NEW YORK - (Oct. 3, 1951) - Hours after Ralph Branca had thrown the most famous pitch in baseball history, on which Bobby Thomson had hit the most famous home run in baseball history to end the most famous game in baseball history, Branca stood face-to-face with a priest named Father Pat Rowley.

"Pat, why me, tell me why me?" Branca asked. "I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't run around. Baseball is my whole life. Why me?"

Father Pat, who happened to be the cousin of Branca's fiancee, looked at Branca's long, sorrowful face, stared deeply into his glossy brown eyes and answered "God chose you because He knew you had faith and strength to bear this cross."

If that was the case, God must not have been a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.

Either that, or he was in a bad mood that overcast afternoon beneath Coogan's Bluff when Branca served up a high fastball that Thomson launched for a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. Known forever as the Shot Heard 'Round the World, it gave the Giants a 5-4 victory over their hated rivals from Brooklyn and the National League pennant.

Former Giants great Carl Hubbell, then a scout with the team, said that day in the jubilant Giants clubhouse at the Polo Grounds, "We won't live long enough to see anything like it again."

An overstatement, you say? Sure Hubbell was overcome by the moment, but nearly half a century later, he looks quite sage because there has never been anything else quite like it.

You can make a case for Pittsburgh Pirate Bill Mazeroski beating the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series with his home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 at Forbes Field. And there was Joe Carter's bottom-of-the-ninth dinger in Game 6 which ended the 1993 Series at Skydome and gave Toronto the world championship over Philadelphia.

But Thomson's home run, even though it didn't come in a World Series, stands alone as the most dramatic moment in baseball history.

Consider:

• This was the Giants vs. the Dodgers, certainly the most bitter and emotional rivalry in baseball at that time (and left-coasters will vouch it remains that way today);
• it came at the end of one of the greatest pennant races in history as the Giants made up 13 games over the final six weeks of the regular season;
• in this game, the Giants were trailing by two runs and were in a do-or-die situation, whereas Mazeroski was hitting in a tie game, and Carter and the Blue Jays still had another game to play if he hadn't homered;
• and of course, the game was played in the media capital of the world - New York City.

"I don't care what anybody says, that's the most famous home run of them all," said Branca.

He should know, because for 46 years he has had to live with the agony Thomson's clout inflicted upon him.

"I accepted that, that it would be something that I would have to bear for the rest of my life," Branca said recalling Father Pat's explanation. In the same breath, though, he admitted that the constant replaying and reliving of the homer has worn on him.

"It's time to bury it," Branca said in an interview almost 15 years ago. "(Dick) Sisler hit a home run off (Don) Newcombe and won a pennant (in 1950) for Philadelphia, and Mazeroski hit a home run off Ralph Terry to win the World Series. ... You never hear about those things. The only reason you hear about Branca-Thomson is it was in New York, and there was a great rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants."

Thomson, as modest now going on the age of 74 as he was then, agreed that the home run has taken on a long life of its own.

"This whole thing is still just a little bit crazy," he said. "I had no idea that what happened back then would still be famous. I'm just a plain old guy."

He was just a plain young guy in 1951, a most unlikely candidate to become a legend.

THOMSON MADE HIS MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT with New York in 1946, became the starting center fielder in 1947 and hit .283 with 29 homers and 85 RBI. His numbers dipped in 1948, and Leo Durocher, who replaced Mel Ott as manager halfway through the season, was tempted to get rid of Thomson.

But Thomson fought gamely, kept his position, and in 1949 had a big season with a .309 average, 27 homers and 109 RBI. He slipped to .252, 25 and 85 in 1950, and then in 1951, an early-season slump prompted Durocher to recall a kid named Willie Mays from the Giants farm club in Minneapolis. That pushed Thomson out of center field and into a platooning situation with Hank Thompson at third base, where he stayed the rest of the year.

Like Thomson, Branca had also become a less vital part in the Dodgers 1951 machine. He had come up to Brooklyn as an 18-year-old in 1944 and pitched sparingly until 1947 when he won 21 games and posted an earned-run average of 2.67 as the Dodgers won the NL pennant.

As it turned out, that was the high point of Branca's career. He followed with records of 14-9, 13-5 and 7-9, and heading into 1951, he was the fourth starter behind Newcombe, Preacher Roe and Carl Erskine.

