Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Damn Yankees
Page 48
much of the summer, but the Yankees, never far behind, put together a torrid final month of the season to win the pennant by five games.
The Yankee opponent in the 1951 World Series was the Giants, with Game 1 played the day after they won the National League pennant in the Miracle of Coogan's Bluff featuring Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ‘round the world.”
Ralph Branca, who sort of unfairly, is most remembered for having given up Thomson’s shot, grew up a big fan of the New York Giants. On October 3, 1951, he probably wished he was still one. An eight year veteran of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the big 25 year old right hander was called upon to quell a desperate ninth inning rally by his boyhood heroes. All that stood between
Branca and a spot in the World Series was Giants slugger Bobby Thomson.
What happened next is often cited by baseball players and historians alike as the game’s most memorable moment, ever. Until that moment, Branca had yet to attract enough bad luck to justify the “13” on the back of his uniform. He won 21 games in 1947, the first of three straight years in which he was selected to the National League All-Star team. He slipped in 1950 to 7-9