Memories of the Shot Heard Round the World
August 18, 2010 by Bill Gilbert · 1 Comment
I suspect everyone my age with an interest in baseball knows where they were when Bobby Thomson hit his historic home run in 1951. I was in my 11 th grade physics class at South High School in Denver. I was an avid Brooklyn Dodger fan growing up and listened to part of the game on the radio during lunch hour. The Dodgers were ahead and when I arrived in physics class after lunch, my friend, Dave Gorham, who sat next to me, told me that the Dodgers had won which I was relieved to hear.
After class, I sought out a radio to hear more of the details of the Dodger win only to discover that the Dodgers had not won. I still remember the shock when I heard the news. It was the second straight year that the Dodgers lost the pennant on the last day of the season. However, I stuck with them and enjoyed their success the next five years when they captured the National League pennant four times and finally beat the Yankees in the World Series in 1955.
I was a BIG Dodger fan, 15 years old. I was watching the game on TV in my friends apartment, when Thomson came to the plate, Branca on the mound. I said, “oh no” when Branca was brought in. Bobby hit a homer off him in an earlier game.
When Thomson swung, and Russ Hodges started screaming, I nearly had a heart attack, fell off the couch and cried as my beloved Dodgers lost. It still pains me to hear Russ repeat four times, those horrible line, “The Giants win the pennant.”
My friend, also a Dodger fan and I went into the street mobbed with jubilant Giants fans and sobbing Dodger fans. I got my first nose bleed as a friend, swinging his arms wildly accidentally his me in the nose. I will never forget that day.
God Bless Bobby Thomson’s soul.