NEW YORK (AP) — He was a three-time All Star who spent 12 seasons as a major league pitcher. But Ralph Branca’s career was defined by one pitch — a high-and-inside fastball that Bobby Thompson belted out of the park in a 1951 playoff game, giving the New York Giants the National League pennant instead of Branca’s Brooklyn Dodgers. It became known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” Branca died today at the age of 90 at a suburban New York nursing home.
(Ralph Branca on T.V. game show, Concentration)
