1951 NEW YORK GIANTS

Leo Durocher is probably one of the most interesting characters to ever appear on a baseball diamond. A former altar boy who had one of the worst reputations in baseball, once being accused of stealing Babe Ruth’s watch, Leo was managing the New York Giants, the hated rival of the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1951.

The Giants were a solid team in ’51 with some very good talent with such stars as: Whitey Lockman, Eddie Stanky, Monte Irvin, Willie Mays and Don Mueller, and a fellow named Bobby Thompson. Their pitching consisted of Sal Maglie, Jim Hearn and Larry Janson.

The 1951 season will be remembered for two things, the tie between the Giants and Dodgers that resulted in a playoff series and the famous: “Shot heard round the world”. It was the year that the great Hall of Famer, the “Say hey kid” Willie Mays made his debut against the Phillies on May 25^th.

The Giants started the season slowly, hovering around .500 in the standings, then, in the last 62 games, they caught fire, going 50 and 12 to tie the Dodgers on the last day, who lost to the Phillies to end in a tie. So the Dodgers didn’t lose the pennant so much as the Giants won it with an incredible finish.

This set the stage for a three game playoff. The first game opened in Ebbets Field and the Giants won that one 3-1. The second game went to the Polo Grounds and the Dodgers killed the Giants 10-0, which set the stage for the dramatic finale at the Polo Grounds for game 3.

Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers had a 4-1 lead and Al Dark singled to open the inning half. Don Mueller duplicated the feat and suddenly there were 2 men on. Whitey Lockman lined a one out double to left-center field scoring Dark. Here the most perplexing move of the three game set occurred. Dodger manager Chuck Dressen called on Game 1 started Ralph Branca to relieve Don Newcomb, with only one day’s rest. Bobby Thompson, who had homered in the first game and drove in a run earlier in the first game stepped up to hit. Bobby Thomson drove a pitch to deep left field for a walk off home run to win the pennant for the Giants. This home run, hit at 3:58 p.m. on October 3, 1951, came to be known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World".

That’s all I wrote, folks!