The Giants had begun the 1951 season horribly, losing 12 of their first 13 games including 11 in a row. When Mays joined the team on May 25, New York was mired in fifth place in the NL.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were tearing up the league. They had taken the NL pennant race down to the last day in 1950 and stood one game behind Philadelphia's Whiz Kids as the teams squared off at Ebbetts Field. A Brooklyn victory would have forced a three-game playoff, and in the bottom of the ninth, it looked like it was going to happen as Duke Snider lined a single to center that the sellout crowd thought was going to score Cal Abrams from second base. However, Richie Ashburn gunned a perfect strike to the plate and Philly catcher Stan Lopata tagged Abrams out to force extra innings. Then Sisler ripped his game- and pennant-winning three-run homer off Newcombe in the 10th, and all of Flatbush weaped.

THIS YEAR WAS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT, though. The Phillies were nowhere to be found, and the Dodgers tore through the first half of the season. When they swept a July 4 doubleheader against their closest pursuers, the Giants, their lead was 7 1/2 games and Brooklyn manager Charley Dressen boasted "They're through. Those two beatings we gave them knocked them out of it. They'll never bother us again."

After completing a three-game sweep of New York on Aug. 9, the Dodgers were 15 games ahead in the loss column, and they celebrated by taunting the Giants from the side-by-side clubhouses at Ebbetts Field, Jackie Robinson leading the way by pounding a bat against the Giants door. This infuriated Durocher, but it also served to light a fire under the Giants.

The lead was 13 when Brooklyn split a doubleheader with the Boston Braves on Aug. 11, but the next day the Giants began a 16-game winning streak which included a three-game sweep of the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. When the streak was over, the Giants were within five games.

They lost a little ground and were seven behind when the teams met twice on Sept. 1-2, and the Giants again swept, this time 8-1 and 11-3 as Don Mueller hit five home runs combined in the two games. A week later, the lead was 5 1/2 as the teams split a pair at Ebbetts Field, and it was down to 4 1/2 on Sept. 20.

At this point, the Dodgers had 10 games to play, the Giants just seven, so things looked bleak for New York. But Durocher kept riding his team, and the Dodgers kept frittering away their lead. And on Sept. 28, with the idle Giants listening intently to their radios, the Dodgers blew a 3-0 lead and lost to the Phillies, dropping them into a tie for first with matching records of 94-58.

New York's Sal Maglie pitched a 3-0 shutout at Boston on Sept. 29 for his 23rd win, but the Dodgers kept pace as Newcombe won his 20th with a 5-0 shutout of the Phillies. On the last day of the regular season, threatening weather convinced the Braves to move up the starting time of their game with the Giants, so when Larry Jansen fired a five-hitter to lead New York to a 3-2 victory, the Dodgers were still playing in Philadelphia.

BROOKLYN FELL BEHIND 6-1 and as the Giants boarded a train for the ride back to New York, they were thinking their miracle comeback was a reality. During their ride home, they were kept abreast of what was going on in Philadelphia by their own broadcaster, Russ Hodges, who continually called the press box at Shibe Park for updates. Hodges reported that the Dodgers were within 8-5 through five innings, and then he brought news that Brooklyn tied the game with three runs in the eighth.

In the 12th, the Phillies loaded the bases with two outs against Newcombe, and Eddie Waitkus hit a screaming liner that was destined for right field. But just when it seemed like the Phillies were going to kill the Dodgers' chances of winning the pennant for the second year in a row, Robinson dove and made a tremendous game-saving catch. Two innings later, Robinson hit a solo home run to win the game, 9-8, and force only the second playoff series in NL history.

Dressen had the option of determining how the playoff series would be contested, and he chose to play Game 1 at Ebbetts Field and the final two at the Polo Grounds. He reasoned that if he could win the first game at home, his team was capable of winning one out of two across town.

Branca, who had pitched pretty well during the year (he would finish 13-12 with a 3.26 ERA) started for Brooklyn in Game 1 and Thomson's two-run homer in the third inning was the deciding blow as the Giants won 3-1. The next day, the Dodgers erupted for a 10-0 win as Clem Labine handcuffed the Giants on six hits. Thomson also figured heavily in the second game. With the Giants trailing 2-0 in the third, Thomson came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out and struck out by swinging and missing a pitch that was out of the strike zone and would have been ball four. From there, the Dodgers rolled to the victory as Robinson, Gil Hodges, Andy Pafko and Rube Walker all homered.

