash, but Gil couldn’t hold the Reading Rifle’s powerful throw.
Stanky’s awareness and hustle characterized Leo Durocher’s “My kind of team.”
That year, the Giants were 36-46 on July 19. They then won 17 of 18 and went 50-22 to close out the season! There were great expectations for 1951.
Larry Jansen shut out the Braves, 4-0, on opening day in Boston, April 17. After a loss, they won the first game of a Patriots’ Day doubleheader, as General Douglas MacArthur, back from Korea, was delivering his “Old Soldiers Never Die” speech.
An 11 game losing streak began that evening, with a brutal loss.
The club stood 2-12 on April 29. One Giants fan prayed, “Lord, I asked for a dream season. I’d thank you not to give me a nightmare!”
The team steadied and won 40 of their next 60 games. A crucial meeting loomed with the dodgers, on the fourth of July.
Ebbets Field, with its Dodger Sym-Phony, 40 ft. screen in right field, and Gladys Gooding at the organ, was at once charming and daunting. Trading for Andy Pafko in June made Brooklyn a total wrecking crew, especially in that cozy ballyard.
Before the July showdown…
Monte Irvin simply could not catch the ball at first base and went back to the outfield. Whitey Lockman took over on May 21.
Four days later, the Giants brought up a just turned 20-year-old from their Minneapolis farm. He had devastated the American Association with a .477 batting average, and played center field like he invented the position.
Willie Mays promptly went 0-12 against the Phillies and then launched a rocket over the roof at the Polo grounds against the great Warren Spahn-followed by another 0-13. He was bludgeoning baseballs directly into opposing gloves. Then the hits started to fall.
In early June, Leo Durocher replaced Herman Franks in the third-base coaching box. Franks was so cautious he thought twice before waving a runner around third base on a home run.
My dad and I wanted a sweep in the big series. That would put us only a game and a half behind the first-place Dodgers. Instead, we got swept! A twin shocker on the fourth, and the Dodgers pulled ahead by 71/2 games with a win on Thursday, July 5. We were devastated. The first pennant since Bill Terry managed the Giants in 1937, now seemed a pipe dream.
From the end of June, through the first game of a doubleheader on August 11, Brooklyn went 29-10. A headline appeared on the back page of the Daily News: BUMS (YAWN) WIN AGAIN.
Brooklyn was breezing with a 131/2 game lead. The Giants were blanked by Phillies ace Robin Roberts and manager Eddie Sawyer predicted his team would leapfrog the Giants into second place.
Somehow, though, I still had hope. Durocher could drive a team like no other. And Bobby Thomson, now playing third base, was coming off a blistering July-.345 with 11 homers and 30 RBI!
In the first of a pair on Sunday, August 12, Monte Irvin lofted a high drive that kissed off the right-field roof just inside the foul pool, for a three-run homer. Phillies lefthander Jocko Thompson couldn’t believe it, “I had Irvin struck out. He flicked the ball right out of Andy Seminick’s mitt!” The Jints won 3-2, behind Sal Maglie.
Bobby Thomson drove in both runs for a 2-1 victory in the second game.
Magic was in the air.
Flashes…Polo Grounders finish 37-7:
- On August 15, Billy Cox was poised at third with the game knotted at one. Willie Mays sped into medium right-center to grab Carl Furillo’s fly ball–then whirled 180 degrees, releasing an amazing strike to Wes Westrum! A sliding Cox bounced off the sturdy Giants catcher into his waiting tag. Wes then insured the Giants’ 5th straight win with a two-run homer off Ralph Branca.
- The Brooks were swept the next day. Coming into town, they had beaten the Giants 12 of 15 games.
- On Sunday, August 26, my Dad and I were on the edge of our seats, in the horseshoe-shaped park, as our heroes gunned for 13 straight facing the Cubs, in the first of two. Suddenly, a huge roar erupted–a big 8 appeared on the scoreboard in the Pittsburgh seventh! The Pirates went on to edge Brooklyn 12-11. The Giants prevailed 5-4 and the lead was six!
- After a second doubleheader sweep on Monday, 16 straight wins cut the Dodger margin to five games!
The following afternoon, a drained Durocher crew wilted against Howie Pollet and the Pirates, 2-0.
Mind bogglers…
Sunday, September 9th saw the Giants play the Dodgers for the final time, at Ebbets Field. The lead was 61/2 games. With the Giants leading 2-1 in the Brooklyn eighth and Jackie Robinson on third, Bobby Thomson miraculously stabbed an Andy Pafko bullet headed for the left-field corner. Bobby tagged Robinson sliding back to third and fired to first, completing an incredible double play! A weary Sal Maglie preserved a precious 2-1 victory.
The magnitude of that play, with only 16 games remaining, was expressed by Dick Young in Monday’s Daily News: “If by some miracle the Giants go on to snag the NL flag, Giants fans will not remember Monte Irvin’s home run or that Sal Maglie won his 20th. They will remember Bobby Thomson’s…” He was so right!
The Giants blazed down the stretch, winning 12 of their final 13 games. On the last day of the regular season, September 30th, masterful Larry Jansen beat the Braves 3-2, to go 22-11. They now led Brooklyn by half a game!
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the Dodgers were deadlocked in the bottom of the 13th when Jackie Robinson made an impossible diving catch of an Eddie Waitkus looper in short center field, to forestall defeat. He then slugged a home run in the top of the 14th to win it, 9-8! Robinson was the greatest competitor I ever saw.
The breathless season went non-stop to Flatbush the next day for the first playoff game. Jim Hearn handcuffed the Dodgers 3-1. Often obscured is Bobby Thomson’s game-winning, two-run homer in the fourth inning…off Ralph Branca!
On Tuesday, the baseball gods mercifully provided a respite from the relentless pressure with a 10-0 Dodger drubbing at the Polo Grounds, behind the brilliance of Clem Labine.
October 3 was showdown time at Coogan’s Bluff. I got home from school to join my dad as the eighth inning unfolded. We watched in horror as Bobby Thomson was handcuffed twice by tough infield hits, leading to three Dodger runs and a 4-1 lead. Don Newcombe looked invincible in the Giants’ home half. Jansen, replacing Maglie, retired Brooklyn in the ninth.
Alvin Dark and Don Mueller opened the Giants 9th with singles. Then Irvin popped out. Our hearts sank. Monte was our big gun. But clutch Whitey Lockman sliced a double to left, scoring Dark. Mueller pulled a tendon in his ankle and left on a stretcher. Branca relieved Newcombe and faced Bobby Thomson.
After a strike, Ralph threw a second fastball inside. Thomson swung hard and smote a sinking line drive blur into the lower deck of the left-field stands! “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” won the pennant for New York and Jansen earned win number 23, equaling Sal Maglie.
In 1966, a young broadcaster interviewed Thomson in his Watchung, NJ home. He told me, “In 1951, I was lightning quick getting around on the inside fastball. They couldn’t throw it past me.”
Had the injured MVP Roy Campenella been behind the plate in that third playoff game instead of Rube Walker, do you think Thomson would have gotten two consecutive fastballs?
The second provided Giants fans their greatest joy…and Dodger fans unthinkable desolation.
Bill Schaefer
Subscribe to our website, “Baseball History Comes Alive!” with over 1200 fully categorized baseball essays and photo galleries, now surpassing the 700K hits mark at 774K hits and over 600 subscribers: www.baseballhistorycomesalive.com
Photo Credits: All from Google Seach
