Thomson hit the game-winning three run shot for the New York Giants more formidable rival, the Brooklyn Dodgers. It capped a remarkable return to the Giants who won 37 of its final 44 games and made 13 1/2-game deficit Dodgers in the standings, making the playoffs. Over the years, rumors grew that the giant "stolen signs" in this day and in that season, which gives them an unfair advantage. Joshua Prager investigated this issue in depth, when he was a reporter, Wall Street Journal, culminating with the main articles and a book called "Echo Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard around the world." We talked on the phone with Prager Tuesday that the game and Thomson, which Prager said he considered a friend after spending hundreds of hours with him.
Take us to the moment Bobby Thomson hit the home run. As a huge moment that baseball?
JOSHUA Prager | It was a kind of perfect storm. He is every ingredient needed to create a large moment on the field and off. First, he united the greatest rivalry in sports, then, the Dodgers and Giants. That was what was then considered the greatest sport - baseball. This was in the heart of the sports world, which in New York at that time. It culminated the greatest return, which were in baseball, Giants were all these games for the team they are connected to the last day of the season. And then it was the script as a film, where the bottom of the ninth, Bobby Thomson hits home run, and they came back to win it.
Most importantly, it was the first on national television that the sporting event was live. It was the most famous baseball call of all time Russ Hodges told The Giants win the flag! " Giants win pennant! He had a magical name: "Heard Shot` Around the World ". It was like a muse for some people, every one of Don DeLillo who used it in "Underworld" Francis Coppola in "The Godfather" by Woody Allen to remember. Everyone uses it to communicate a great time. This was the life of a marker for all those who remembered that day. It was a tragedy for the fans but the Dodger remembered as vividly as a great tragedy. An entire generation of people remember where they were when it happened.
Fill in the picture a bit about what a player Bobby Thomson.
JOSHUA Prager | It incredible gifts, it is dazzling speed, he was one of the fastest men in all baseball, if not the fastest. And he was also a great power. He would have made it 300 houmranam that huge milestone at the time, he was not injured. What he was not part of stud athlete. He was too gentle and humble and self-deprecating and kind.
It is easier to be Pete Rose and succeed, than to be Bobby Thomson and succeed. When he hit the home run, he felt very bad for Ralph Branca in the coming weeks and months after the game. He knew how hard life is for Ralph. Ralph was hounded by writers and fans for many years. This is not just a reminder about your worst moment for the majority of days in your life. Bobby Thomson told me that he does not want to be successful when he collided with Ralph Branca in the coming months and years after that. And the record confirms this.
What Bobby Thomson, both from the field?
JOSHUA Prager | He was generous and funny. He was a simple but clever. And he was a family man. He adored his family. He did not like the limelight. He became a seller of a paper bag for many years. He did not want to make money on his behalf. He was working hard, as he put it. He lived in Watchung, NJ, for decades.
Your report found that the Giants were stealing signs at that time. How do they do it? How it works
JOSHUA Prager | Before each step, the spectacle moves his fingers to tell the pitcher to throw a step. In general, the spectacle will tell him to quit Fastball or curve or a change in activity. In theory, it helps the dough to know what is coming, though there is some debate about this.
Now that the Giants were in the field of reason, and they club in the center of the field and the head of Leo Durocher had representation. Giants cut a hole in the mesh of the window club and put a telescope on a tripod for this gap. They looked at sight finger signals. Then, very quickly, they found a way to get this information in their dough. They did this through a two-tier system. They pressed the button, the phone rang in the bullpen in right field. Pitcher (in the bullpen for the Giants), the signal is transmitted to the dough.
The Giants started doing it July 20, 1951, through October 3 this year. They told me that they had not done so in the World Series because they were worried they identified in the series, because the club was so filled with journalists.
What the report found that the Giants were stealing signs in the play-off game, and when Bobby Thompson was on the stove?
JOSHUA Prager | Thomson eventually admitted that to me they were stealing signs, and he got them. Even in this day and in the previous innings. What he does not recognize that he had received signs that in the past on-bat where he hit the home run. When I interviewed him that it happened during this at-bat, he said: "I would say the answer is no, than yes. I do not want to think about something to take away from this house to work." He also said that the injuries to third base when he came to the plate, which was true, and he did not look right field. This has led to great debate. Only Bobby Thomson and the baseball gods know what happened.
It is rumored for the past 50 years, something nebulous that giants stole signs. And I went over every detail. I looked on the day they started to use it, they used a telescope, I talked to an electrician, which enabled them to build sound system. Thus, people had to face the first time.
Stealing signs is officially banned in baseball?
JOSHUA Prager | Baseball officially banned it. It felt horrible to do, but it has not been outlawed yet. But when the rumors of this came in 1961, the league commissioner said that if he ever was, I'll keep the pennant. So that is a terrible thing. Bud Selig Commissioner told me that officially outlawed now.
How to influence these two men in his entire career?
JOSHUA Prager | It was not only his career. That was until the end of his life. For Thomson, it was the man who hit the most famous home run in baseball history. For Branca, it was the man who passed the most important home run. Thomson felt there was too much of him. He was proud of it. He was proud of that moment. But I have to color a great achievement it is. Nevertheless, even if you know what step is, you still have to hit it. And he did.