For the rubber match, Durocher sent Maglie to the mound while Dressen went with his ace, Newcombe. Many in the surprisingly small crowd of 34,320 - about 15,000 below capacity - hadn't been seated when the Dodgers broke out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Maglie walked Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider and then was touched for an RBI single by Robinson.

The Giants stirred in the second, but ironically, Thomson spiked the rally with a boneheaded base-running error. With one out, Whitey Lockman singled and Thomson followed with a line drive off the wall in left. Lockman watched as left fielder Pafko played the ball cleanly and made a strong throw to third baseman Billy Cox, so he stopped at second. Thomson, running hard with his head down, assumed Lockman had gone on to third and was headed for second base. Cox fired to Robinson who trapped Thomson in a rundown and eventually tagged him out. Mays was then retired to end the inning.

WITH ONE OUT IN THE FIFTH, Thomson did make it to second safely, doubling to left. But there he stayed as Mays struck out, and after Wes Westrum walked, Maglie grounded out to end the threat.

As the innings passed, that one-run deficit looked like a hole the size of the Grand Canyon to the Giants. Newcombe, though complaining of a stiff and tired arm, was mowing down the New Yorkers with relative ease. Maglie, also tired and not at 100 percent, had settled down after his first-inning struggles and was matching Newcombe out for out, but his teammates were unable to tie the game.

Finally in the bottom of the seventh, the Giants broke through. Monte Irvin led off with a double and he moved to third when Walker - the Dodgers catcher on this day because Roy Campanella was out with a charley horse - fielded Lockman's sacrifice bunt and threw too late to get Irvin at third. Thomson delivered a deep fly to center that scored Irvin with the tying run, though Lockman was eventually left stranded.

The Giants had new life, but only momentarily because the Dodgers strafed Maglie in the eighth for three runs. With one out, Reese singled, went to third on Snider's single and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1.

Then Thomson - as he had throughout this three-game series - figured prominently in a rally as Brooklyn tacked on two more runs. After an intentional walk to Robinson, Pafko grounded a shot to third that went off Thomson's glove for a single which plated Snider. Hodges struck out, but Cox ripped a screamer through Thomson and Robinson raced around to score giving the Dodgers a 4-1 advantage.

"Pafko's ball was a you-do-or-you-don't kind, and I didn't," Thomson said. "Cox's ball would have killed me if it had hit me."

Maglie retired Walker, then stalked to the dugout knowing his day, and perhaps the season, was over.

Newcombe, who had wanted to come out of the game but had been told by Robinson to "go out there and pitch until your damn arm falls off" was now invigorated and he struck out pinch-hitters Bill Rigney and Thompson, then did the same to leadoff hitter Eddie Stanky to end the eighth.

"AFTER WE GOT THOSE THREE RUNS in the eighth, we were going wild in the dugout," Newcombe said. "I was really charged up when I came out to pitch the eighth. All my tiredness left me and I just had so much adrenalin going I don't think I ever threw the ball harder in my life."

Jansen took over for Maglie in the ninth and set the Dodgers down in order, so Newcombe marched back out to finish the Giants off.

"There was a feeling of total dejection," Thomson said recalling the mood in the dugout. "In the eighth inning Don Newcombe had blown us down so easily, it didn't look like we'd have a chance."

Chub Feeney, then the Giants 30-year-old general manager, remembered sitting in the team's office with scouts Hubbell and Tom Sheehan and various guests of the team owner, his uncle, Horace Stoneham. "You could cut the gloom in that place with a knife," Feeney said. "I kept thinking to myself, `All this effort for nothing."'

Even Alvin Dark's leadoff scratch single to right failed to stir much emotion. In fact, the Brooklyn fans began making their way down to the railings so that they could hop over and join their team in celebration when the formality of the ninth inning was complete.

And up in the press box as Dark was taking his short lead off first, an announcement was made informing the writers that their Dodger credentials for the next day's World Series opener at Yankee Stadium could be picked up at the Biltmore Hotel.

Meanwhile in the batters box, Mueller noticed that Dark's lead was short because Dodger first baseman Gil Hodges was holding Dark on the bag. With a three-run lead, Dark's run meant nothing and Hodges should have been playing his regular position to cut off the hole between first and second.

"When Big Newk went into his stretch I took another look and, sure enough, there was Hodges playing the bag, holding Alvin tight," Mueller said. "I never got much credit for it, but what happened next was no accident."

