Bobby Thomson - Trivia

Baseball player, born in Glasgow, W Scotland, UK. He went to the USA at age two. Playing for the New York Giants, in 1951 he participated in one of baseball's most memorable moments when he hit a home run - called ‘the shot heard around the world’ - in the ninth inning of a deciding play-off game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, to win the National League pennant. A fine outfielder, he hit 20 or more home runs eight times during his 15-year career (1946–60).

Robert Brown "Bobby" Thomson (born October 25, 1923 in Glasgow, Scotland), nicknamed The Staten Island Scot, is a Scottish-American former Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the New York Giants (1946-53, 1957), Milwaukee Braves (1954-57), Chicago Cubs (1958-59), Boston Red Sox (1960) and Baltimore Orioles (1960).

Thomson became a celebrity for hitting a walkoff home run in a playoff game, off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the 1951 National League pennant.

This event was even more dramatic than it may seem to the modern sports observer, as league pennants were not routinely decided by playoff until 1969 and only occurred in years in which teams finished the regular season in a tie, as had happened in 1951.

The home run was an exclamation point on a dramatic season for the Giants. But the Giants went on a late-season tear, winning 37 of their final 45 games to tie the Brooklyn team on the final day of the season and force the three-game playoff.

The teams split the first two games, forcing the decisive contest on October 3rd at the Polo Grounds. The Giants win the pennant!"

Waiting to hit behind Thomson in the on deck circle was a young man who would hit a few home runs of his own: rookie Willie Mays.

Thomson remained with the Giants through the 1953 season.

The Braves traded Thomson back to the Giants during the 1957 season, and he was in the lineup for the club's final game at the Polo Grounds. The Giants moved to San Francisco for the 1958 season, but Thomson was gone, traded to the Cubs.

Bobby Thomson was a .270 career hitter with 264 home runs and 1026 RBI in 1779 games.

Thomson, the youngest of six children, arrived in the United States at age two with his family; Raised on Staten Island, Thomson served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and reached the major leagues in 1946.

Trivia

Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield was born October 3, 1951—the very day Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World.

Scottish baseball team, the Edinburgh Diamond Devils, named their home "Bobby Thomson Field."