Ralph Branca

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Ralph Branca at age 78.

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca (born January 6, 1926 in Mount Vernon, New York) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. From 1944 through 1956, Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944-53, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953-54), and New York Yankees (1954). He batted and threw right handed.

Branca was known as a very good starter during his years in Brooklyn. A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. Unfortunately, he is also remembered for one infamous relief appearance in a 1951 playoff game against the crosstown rival New York Giants. Branca entered the game in the ninth inning and surrendered a walk-off home run known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson, giving the Giants the National League pennant.

Branca was engaged to be married to Ann Mulvey, whose cousin, Father Pat Rowley, was a priest. When Branca asked, "Why me?" Father Pat told him, "Because God knew your faith would be strong enough to bear this cross." Ralph married Ann a few weeks later, and would not only rarely express bitterness over the gopher ball, but begin a friendship with Thomson that lasted into each man's old age, including many joint television appearances. Branca's experience is in stark contrast to that of Donnie Moore of the California Angels, who gave up a dramatic home run to Boston's Dave Henderson in the 1986 American League Championship Series, and committed suicide three years later.

In a 12-year career, Branca posted an 88-68 record with 829 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA in 1484.0 innings pitched. He would later indicate that a back injury suffered during spring training in 1952, and not the reaction to the previous year's home run, cut down on his effectiveness and cut short his career.

"The Shot Heard Round The World" is reputed to be the most exciting moment in the history of baseball and has forever immortalized the Polo Grounds. After the Giants left New York City for San Francisco in 1957, the stadium remained empty for five years until the Mets occupied it during the 1962 and 1963 seasons. Nostalgia ran wild when the Giants and Dodgers returned to the Polo Grounds to play the Mets. In 1964, the Mets moved to Shea Stadium in Queens, and the Polo Grounds was demolished. Branca was interviewed at the demolition site when the wrecking ball was thrown against the wall. Thirteen years after Bobby Thomson's electrifying home run, he watched the stadium come crumbling down. The site is now occupied by a housing project.

Branca lives at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, where he has been a member for about 40 years. He is also a member of the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

[edit] “You Can’t Blame Ralph Branca!”

In October 2005, ESPN Classic aired an episode of The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... series, in which it examined "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" and explained why Branca cannot be held as the scapegoat:

5. The Giants' comeback. They won 37 of their final 44 regular season games to force the three-game playoff.

4. Tired arms. The Dodgers had used seven pitchers alone in their regular season finale against the Phillies.

3. First baseman Gil Hodges was out of position on Don Mueller's ground ball. After Alvin Dark singled to begin the inning, Hodges played close to the base when there was little, if any, possibility of a steal. Mueller singled off Hodges's glove to extend the rally; had Hodges not been playing close to the base, the Dodgers could have gotten a fielder's choice or possibly even a double play out of it.

2. Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen could have had Branca intentionally walk Thomson, who had homered off Branca in Game One, and instead face rookie Willie Mays. Mays admitted to being nervous at that moment. The trouble with this suggestion is that a nervous, 20-year-old Willie Mays was still Willie Mays. He was named National League Rookie of the Year that season, so it is not as if Branca would have been facing a marginal player.

1. The Giants cheated. During their comeback, they used a unique, if not unethical, system to steal the signs from the opposing catcher. From behind a window of the center field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds, the Giants used a high-powered military telescope and relayed to the batters, electronically, what pitch was coming. (However, there is no evidence that Thomson had been tipped off to the pitch Branca was delivering).

The episode also included a "Best of the Rest" that mentioned the injury to catcher Roy Campanella. Had Campy been able to play, he might have gotten a hit that changed the outcome, and, as one of the best handlers of pitchers in baseball history, would have told Dressen that starter Don Newcombe was tired and should be replaced sooner than the ninth inning, and would have recommended Carl Erskine, with one of the best curveballs of the day, be brought in to face Thomson, a good fastball hitter, rather than Branca, who relied mainly on his fastball.

Moreover much of the blame according to The Baseball Hall of Shame should also be laid at the feet of Dressen. It wasn't just his bringing in Branca over Erskine or Preacher Roe to pitch to Thompson. His overbearing behavior towards opponents reflected and influenced his team's behavior that season. On August 9th they had swept the Giants and took a commanding 13½ games lead over them. That was when they acted as though they won the pennant. The celebration in the clubhouse was bad enough but their actions in taunting and deriding their opponents was the last straw according to Alvin Dark. Two days later the Giants won the first of 16 games in a row and 37 of the last 44 to even the season while the Dodgers went 26-22 in that same span. The Dodgers might not have even have had to face the Giants if Dressen had not insulted the Boston Braves after winning a 15-5 blowout near the end of the season. As a result the Braves played like a playoff-bound team in a come-from-behind 4-3 win the next day, thus setting up the Philadelphia set.

According to the Hall of Shame two tough mugs from Brooklyn wanted to talk to Chuck in the alley.

[edit] Trivia

The book Carl Erskine's Tales from the Dodgers Dugout: Extra Innings (2004) includes short stories from former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine. Branca is prominent in many of these stories.

Branca originally wore the uniform number 12, but switched to number 13, one of the few players of that time to wear it, due to a long-standing superstition that the number brings bad luck. After the Shot Heard 'Round the World, he briefly returned to number 12, but then changed back to 13.

Ralph and Ann Branca's daughter Mary married a later Dodger player, later manager of the New York Mets, Bobby Valentine.

Ralph was a contestant on Concentration, where he won 17 straight games.

In his final spring training appearance, Branca was relieved by Sandy Koufax, who is also connected to Thomson as the slugger was his first major league strikeout victim.