NEWCOMBE DELIVERED A BELT-HIGH FASTBALL and Mueller punched it the opposite way through the hole left vacated by Hodges for a clean single. Dark scampered to third and now the Polo Grounds jumped to attention, as did the Dodgers bullpen as Branca and Erskine began to throw.

After Newcombe induced Irvin to foul out meekly to Hodges at first, Dressen strolled to the mound to talk to his pitcher. After conferring with Newcombe and Robinson, Dressen decided to leave Newcombe in and it was an error in judgement because Lockman lined a shot into the left-field corner for a double that scored Dark and chased Mueller to third. Mueller sprained his ankle sliding into the bag, and after a 10-minute delay, he was carried off to the clubhouse out behind the center field fence and was replaced by Cliff Hartung.

While Mueller was being attended to, Dressen had made the fateful call to the bullpen and summoned Branca on the advice of pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth.

Erskine was bouncing his curveball in front of the plate while Branca was humming pretty well and looked warm, so when Dressen asked "Who's ready?" Sukeforth replied "Branca."

"I was bouncing it in the dirt," Erskine said of his curve. "Considering what happened next, that was a pretty good pitch to have."

Thomson had been standing near third watching the trainers work on Mueller. When he started walking toward the plate to resume the action, Durocher said "If you've ever hit one, hit one now."

"People have asked me if the crowd noise affected me," Thomson said. "Well, to tell you the truth, I felt like I was the only guy in the park. I just wanted to get my bat on the ball, and I wasn't very confident of doing that."

It was an odd feeling for a man who had pulled out of his early slump and gone on a tear in the second half of the season. He had already hit 31 homers as he dug himself into the batters box, a career high. Further, since being switched permanently to third on July 20 he had hit .385 through mid-September, and over the final two weeks when the pennant pressure was at its most extreme, he had hit at a .449 clip.

Then again, this was a new level of pressure, a pressure no one before or since has ever faced.

BRANCA STARTED THOMSON WITH A GROOVED FASTBALL that home plate umpire Lou Jorda called a strike. At that moment, Walker remembered thinking the Dodgers were lucky Thomson didn't swing at that one because it was too good.

"That first pitch was a blur, not because it was so fast but because I was so nervous my eyeballs were vibrating," Thomson said. "I had to step out for a second to get myself oriented. But to tell you the truth, I wasn't feeling very much better when I stepped back in."

That changed with one powerful swing of his bat.

Branca uncorked another fastball, this one just a touch higher but still right in Thomson's power zone. Thomson swung and sent the ball careening toward the fence in left field.

In the radio booth, broadcasting for WMCA in New York, Hodges watched the ball jump off Thomson's bat and he screamed "There's a long drive ... "

"I thought I had a home run, I really laid into it, but then as I got away from the plate, I began to wonder," Thomson said. "It started out high and then looked like it was sinking, so I started to think at least I've got a base hit. I figured it would be off the wall, enough to get Whitey in with the tying run."

"It's gonna be ... I believe ... " bellowed Hodges.

"And then the ball disappeared into the lower stands," said Thomson. "I was more excited than I ever was in my life."

And so was Hodges who finished perhaps the most memorable radio call ever by repeating over and over "the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, I don't believe it, the Giants win the pennant."

AS BEDLAM ERUPTED ALL AROUND THEM, as Thomson danced around the bases, as Stanky jumped on Durocher's back and rode him all the way to home plate, as the bashful rookie Mays felt utter relief that he wouldn't have to bat, the Dodgers were paralyzed in disbelief. Pafko leaned against the wall in left, Robinson stood at second base making sure Thomson touched all the bases, Snider dropped to his knees in center and slammed his glove into the grass, and Branca took his mitt off, hung his head down to his chest, and began the long walk to the clubhouse.

"All I could remember was saying `sink, sink, sink,' but then it just did go in, it went in like six inches over the wall," Branca said. "And from there to the locker room, I don't remember. I do remember getting in the locker room and sitting on the steps."

One writer walking into the clubhouse and seeing the crestfallen Branca captured that moment this way: "One of the saddest sights I've ever seen. There was an upper level and a lower level joined by a broad set of steps. Ralph Branca lay on these steps face down, his feet on the floor, his head buried in his hands on the top step."

