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LINESCORE		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
	Dodgers	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	4	8	0
	Giants	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	4	5	8	0

Listen to the radio broadcast Starters: Don Newcombe (BKN) vs. Sal Maglie (NYG) WP: Larry Jansen (W, 23-11) LP: Ralph Branca (L, 13-12) HR: Bobby Thomson, 9th

The words of Giants announcer Russ Hodges remind us over 50 years later of the abrupt and unlikely end of the 1951 regular season race. There's a good reason most people couldn't believe the Giants actually won the National League pennant that season; as late as August 11, they were a whopping 13 ½ games behind the league leading Dodgers. However, the late summer winds caught their sails, and New York proceeded to win 16 games in a row and 37 of its last 44 to force a three-game playoff with their bitter rivals from Brooklyn.

The two teams swapped victories to open the series, setting the stage for the dramatic finale on October 3 at the old Polo Grounds. For seven innings, Giants veteran Sal "The Barber" Maglie dueled Brooklyn gunslinger Don Newcombe to a 1-1 standoff. However, the Dodgers battered the Barber for three runs in the eighth, and the score stood at 4-1 as the Giants went into their final at-bat.

With the season on the line, the Giants showed the fight that made them so difficult to beat down the stretch. Two singles and a double knocked Newcombe out of the game, and with the Dodgers clinging to a 4-2 lead, right-hander Ralph Branca was called in to face third baseman Bobby Thomson and ice the Giants' rally.

In hindsight, there seems to be several reasons why Branca should have walked Thomson and pitched to the on-deck batter, a young centerfielder named Willie Mays. A walk would have loaded the bases, and with only one out, set up a potential game-ending double play. Thomson had also homered off of Branca earlier in the series, and was riding a 15-game hitting-streak. Finally, Mays, for all of his future records and game-breaking accomplishments to come, was only a rookie and struggling pretty badly.

Regardless, the 13-game winner elected to pitch to the batter at hand. He grooved the first pitch for a strike, then tried to move Thomson off the plate with one high and inside. But Thomson swung at the bad pitch and drilled it into the left field stands, giving the Giants a 5-4 victory and setting off a pandemonium that erupted into the streets of New York City.

The Giants' luck ran out in the World Series when they lost to the Yankees in six games. However, not even the mighty Yankees could take away from what the Giants accomplished in their memorable 1951 season, with their stunning late-season comeback capped by arguably the most dramatic game-winning home run in history.

Copyright 1951 by the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball