Title/Author:
“The Echoing Green:
The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the
World” by Joshua Prager
Tags:
Baseball,
professional, history, championship, Dodgers, Giants
Publish date:
September 19, 2006
Length:
546 pages
Rating:
5 of 5 stars (excellent)
Review:
Every baseball fan knows about the “shot heard round the world”. In a best of three playoff between the New
York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1951 National League pennant,
Bobby Thomson of the Giants won the game with a line drive home run in the
bottom of the ninth inning off of Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca. It is considered
one of the greatest moments in baseball history and there are many interesting
stories and sidebars to this moment. All of them and more are captured in this
excellent book by Joshua Prager.
The most notorious of the sidebars is the revelation that the Giants were
stealing signals from opponents using a telescope and buzzer in center field
and then signaling them back to the dugout. It was known that signals were
relayed to Thomson during his historic at bat, something that he publicly
denied for many years although at times he seemed to be less than transparent
in that denial. This is just one aspect
of the writing by Prager that is rich in detail – at times a little too rich
but still informative – no matter what the topic. This is especially true for not only Thomson,
but also for Branca.
Branca had always maintained a mostly brave face in public, at times even
appearing with Thomson to replay the homer or even sing with him in public
settings. Inside, however, the event
took a psychological toll on the former pitcher, especially with the knowledge
of the signal stealing. Eventually the two men were able to bond and maintain a
friendship through their lives. The lives of both men are what are the driving
force behind this book and make it a detailed but fascinating read.
This isn’t to say that other aspects of the event or the teams are
ignored. The reader will gain a lot of information about the Polo Grounds,
where the home run was hit, as well as excellent stories about several players
on both teams. This includes the
managers for both teams, Leo Durocher for the Giants and Charlie Dressen for
the Dodgers. Others who are somehow
connected to the story, such as the third string catcher for the Giants who was
the key person in the sign stealing caper, are also portrayed with enough detail
to show the importance of that person’s role in the story, no matter how minor.
Readers who are fans of baseball or baseball history will enjoy this book
that doesn’t leave out anything when it is associated with the famous home that
made Russ Hodges scream into his microphone a home run call that will live on
forever: “The Giants won the pennant!
The Giants won the pennant! The Giants won the pennant!”
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
Buying Links:
What I found so ironic was that the Giants solicited an electrician from Brooklyn who was a Dodger fan to install the buzzer in the clubhouse. That electrician, aside from his family, kept that a secret for decades.
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