The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World

As a loyal baseball fan I'm quite familiar with Bobby Thomsom and his "shot heard round the world" in the 1951 playoff with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Knowing some of the facts surrounding that big home run and feeling like you've actually just relived it are two completely different things. Having read Johsua Prager's The Echoing Green I feel like I not only sat in the stands that October afternoon, but I've also become close acquaintances with Thomson and the Dodger on the mound that day, Ralph Branca. I'm truly amazed at the level of detail Prager provides in this book. He meticulously describes Thomson and Branca's pro careers and how they crossed paths many times before that fateful day. Of course, the big story behind this one is the spying and sign-stealing work done by the Giants from their clubhouse perch in center field. If you've heard anything about this part of the story you won't be surprised by what you read in Prager's book; but what you will read is first-hand accounts from many of the Giants on the roster that year, including Thomson himself. How can an almost 500-page book about one swing of the bat be so entertaining and interesting? Well, first of all, there's really only about 350 pages of reading material here. That's not to say the remaining 150 pages are worthless; they're mostly reference material and notes to support all the facts presented throughout the book. Those sections are tucked away in back and there if you need them. Prager is clearly a gifted and engaging writer. He almost makes you feel like you could take a deep breath and smell the concessions stands from almost 60 years ago. He also does a fantastic job describing the ups and downs of Branca and how he managed to keep his cool (for the most part) over the years, despite the rumblings of Giant cheaters. Hmmm...Giant cheaters...now that I'm a fan of Prager, I wonder if he'd consider writing another well-researched book on the subject of our modern day Giant cheater...

As a kid, I totally lived and died with the 1951 New York Giants. When Bobby Thomson hit his homerun it was the greatest day of my life. That's why when a friend and intense Dodger fan raved about Josh Prager's book, I immediately went out and bought a copy. "The Echoing Green" is a brilliantly researched, wonderfully detailed sports epic that vividly recounts the era and the heart stopping '51 National League pennant race; interwoven with the revelation of an elaborate sign stealing scheme employed by the Polo Grounders; and a profound study of the lives of Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca--the players irrevocably linked to one historic baseball moment. An intriguing subplot centering on electrician Abe Chadwick, who literally laid the groundwork for the spy system, also deeply moves the reader with pathos and irony. For those of us who go back to that dream-like baseball season, the book brings back waves of nostalgia, with vivid memories of the 40 foot screen in right field at Ebbets Field and the incredible horseshoe shaped ballpark in Harlem with the green fences and huge Chesterfield sign in deep center. But for every reader, it is the best story yet told of how people reacted and what they were doing under sometimes bizarre circumstances at the time of "the shot heard round the world." Ordinary people and celebrities alike make up the mosaic. You can't imagine the situation involving Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason! There is great humor along the way too, with quotes from Leo "The Lip," Sal Maglie and back-up catcher Sal Yvars worth the price of admission. Being a Giant fan and a purist, I don't like the idea of a sign stealing system tipping off Giant batters and thus marring a magical season. But Prager presents the entire drama complete with copious statistics in an eminently unbiased manner, reporting facts from both sides. For my money, the Giants won with airtight pitching, inspired field leadership, clutch hitting--and possibly the best manager of all time when he wanted to be, Leo Durocher. And at least two star players eschewed being given advance warning about the upcoming pitches. The book also contains the best description extant of the New York 9th inning rally and the climactic homerun smash to win the pennant. Thomson and Branca come across as human beings (and ballplayers too) with much to recommend them in an interesting psychological study. Though Bobby is at times a bit too much the reluctant, oh so humble hero, uncomfortable in his winner's shoes. While Ralph, especially when he discusses the homerun pitch he served up to the Staten Island Scot, very often produces the unmistakable wail of an embittered loser. Yes, the author occasionally uses his wordsmith first class muscles to twist an unsuspecting sentence into a small pretzel but nevertheless this superior book should find its rightful place as a true classic in the genre.

