| Bobby Thomson | |
|---|---|
 Thomson in 1951 | |
| Outfielder | |
| Born:(1923-10-25)October 25, 1923 Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom | |
| Died: August 16, 2010(2010-08-16) (aged 86) Skidaway Island, Georgia, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 9, 1946, for the New York Giants | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| July 17, 1960, for the Baltimore Orioles | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .270 |
| Home runs | 264 |
| Runs batted in | 1,026 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was an American professionalbaseball player, nicknamed "the Staten Island Scot".[1] He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for theNew York Giants (1946–53, 1957),Milwaukee Braves (1954–57),Chicago Cubs (1958–59),Boston Red Sox (1960), andBaltimore Orioles (1960). His pennant-winning three-run home run for the Giants in 1951 is popularly known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", and is one of the most famous moments in baseball history. It overshadowed his other accomplishments, including eight 20-home-run seasons and three All-Star selections. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me", he said. "It may have been the best thing that ever happened to anybody."[2][3]
Thomson was born in theTownhead area ofGlasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. He was the youngest of six children born to parents James and Elizabeth.[4] He arrived in the United States two years later. James, a cabinet maker, had moved to New York City shortly before Bobby's birth and sent for his family in 1925.
Thomson grew up onStaten Island in New York City and signed with the New York Giants for a $100 bonus right out ofCurtis High School in 1942.[5] On December 5, 1942, he joined theUnited States Army Air Forces and trained as a bombardier. His entire service was within the continental United States. He played semiprofessional baseball in the summer of 1945 while awaiting his discharge.[1]
Thomson batted .283 with 29 home runs and 82 runs batted in (RBIs) in his rookie year, 1947. The following season, he batted .248 with 16 home runs. In 1949, Thomson had career bests in RBIs (109) and batting average (.309). His batting average dropped to .252 in 1950. He then hit a career-high 32 home runs in 1951, the fifth-best total in the major leagues; he also had the fourth-highest slugging average in baseball that year.
Thomson became a celebrity for hiswalk-off home run offBrooklyn Dodgers pitcherRalph Branca to win the 1951National League pennant. The home run, nicknamed the"Shot Heard 'Round the World", was dramatic as, until 1969, league pennants were only decided by a playoff when the teams involved finished the regular season in a tie. Prior to 1951, playoffs had only been necessary in 1946 (NL) and 1948 (AL).[6]
Although in mid-August, the Giants were13+1⁄2 games behind the league-leading Dodgers, they won 37 of their final 44 games to tie Brooklyn on the final day of the regular season, forcing athree-game playoff. The Giants won the first game 3–1 as a result of a two-run home run by Thomson (off Branca). Brooklyn'sClem Labine shut out the Giants in the second game, 10–0. The decisive contest, played on October 3 at thePolo Grounds, was the first major sporting event televised coast-to-coast in the United States.[7] The Dodgers took a 4–1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Giants shortstopAlvin Dark singled, advanced to third on a single byDon Mueller, and scored on a double byWhitey Lockman. With Lockman on second and pinch runnerClint Hartung at third, Thomson's walk-off home run turned looming defeat into a 5–4 victory. The moment was immortalized by Giants play-by-play announcerRuss Hodges's excited multiple repetitions: "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"
Waiting in the on-deck circle to hit behind Thomson was rookieWillie Mays.[8] The Giants' season ended, however, at the1951 World Series; the Yankees swept the last three games to win the best-of-seven series, four games to two. Thomson went 6 for 21, batting .238 in the series with no home runs.[9]
The bat from the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" is in the collection of theNational Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum inCooperstown, New York, as are the glove and the spikes Thomson used at the game, though the home-run ball he hit has never been definitively identified.[10] The uniform worn by Thomson on that day is apparently a part of a large private collection owned by Dan Scheinman, a member of the San Francisco Giants ownership group.[11]
Longstanding rumors that the Giants engaged in systematicsign stealing during the second half of the 1951 season were confirmed in 2001. Several players toldThe Wall Street Journal that beginning on July 20, coachHerman Franks used a telescope positioned in the Giants clubhouse behind center field to steal the finger signals of opposing catchers. Stolen signs were relayed to the Giants dugout via a buzzer wire.[12]Joshua Prager, the author of theJournal article, outlined the evidence in greater detail in a 2008 book.[13]
Although Thomson always insisted that he had no foreknowledge of Branca's pitch,Sal Yvars told Prager that he relayedRube Walker's fastball sign to Thomson, though Thomson said that he was too focused on the at-bat to pay attention to the signal.[14] Branca was privately skeptical of Thomson's denials, but made no public comment at the time. Later, he toldThe New York Times, "I didn't want to diminish a legendary moment in baseball. And even if Bobby knew what was coming, he had to hit it.... Knowing the pitch doesn't always help."[15] Whether the telescope-and-buzzer system contributed significantly to the Giants' late-season 37–7 win streak remains a subject of debate.[16] Prager notes in his book that sign stealing was not specifically forbidden by MLB rules at the time and, moral issues aside, "...has been a part of baseball since its inception".[13] Sign stealing using optical or other mechanical aids was outlawed by MLB in 1961.[14]
In 1952, Thomson led theNational League with 14 triples while batting .271 with 25 home runs and 109 RBIs for the Giants. In his final season with the Giants in 1953, Thomson hit 26 home runs and 106 RBIs, and a .288 average. That winter, he was sent to the Milwaukee Braves in a multiplayer deal. During his first spring training with the Braves in 1954, he suffered a broken ankle, which allowed rookieHank Aaron to earn a place in the Milwaukee lineup. Thomson batted a career-low .232 in 1954.
The Braves traded Thomson back to the Giants during the 1957 season, and he was in the lineup for the club's final game at thePolo Grounds. The Giants moved to San Francisco for the 1958 season, but Thomson was gone, traded to the Cubs. He spent two seasons in Chicago before closing out his major-league career in theAmerican League with the Red Sox and Orioles. He played one final season in 1963 with theYomiuri Giants in Japan.
Thomson was a career .270 hitter with 264 home runs and 1,026 RBIs in 1,779 games. He was selected anAll-Star in 1948, 1949, and 1952.
In the 1990s, over 40 years after his famous home run, Thomson received a letter from a Marine who had been stationed inKorea in 1951:
After baseball, Thomson became a sales executive at a New York City paper-products company. He lived inWatchung, New Jersey, until 2006, when he moved toSavannah, Georgia, to be near his daughter Nancy and his grandchildren.[5] He died August 16, 2010, at his home in The Marshes of Skidaway Island, acontinuing care facility in Savannah.[17][18]
Scottish baseball teamEdinburgh Diamond Devils named their home Bobby Thomson Field.[19] It was opened by Thomson himself in 2003, while he was in Scotland to be inducted into theScottish Sports Hall of Fame.[20]
The UK Chapter of TheSociety for American Baseball Research is named the Bobby Thomson Chapter.
The field at his alma mater, Curtis High School in Staten Island, was renamed Bobby Thomson Baseball Field in 2007.[21]
Thomson was inducted into theStaten Island Sports Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1995.[22]
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