As of this writing, we have 32,798 comments in the pot, which means we only need just 202 more for 33,000–and a comment contest winner.
And hey, this prize is gonna be somethin’ else! How would you like it if we sent you back in time, to 1951, and had you hit Bobby Thomson’s famous pennant-winning homer instead of Bobby Thomson? You hit “the shot heard ’round the world”! Well, if you’re the lucky reader to post Comment No. 33,000. all this can be yours!
Unless I can’t quite swing it. Then the prize will be an autographed copy of one of my books.
All readers can play, and all comments are eligible, with only the following exceptions: comments abusive to anyone else on this site; comments containing blasphemy or profanity; commercials thinly disguised as comments; or comments just too inane or fat-headed to bother with. Other than that, anything goes.
I feel like a kid on the playground yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!
At this point it’s anybody’s ballgame.
Wow! Almost there!!
I am sort of interested in baseball, but I’ve never heard of Bobby Thomson. I checked Wikipedia and it looks like he was an important figure in major league history.
How fleeting is fame! In 1951 the New York Giants (my team) and the Brooklyn Dodgers finished in a flat-footed tie and had to have a special playoff to decide the winner of the National League pennant.
With the 3-game series tied at one apiece, the Dodgers went into the 9th inning of Game 3 with a 4-1 lead. The Giants picked up a run and, with two men on base, Thomson coming up to bat and rookie Willie Mays on deck, former 20-game winner Ralph Branca came in to pitch.
And Bobby Thomson smacked a 3-run homer, and the Giants won the pennant. Broadcaster Russ Hodges became famous for his incredulous outcry, “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” He just couldn’t stop.
Back in the 1970s a poll of The Sporting News readers selected this as the most dramatic moment ever in American sports.
I’ve learned something new!⚾Thank you for the information.
I was only four years old “The Staten Island Scot” hit his famous home run so I don’t remember it or who Russ Hodges was. Brooklyn was never the same after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.
Russ Hodges was the guy on the radio who screamed “The Giants win the pennant! The Giant win the pennant!” about 100 times.
One more towards 33,000!
So what exactly is the prize?
an autographed book (I can’t really send you back through time so you can hit Bobby Thomson’s home run for him)
Oh! That’s the part I didn’t understand.
I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to professional sports, so it all sounded like Greek to me. Something to do with baseball?
The most dramatic moment in the history of American sports–that’s all.
OK, organized sports, that’s pretty much crapola, and baseball is a mere caricature of what it used to be. I don’t bother with sports anymore.
But oh! Baseball in the 1950s! A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
The only people I ever heard of in professional baseball was Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, (and that’s just because of an old movie I watched).
Baseball has frittered away its once-prominent place in American culture.
Well, my friend Pixie owned a baseball autographed by Ted Williams. Then we went to a game in Boston when we were in high school in the 1950s. (Giving away my age, am I? Well here it is. I’m 77 1/2!)
That was a game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. A big classic! We gleefully watched Ted Williams, Jimmy Piersall, and Micky Mantle, all in the same game!
Unforgetable! I don’t even remember who won!
If my calculations are correct…
You only need 165 more comments!
Oh wait.. 163 with my last comment, and this one.
Wow so close! I hope I win!
Me too!
=)