“What’s done can’t be undone” is an apt way to describe the 1951 season for Brooklyn Dodger fans.
The Dodgers had a 13-1/2-game lead on August 12, yet wound up tied with the Giants for the pennant and lost the final game of a three-game playoff when Bobby Thomson launched a ninth inning, three-run homer off Ralph Branca.
Heartbreaker.
On Sunday, Branca and Joshua Prager, author of “The Echoing Green — The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World” (Pantheon), visited Keyspan Park, where both Branca and Prager threw out first pitches.
Prager’s highly praised book examines the details behind a Giants’ scheme in which back-up infielder Hank Schenz and coach Herman Franks were armed with a telescope in the centerfield clubhouse at the Polo Grounds. Franks and Schenz read the opposition catcher’s signs, and then used a buzzer to signal the upcoming pitch to the Giants’ dugout, where it was relayed to the batter by a voice code.
Prager’s tome meticulously documents that the Giants used the telescope to steal signs. Numerous Giants admit the scheme, Thomson included.
What’s still somewhat in doubt is whether Thomson knew what pitch was coming on Branca’s final delivery of the 1951 season — but it is apparent that the Giants wouldn’t have even been in the playoff if not for the sign-swiping.
Branca did not mention the Giants’ spying for decades because he didn’t want to be thought of as being a sore loser or an excuse-maker. He was only 25 at the time of Thomson’s homer, and off to a brilliant start to his career. But the homer hurt in ways other than expected.
At a press conference on Sunday at Keyspan Park, he explained just what happened as a result of Thomson’s blast.
“The next spring training, I hurt my back [after slipping in the Dodger clubhouse]. The home run hurt me because after it, I pressed to make good [even though he was hurt]. And I pitched with a sore arm twice, which was really stupid.”
Although Thomson’s homer essentially ended Branca’s Brooklyn success — he won 78 games by 1951 and only 10 after that — he has many great memories of his Brooklyn years.
“Brooklyn has a special place in my heart,” recalled Branca. “The fans were the greatest. The fans understood the game and respected the opponents.”
During Branca’s Brooklyn days, there was a special connection between the fans and the players, who lived in the same neighborhoods.
“[Carl] Erskine would say that if he pitched a good game, he would get home and there would be a roast there that the butcher delivered because he [Erskine] was doing a good job. It was a different era.”
While good memories are a part of Prager’s book, the essence of his research is a harsh reality — that a telescope and a nefarious plan formed the core of the Giants’ pennant run.
And silence only made things worse.
“It took five years to tell the life story of Ralph and Bobby and to separate the myth from the reality,” said Prager. “I confirmed something that had been rumored for years, that on July 20 [in 1951], the Giants had instituted a very sophisticated sign stealing.”
“It was nefarious!” injected Branca, happy to be openly speaking of the long-rumored, but previously unconfirmed, action.
On Sunday, Branca got a chance to make another pitch, albeit ceremonial.
He bounced his throw — which was symbolic. After all, the only reason Branca was on the mound to deliver a pitch to Thomson was because Erskine had bounced a throw when warming up in the bullpen alongside Branca. Bullpen coach Clyde Sukeforth told Dodger manager Charlie Dressen, and Dressen chose Branca to relieve Don Newcombe.
Now, if Branca had bounced his pitch 56 years earlier…
Ah, but what’s done is done.
Channeling the Bard
Each week, Ed Shakespeare, the bard of Brooklyn baseball, will take a page from his ancient ancestor and add a bit of iambic pentameter to all our lives. This week’s contribution is called, “The Pitch Before the Pitch”:
Clyde Sukeforth spoke upon the bullpen phone,
Don Newcombe, spent, about to get the hook.
“Who’s ready?” Dressen said in frantic tone.
So Sukie quickly took just one more look.
Carl Erskine, Branca — bullpen choices threw,
The skipper’s only choice within that pair.
Coach Sukeforth helped him picking, but he knew
His job to pick the man to send out there.
“Oisk bounced a curve into the dirt,” said Clyde.
Now Bobby Thomson’s walking to the plate,
And Charlie Dressen, nowhere left to hide.
The rest, what happened, was it only fate?
Said Oisk – rejected man of bullpen’s two,
“That pitch? It was the best I ever threw!”
Good God above, Oisk has to thank ya — wow!
But for that curve, he’d be Ralph Branca now.
