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

by Ray Robinson

Retells the dramatic story of the crosstown rivalry between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers that led to the fateful 1951 pennant playoff that the Giants won by a nose

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction, Sports

Hardcover

First published February 1, 1991

Reviews

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book about the 1951 Pennant race, and arguably the most famous homerun ever hit in Major League baseball history.

This book describes the events from the 1951 season that lead up to the 3 game playoff between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. While every baseball fans knows about the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", this book describes background and the behind the scenes machinations that is not normally known or understood about this great race! Though the books covers both teams, it tends to focus on the New York Giants. It also adds into the discussion how this comeback captured New York, as both teams came from New York, and the winner of the playoffs faced the New York Yankees.

I would recommend this book to all baseball fans, though admittedly Giants fans will like it better than Dodger fans. This was a time in American life that baseball was followed by most of the population; where people could walk blocks and blocks in town and never miss a pitch because everyone had the game on the radio. Therefore, I would also recommend it to those who love American history, especially sports history, as this was considered such an important game that people still alive from that era can tell you where they were when Bobby Thomson hit the walk-off homerun and propelled the Giants to the World Series.

[Ken Heard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost in all the hooplah behind Bobby Thomson's historic home run is that he hit another one in the first game of the 1951 National League playoff that led the New York Giants over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ray Robinson includes that in his account of the season and the rivalry between the two teams in a fully researched, great read.

All baseball fans know of the home run. It's been voted the most famous one in all of baseball, even ahead of Henry Aaron's 715th homer in 1974. But, Robinson goes deeper and shows the full 1951 season, including the Giants' awful start and the unwavering belief by Leo Durocher that the Giants would win.

The book is broken down chronologically, featuring chapters on the rosters, the spring training, early in the season, the winning streak by the Giants and the September drive. There's even a chapter on the last week, showing the tension and importance of each game.

As a bonus, the last chapter is recounts from scores of people who remember seeing or hearing about the home run.

Any fan of baseball should thoroughly enjoy this full recount of an amazing baseball moment.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much has been written about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950's but not too much about the NY Giants of the same time period, so this was interesting and refreshing for it's change of viewpoint, as the author is unabashedly a Giant's fan. The pace of the pennant race and the game action reported in the book were quite interesting, and the last chapter ("Where were you when the Giants won the pennant?") was interesting. And I always enjoy the interweaving of the pennant race with the history of the time, in this case General MacAuthur and Harry Truman, Estes Kefauver and the televised anti-communist hearings, the wooing of Dwight Eisenhower by both the Republican and Democratic parties.

But the book was missing one final chapter that many baseball books of season's past usually include, and I think it would have been better had it included this. The books makes no mention at all of the 1951 World Series - it was almost like it really didn't matter - all that counted was winning the NL pennant. And aside from Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca, the homerun hitter and the unfortunate pitcher who served it up, respectively, there is no mention of what happened after 1951 to any of the other characters in the book. This would have rounded things out and made for some good and satisfying closure.