Ralph Branca, Who Served Up ‘Shot Heard ‘Round The World,’ Dies

Ralph Branca, a three-time All-Star who had one 20-win season in 12 big league campaigns but is best known for one pitch, died Wednesday. He was 90.

Former big league manager Bobby Valentine, Branca’s son-in-law, tweeted the news early Wednesday.

Branca spent nearly his entire career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, winning 88 games, including a 21-12 season in 1947 at age 21.

But Branca became best known—infamous in Brooklyn—on Oct. 3, 1951, when in a playoff game for the NL pennant against the hated New York Giants, he gave up a three-run homer to Bobby Thomson that turned a 4-2 lead in the ninth into a 5-4 loss.

Known as the ‘Shot Heard ‘Round The World,’ Thomson’s homer was forever burned on the memories of Giants and Dodgers fans, especially the famous play-by-play call of Russ Hodges, who shouted, ‘The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the penannt, the Giants win the pennant.’

You can see the video above.

That win capped the Giants’ rally from a 12 1/2 game deficit on Aug. 10.

“I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends and fellow admirers of Ralph Branca, a three-time All-Star, a friend of Jackie Robinson and a former President and board member of the Baseball Assistance Team,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “Ralph was a true gentleman who earned universal respect in the game he loved and served so well. Ralph’s participation in the ‘Shot Heard ‘Round the World’ was eclipsed by the grace and sportsmanship he demonstrated following one of the game’s signature moments. He is better remembered for his dedication to the members of the baseball community. He was an inspiration to so many of us.

Branca also pitched for the Tigers and Yankees and ultimately returned to the Dodgers in 1956—the year after they won their only World Series in Brooklyn—and retired after one game.