Branca, pitcher who gave up ‘Shot Heard ‘Round World,’ dies
Ralph Branca’s career was defined by that one high-and-inside fastball.
The Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who gave up Bobby Thomson’s famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” still echoing more than six decades later among the most hallowed home runs in baseball history, died Wednesday. He was 90.
His son-in-law, former big league manager Bobby Valentine, said Branca died at a nursing home in Rye Brook, New York.
Branca was a three-time All-Star and spent 12 seasons in the majors. Brought in from the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth inning during the deciding Game 3 of the National League pennant playoff on Oct. 3, 1951, he gave up a three-run homer to Thomson that gave the rival New York Giants a stunning 5-4 victory.