There have been three previous efforts at writing about THE home run entitled "The Giants Win the Pennant", "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff", and "The Home Run Heard 'Round the World." Never, however, have we had such an in-depth study of this historic moment in baseball's history until this present effort by Joshua Prager. The book includes 350 pages of text, and I didn't find it to be a breezy read. That's not a knock on the book, but we are told in some depth of both the Thomson and Branca family as well as in-depth coverage of others involved in setting up the stealing of a pitcher's signals. In the end Thomson says he benefited from knowing some pitches during the period since July when the Giants were purloining signs from the opposition, but he didn't on the pennant winning blast off of Branca on 10/3/'51. I did, however, find a number of sentences which would have read better with words placed in a different order. Interestingly, it was the Giants' pitching more than their hitting that brought them the 1951 flag. I have a LP phonograph record entitled "The Thrill of Sports" in which Ralph Branca is supposedly interviewed after the home run. The book says the interview was actually recorded some time later at Toots Shor's Restaurant. Author Joshua Prager states on page 245 that a Giants' fan taped the recording of Thomson's homer and sent it to Hodges. Interestingly, Ernie Harwell has often stated that it was a Dodgers' fan that taped that historic call, and was a "good sport" enough to send it to Hodges. I did find one definite mistake on page 293 that has nothing to do with baseball. Prager states that when Thomson was with the Milwaukee Braves "he moved with his wife and daughter to the banks of Lake Superior." This, of course, should be Lake Michigan. Three sets of interesting photographs are spaced throughout the book. My favorite is the one taken on March 23, 2006, of Thomson and Branca standing at the plaque showing the approximate location of home plate where the Polo Grounds once stood. It has special meaning to me because I took a picture of a friend of mine at this same site in 1973. An interesting tidbit is that Thomson was the first man struck out by Dodger Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. Some readers may feel they are being told more than they care to know about Thomson and Branca as they walked hand in hand into baseball history. Nevertheless, despite the tangled wording in some sentences and the glaring mixup of Great Lakes Superior and Michigan the book held my interest and I will make it a keeper in my library.

As the only Giants my age on my block in the Bronx (all my friends were Yankee fans) I ate a lot of humble pie for most of the summer of 1951. Then two days before my 9th birthday Bobby Thomson gave me the best birthday present I had ever received, his "Shot Heard 'Round the World". Of course they had the last laugh after game six of the world series. I think even as a Dodger fan, Josh Prager put everything into perspective insofar as there is much more to baseball than the game itself. The Echoing Green tells us about the everyday lives of the ballplayers of the early 1950's as well as auxilliary personnel. I must say that when I first heard about the Giants stealing signs from center field a number of years ago I was disappointed although what I will call the normal stealing of signs was done all the time. However, I believe something must be pointed out and that is Branca said it was a good pitch (high and inside), Thomson said it was difficult to hit so my point is in many cases even if a hitter knows a fastball is coming he still has to hit it pretty much on the sweet spot to hit it out of the park. Reading a book where one knows the outcome may be difficult to some although we do read books such as biographies. This book, however, was an easy read that I had difficulty putting down and I think you as a baseball fan will thoroughly enjoy it as much as I did.

Five of the most recognizable words in sports history are the hysterical cries of announcer Russ Hodges celebrating the game-winning home run of Bobby Thomson in the Brooklyn Dodgers-New York Giants playoff game in 1951. "The Giants win the pennant!" hollered Hodges after Thomson stroked his winning hit off relief pitcher Ralph Branca in the bottom of the ninth inning of the third and deciding game of the National League playoff. In more than 1,150 postseason baseball games, no team except the New York Giants has overcome a three-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth. The Thomson home run, "the shot heard round the world," is etched in the memory of any baseball fan of the '50s. At the end of the twentieth century, journalist Martin Arnold asked three questions seeking to convey the power of alternative history. The third question was "What if Bobby Thomson had struck out in 1951?" An historical event as momentous as the Thomson home run should be chronicled in a book of equal distinction. THE ECHOING GREEN by Joshua Prager is more than a story of a baseball game and the players who participated; it is a wonderful work of history that happens to chronicle the 1951 National League pennant race between the Dodgers and the Giants. It reminds readers that sports are more than games played by men and women. The athletes are individuals with personal lives, families and dreams. Their successes and failures affect many, and leave an impact that can still be recalled decades after the event. THE ECHOING GREEN commences as a tale of intrigue involving a non-ballplayer, Abe Chadwick. An electrician, Chadwick's primary responsibility was to make certain that the lights at the Polo Grounds operated when needed. In July, the floundering Giants decided they needed some additional help and installed a telescope in center field in order to steal signs from opponents' catchers. Chadwick was assigned the task of relaying the information to the Giant bench. No one, not even his wife, learned of his assignment. Throughout the saga of the Thomson home run, the issue of sign stealing is an important theme. While Prager gives considerable attention to the topic, he never resolves for the reader what impact it had on the playoff game. Perhaps this is as it should be; stealing signs is as old as baseball itself. The moral debate about its propriety and the lengths to which teams may go to steal signs is debated even today without any real answer. In any event, even if Thomson knew Branca's pitch would be a fastball, Thomson still had to hit the ball over the fence. The gap between knowing and doing in this case was the distance that Thomson's homer traveled as it cleared the 315-foot marker in the left field bleachers of the Polo Grounds. Prager has given readers a rousing account of the teams, the players and the times that surrounded the 1951 baseball season. Ultimately, the story boils down to the tale of two men --- Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca --- entwine