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This Is Ralph Branca's
Official Website! All Memorabilia Is Signed By Ralph Branca & Shipped With A Certificate Of Authenticity!
Ralph Branca was born on Wednesday, January 6, 1926, in
Mount Vernon, New York. Ralph received an academic scholarship to New York University, Ralph was the starting center for The
N.Y.U.Violets Basketball, winning The Metropolitan College Championship in 1943 and the starting pitcher on The N.Y.U. Baseball
team. The N.Y.U. Violets had twelve players make it into The Major Leagues. 1943 Branch Rickey, Jr. The President and General
Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Invited Ralph Branca and his brother John to tryout with The Brooklyn Dodgers, Ralph had
a medical deferment, John was drafted into The Army Air Core along with four other brothers.
Ralph was 18 years
old when he signed his professional contract on D-Day June 6, 1944 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he made his Major League Debut
on June 12, 1944. In 1947, Ralph won 21 games and lost 12 with an ERA of 2.67 with The Brooklyn Dodgers. Branca appeared in
three All-Star games, 1947, 1948 & 1949 and was the starting pitcher in the 1947 All-Star Game at the age of 21. Ralph
made two post-Season Appearances in the 1947 and 1949 World Series. Ralph was nominated as MVP in 1947 & 1948. Ralph won
88 games and lost 68, with a career ERA is 3.79 in 1484.0 innings pitched. He played Professional Baseball for 12 seasons
from 1944 to 1956.
Ralph Branca is perhaps best remembered for one infamous pitch, in a playoff game against the
cross-town 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". Hit by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher
Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds to win the National League pennant at 3:58 p.m. on October 3, 1951. As a result of the "shot",
The Giants won the game 5-4, defeating the Dodgers in their pennant playoff series, two games to one. This is the most famous
episodes in the history of sports. Thomsons' homer, and the Giants' victory after overcoming a 13 and a half game lead in
the standings by the Dodgers in the weeks preceding the playoff, this is sometimes known as the Miracle of Coogan's Bluff,
however surrounded by scandal.
Ralph Branca Larry King Interview
This famous moment in sports broadcasting was nearly lost.
This was in an era before all game broadcasts were recorded. However, in his autobiography, Hodges related how a Brooklyn
fan, excited over what appeared to be a certain Dodger victory, hooked up his home tape recorder to his radio. The fan wanted
to capture Hodges "crying." Instead, he recorded history; the next day, he called Hodges and said, "You have
to have this tape."
Ernie Harwell & Red Barber: Bobby Thomson...
up there swingin'... He's had two out of three, a single and a double, and Billy Cox is playing him right on the third-base
line... One out, last of the ninth... Branca pitches... Bobby Thomson takes a strike called on the inside corner... Bobby
hitting at .292... He's had a single and a double and he drove in the Giants' first run with a long fly to center... Brooklyn
leads it 4-2...Hartung down the line at third not taking any chances... Lockman with not too big of a lead at second, but
he'll be runnin' like the wind if Thomson hits one...
Russ Hodgers: There's a long drive... it's gonna be, I believe...THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS
WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win
the pennant and they're goin' crazy, they're goin' crazy! HEEEY-OH!!!'' [ten-second pause for crowd noise] I don't believe
it! I don't believe it! I do not believe it! Bobby Thomson... hit a line drive... into the lower deck... of the left-field
stands... and this blame place is goin' crazy! The Giants! Horace Stoneham has got a winner! The Giants won it... by a score
of 5 to 4... and they're pickin' Bobby Thomson up... and carryin' him off the field!
Ralph
Branca & Bobby Thompson Photo Taken October 4, 1951 Ralph Branca & Bobby Thompson
Photographed joking around shortly after The Shot Heard Round The World
The Day after...
Ralph & Bobby
Salvador Anthony Yvars New York Giant catcher admits he relayed the sign to Bobby Thomson
October 3, 1951 in the "Shot Heard 'Round The World” Which cost the Brooklyn Dodgers the National League title.Sal admitted
Léo Ernest Durocher was the master
mind behind the Giants Cheating.
Ralph Branca was born in 1926 in Mount Vernon, New York. He was 18 years old when
he signed his professional contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1947, Branca won 21 games and lost 12 with an ERA of 2.67.
He appeared in three All-Star games, and was the starting pitcher in the 1947 All-Star Game at the age of 21. Branca made
two post-Season Appearances in the 1947 and 1949 World Series. He played professional baseball for twelve seasons, from 1944
to 1956, during which he won 88 games and lost 68, with a career ERA is 3.79 in 1,484 innings pitched. Branca, still active
as a Chartered Life Underwriter, is a successful businessman living in Rye, New York, with his... Click
to readRead full bio
For Branca, an Asterisk
of a Different Kind - 1/2 Jewish
Ralph Branca
Branca with his parents, Kati and John, in 1947. A record from the
Auschwitz concentration camp shows that Branca's Aunt Irma, Kati's sister, died there in May 1942.
By JOSHUA PRAGER Published: August 14, 2011
Earlier this summer,
Ralph Branca met me at a country club in Westchester where he lives, extending the arthritic hand that 60 years ago this October threw
the baseball that became the most famous of home runs, the “shot heard round the world.”
I knew the
old pitcher well. A decade before, I had written in The Wall Street Journal that in 1951, the New York Giants used a spyglass
to detect which type of pitch opposing pitchers were about to throw them at the Polo Grounds, their Harlem home. They had
stolen the sign for Branca’s second fastball on Oct. 3. (The batter ultimately denied using it.)
