R.I.P. Bobby Thomson

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As a Dodgers fan of 42 years and counting, I probably shouldn’t be sad at Bobby Thomson’s passing, but I am.
Thomson famously hit “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” the winning home run in Game 3 of the 1951 playoff series between the Giants and Dodgers. It wasn’t the first crushing defeat the Dodgers suffered in post-season play, but it was the first one which occurred in my lifetime. I didn’t become a Dodgers fan until 1959, eight years later, but I read every bit of past history about my team, and that one stung, even to a nine-year-old.
What’s worse is that whenever famous baseball highlights are trotted out on TV Russ Hodges’ famous call is among them.


Whether the signs were stolen or not, Thomson still had to hit the damn ball, and he did. Rest in peace, Mr. Thomson.

4 Comments

  1. We think of Hodges’ call as justifiably famous and classic, but the reality is that it’s the only extant recording of the events. NYC was going through an unreal golden age of baseball announcers in 1951, and Red Barber and I think Mel Allen called the game as well. But the only reason we have a recording is a single listener who was listening to Hodges. It’s between “The Giants win the pennant!” and Jack Buck’s “I do not believe what I just saw!” for Gibson’s homer in ’88 for greatest call ever, in my book.
    *obligatory nod to Delillo’s Underworld*

  2. Ernie Harwell called the ’51 game for that odd new medium, television.
    I agree that Buck’s call was great, but I’m partial to Scully’s call of the same event: “In the year of the improbable, the impossible has happened!”

  3. Yeah, that’s pretty badass, too. I was listening to Scully do his solo show during last night’s Dodgers game (after the Phillies’ big win) and was reminded yet again what particular genius he is.

  4. I’m lucky. Oceanic Cable has FSW Prime Ticket as part of its basic package, so I get to see a lot of Dodgers games. Vin only flies as far east as Denver these days, so I have to put up with Steve Lyons and Eric Collins on those other road trips, but that’s tolerable when I know I’ll get to hear Vin when they get back to LA.

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