Ralph Branca

From BR Bullpen

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca (Hawk)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 3", Weight 220 lb.
School New York University
Debut June 12, 1944
Final Game September 7, 1956
Born January 6, 1926 in Mount Vernon, NY USA

1 Biographical Information
2 Notable Achievements
3 Further Reading
4 Related Sites

[edit] Biographical Information

Ralph Branca gave up the home run that lost the pennant for the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 3, 1951. The Shot Heard 'Round the World by the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson completed a monumental collapse by the Dodgers who were leading the league by 13 1/2 games on August 11.

Branca and Thomson eventually became friends. In 1991 and 2001, they toured the country for the 40th and 50th anniversaries of "The Shot". It could be said giving up the homer, could be the best thing that ever happened to Branca.

Like other players of his generation (Joe Nuxhall, Cal McLish among others), Ralph Branca was a teen-ager who made his first appearance in major-league baseball during the World War II years, when many older players were serving overseas. Branca made his first appearance at the age of eighteen, and was a member of the starting rotation in Brooklyn at the age of nineteen, for half of the 1945 season.

Branca's daughter Mary is married to former big league skipper Bobby Valentine.

[edit] Notable Achievements

3-time NL All-Star (1947-1949)
15 Wins Seasons: 1 (1947)
20 Wins Seasons: 1 (1947)
200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 3 (1947, 1948 & 1951)

[edit] Further Reading

Joshua Prager: The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World, Pantheon Books, New York, NY, 2006.