![]() ![]() The first batter he faced: Bobby Thomson. With the tying run at second, Newcombe was replaced with Ralph Branca, an eight-year Dodger veteran who grew up a big Giants fan. After Newcombe got Irvin to foul out, Whitey Lockman drilled a double that scored Dark and sent Mueller to third-where he badly injured his knee and precipitated a 15-minute delay while he was taken off the field. Dodger first baseman Gil Hodges inexplicably held onto Dark-essentially, a meaningless run-rather than maximize their defensive range sure enough, Don Mueller poked a grounder through the enlarged hole on the right side that might have otherwise been turned into a rally-killing double play. With Newcombe trying to wrap it up, Alvin Dark led off with a single. The 4-1 Brooklyn lead held going into the bottom of the ninth. The Dodgers quickly-and, it appeared, fatally for the Giants-responded in the eighth with three runs, a rally extended when Thomson couldn’t hang onto a catch behind third base off an Andy Pafko short fly. On a day described as “dank and dreary,” the Giants quickly trailed the Dodgers 1-0 on a first-inning, run-scoring single by Jackie Robinson 20-game winner Don Newcombe held the lead up for the first six innings, but ran into trouble and allowed the Giants to tie it in the seventh when Thomson’s sacrifice fly brought home Monte Irvin, who had doubled to lead off the frame. They won the first game, 3-1, before getting shellacked in the second, 10-0-setting up the winner-take-all at New York’s Polo Grounds. Looking down and out in mid-August as they trailed powerhouse rival Brooklyn by 13 games, the Giants awoke and won 37 of their remaining 44 games to tie the Dodgers and force a best-of-three playoff to determine the National League pennant. One of baseball’s legendary home runs capped a remarkable season comeback in historic fashion and would make the name Bobby Thomson sweetly resonate with generations of Giants fans. October 3, 1951: The Shot Heard ‘Round the World ![]()
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