Erskine was one of the first Dodgers to reach the clubhouse, and he recalled the scene this way: "I was conscious of being part of history so I watched when all the guys came in. Jackie just slammed his glove hard into his locker. Hodges set his gently on the shelf the way he always did. Dressen tore off his uniform shirt so violently that the buttons flew all around the room. And then Ralph came in and sat on the steps leading to the training room, the big number 13 shining on his back. There was bedlam next door, but our place was like a tomb."

Thomson and Branca were forever linked in history that day, they became friends, and have remained so as the decades have passed.

"I've always appreciated that man," said Thomson. "I never did feel sorry for him afterward, that's just the way I was brought up. I do know that he had to get used to what happened back then, but these things have a way of taking care of themselves. I think he did take it kind of hard at first, but he gradually came to accept it. And lets face it, without that moment we'd both be long gone."

Said Branca: "Bobby and I have been friends for years. He's a good guy. I probably talk to him more than I do any other ex-ballplayer. I realized that I had done the best I could. The guy just hit a home run. He was better than I was. Life goes on, you don't go through it undefeated. The funny thing is the ball Bobby hit out in the first game to left-center at the 350-foot mark, that wouldn't have been a home run in the Polo Grounds. As for the next one he hit, well that wouldn't have been out in Ebbetts Field."

POSTSCRIPT: Still riding the ultimate high, the Giants won Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees, and two of the first three, but couldn't sustain that effort and ultimately lost in six games. Thomson hit just .238 with no homers and two RBI.

He played two more years with the Giants, then spent time with the Milwaukee Braves, the Giants, the Cubs, the Red Sox and the Orioles before retiring in 1960 with 264 home runs and 1,026 RBI and a .270 batting average.

Branca left the Dodgers after 1953 and played for Detroit, the Yankees and the Dodgers again before retiring in 1956 with a record of 88-68 and an ERA of 3.79.

Boxscore

BROOKLYN      ab r h bi  NEW YORK     ab r h bi
Furillo, rf    5 0 0 0   Stanky, 2b    4 0 0 0
Reese, ss      4 2 1 0   Dark, ss      4 1 1 0
Snider, cf     3 1 2 0   Mueller, rf   4 0 1 0
Robinson, 2b   2 1 1 1   Hartung, pr   0 1 0 0
Pafko, lf      4 0 1 1   Irvin, lf     4 1 1 0
Hodges, 1b     4 0 0 0   Lockman, 1b   3 1 2 1
Cox, 3b        4 0 2 1   Thomson, 3b   4 1 3 4
Walker, c      4 0 1 0   Mays, cf      3 0 0 0
Newcombe, p    4 0 0 0   Westrum, c    0 0 0 0
Branca, p      0 0 0 0   Rigney, ph    1 0 0 0
TOTALS        34 4 8 3   Noble, c      0 0 0 0
                         Maglie, p     2 0 0 0
                         Thompson, ph  1 0 0 0
                         Jansen, p     0 0 0 0
                         TOTALS       30 5 8 5

Brooklyn     100  000  030  -  4-8-0
New York     000  000  104  -  5-8-0

DP - Brooklyn 2; LOB - Brooklyn 7, New York 3; 
2B - Thomson, Irvin, Lockman; HR - Thomson; 
Sac - Lockman; SF - Thomson. Time - 2:28; Att - 34,320.

BROOKLYN      IP  H  R ER BB SO 
Newcombe      8.1 7  4  4  2  2   
Branca (L)    0.0 1  1  1  0  0     

  NEW YORK      IP  H  R ER BB SO
Maglie          8   8  4  4  4  6
Jansen  (W)     1   0  0  0  0  0 

IN OTHER NEWS ON OCTOBER 4, 1951

Dr. Phillip Jessup, testifying before a Senate subcommittee considering his nomination as a member of the United States' United Nations delegation, answered "false" to Senator Joseph McCarthy's charge that Jessup had been affiliated with six Communist fronts.

THE SPORTS SECTION: As if anything else mattered in the world of sports on this day. However, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano signed New York State Athletic Commission contracts finalizing their 10-round fight at Madison Square Garden set for Oct. 26.

SOURCE LIST: The New York Times; Sports Illustrated; Bums - An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, by Peter Golenbock; The Era - 1947-57 When the Yankees, the Giants and the Dodgers Ruled the World, by Roger Kahn; The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff, by Thomas Kiernan; Baseball's 50 Greatest Moments, by The Sporting News.