The Home Run Heard 'Round the World: The Dramatic Story of the 1951 Giants-Dodgers Pennant Race [Hardcover]

Ray Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1991

Bobby Thomson hit history's most famous home run during the bottom of the ninth in the final game of the 1951 National League playoffs. Sports historian Ray Robinson examines the circumstances surrounding this unforgettable moment, in a narrative packed with suspense, nostalgia, and insightful anecdotes about legendary players. Bob Costas contributes a brief Preface. 16 pages of photos.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The story of the New York Giants' rise from 13 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers to tie for the National League pennant in 1951 and then win the playoff has been written countless times. Not that Robinson ( Iron Horse ) hasn't done his homework, for he has supplemented his examination of the press clips with interviews with virtually everyone involved who is still alive, from Bobby Thomson, who hit the famous pennant-clinching homer, to Walter Matthau, an embittered Dodgers fan who lost a bundle on the crucial game. But the saga is old hat nonetheless. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Sports fans will enjoy this thrilling account of the 1951 Giants-Dodgers pennant race. Robinson, the author of the recently published Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time ( LJ 7/90), ably recounts the closing months as the Dodgers' 13-game lead in August vanished. The upshot was a three-game playoff, decided in the final game by a home run in the ninth inning by the Giants' Bobby Thompson. It was a different world then, and Robinson recaptures the hope and innocence of those times through fine journalistic portraits of the protagonists in the great baseball drama. While not in the league with Roger Kahn's elegaic The Boys of Summer ( LJ 2/15/72), this book is a winner. Recommended for most popular reading collections.
- Paul Kaplan, Highland Park P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060164778
• ISBN-13: 978-0060164775
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,277,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Narrative of the 1951 National League Pennant Race, October 13, 2011

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Home Run Heard 'Round the World: The Dramatic Story of the 1951 Giants-Dodgers Pennant Race (Dover Baseball) (Paperback)

This is a classic work of baseball history. Originally published in 1991, it tells the story--and it is a very journalistic account as written here--of the 1951 National League pennant race in which the New York Dodgers and the Brooklyn Dodgers battled for the chance to meet the New York Yankees in the World Series. Of course the Giants earned the pennant, and were dispatched in the World Series by the Yankee juggernaut led by future Hall of Famers Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra.

To get to that point, however, the Giants made a dramatic come-from-behind late season surge to tie the Dodgers for the National League title. Both the Giants and the crosstown rival Dodgers finished the regular season with identical 96-58 records. They then had to play a best-of-three game extension of the season to determine who advanced to the World Series. It was in the last game of that extension that Bobby Thompson hit his dramatic bottom-of-the-ninth homer to defeat the Dodgers 5-4. Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges captured the euphoria of the moment in his in-air chant, "THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT." It was the perfect response to a great moment in baseball history.

Getting to that point was not easy, however. As of August 11, Brooklyn held a commanding 13½-game lead over the Giants. They managed to catch the Dodgers by winning their next 16 games, and 37 of their last 44 games, while Brooklyn played the rest of the season at a 26-22 clip. The Giants then tied the Dodgers for the league championship on the last day of the regular season when they beat the Philadelphia Phillies, only one year removed from their pennant-winning "Whiz Kids" season in 14-innings to force the best-of-three-games showdown. The Giants and Dodgers split the first two games of this series, and the Giants come-from-behind win in the third sealed the deal.

This is an excellent narrative of that epic struggle. It was written by a veteran baseball writer with a real feel for the telling anecdote and the dramatic scene. Republished in 2011 by Dover, after having been out of print from HarperCollins for many years, it now reappears at the time of the 60th anniversary of this most stunning of all walk off homers, excepting perhaps only Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series homer, in major league history.