Ralph Branca

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Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca (January 6, 1926 – November 23, 2016) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1944 to 1956.

Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944-1953-1954), Detroit Tigers (1953–1954), and the New York Yankees (1954).

He was a three-time All-Star.

Branca sacrificed a walk-off home run to Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants in a 1951 playoff; the game-winning hit was dubbed the "Shot Heard Around the World."

Early life

Ralph Branca was born in Mount Vernon, New York, as the fifteenth of 17 children. John Branca, his father, was a trolley conductor from Italy. Kati (née Berger), a Jewish immigrant, immigrated to the United States in 1901 from Sandorf, Hungary (now Prievaly, Slovakia).

Jozsef Berger was shot at the Majdanek concentration camp, and his maternal aunt Irma was murdered in 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was raised Roman Catholic.

Branca graduated from A.M. Before he jumped into the big leagues, B. Davis High School and attended New York University (NYU) for one year. For the New York University Violets, he played college baseball and college basketball.

Later life

Branca became acquainted with Thomson, a friendship that lasted into each man's old age, as well as joint television and trade show appearances. Branca later learned from Detroit Tiger Ted Gray that the Giants had taken the signs to the two pitches he threw Thomson. When Giant Sal Yvars confessed to Thomson that the stolen signs for Branca's fastballs were revealed in The Wall Street Journal in 2001, the rumors were confirmed. Joshua Prager explains the revelations in a book titled The Echoing Green: Bobby Thomson's Untold Story, Ralph Branca, and The Shot Heard Round the World. Thomson admitted to Prager that the Giants had stolen signs in 1951, but denied that he had foreknowledge of the pitch. Branca defeated Branca for the pennant-winning home run. Thomson confessed to stealing signs during his first three at-bats of the game but said he did not do so in the final at-bat; Branca said he did not believe Thomson's denials and was still convinced that Thomson was in fact tipped off on the fateful pitch.

Branca was a member of the Baseball Assistance Team for seventeen years.

Branca was a long-serving member of Westchester Country Club. He was born and raised in Mt. Vernon, New York, where he was a member of the Westchester County Hall of Fame for nearly forty years. He was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

Branca was a pallbearer at Jackie Robinson's funeral in October 1972.

Branca was a contestant on Concentration, winning 17 games in a row. He appeared in Concentration's 1963 Challenge of Champions.

Branca made a cameo appearance as a judge during a scene involving an audition for a music school in the 2012 film Parental Guidance. Billy Crystal's grandson takes center stage and recalls the "Heard Round the World" radio broadcast. In the 2013 film 42, a biographical sports drama about Robinson's career, Hamish Linklater played Branca. Branca was the subject of Andrew J. Muscato's "Branca's Pitch" in 2013.

In 1951, Branca married Ann Mulvey, whose parents were part-owners of the Dodgers, shortly after giving up the popular home run. Mary, their daughter, married baseball player Bobby Valentine. Patti and their other daughter, Patti, live in Fort Myers, Florida. In 2011, Branca published A Moment in Time, a memoir.

Branca died in a nursing home in Rye Brook, New York, at the age of 90. He was the last living member of the 1947 Dodgers baseball team. Branca was laid to rest in Section 26 of Gate of Heaven Cemetery in suburban Westchester County. His grave is located in Section 25, where Babe Ruth and Billy Martin are interred.

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Career

Branca was refused military service during World War II due to his asthma and a punctured eardrum. After Branca's tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, the team signed him to a deal. In his rookie year, he made his debut in the major leagues on June 12, 1944, posting a 3.04 earned run average (ERA) in 10923 innings pitched.

Branca lined up on the field alongside Robinson on Opening Day in 1947, Jackie Robinson's first appearance in the major leagues, while other players did not. In 280 innings pitched, he had a 21–12 win–loss record and a 2.67 earned run average (ERA). He made his All-Star appearance and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant. He was second in the league in wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts (148), third in ERA and sixth in won-lost percentage (.636). In Game 1 of the 1947 World Series, Branca was also the starting pitcher.

Branca, a three-time All-Star, won 80 games for the Dodgers, with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. He was ninth in the league in wins (14) and won-lost percentage (.609) in 1948. He led the National League (NL) in wins-lost percentage in 1949 (.722). He was tenth in the NL in 1951 (3.26).

Branca came to the game in relief of Don Newcombe's ninth out and Whitey Lockman on second base, pinch runner Clint Hartung on third base, and the Giants' "Shot Heard 'Round the Country" in the first game of the best-of-three 1951 National League tie-breaker series came to an end. Branca had been warming up in the bullpen with Carl Erskine ahead of his match against Thomson. Despite Thomson having homered off Branca in Game 1, Dodgers coach Clyde Sukeforth noticed Erskine's many curveballs in the dirt and ordered him to call Branca.

Although it has been announced that the Giants operated a sign-stealing scheme, Sal Yvars, the Giants' lone protester. The rest of the squad, as well as other dignitaries, say there was "no playoff larceny" during the 3-game playoffs. Another member of the pennant winners, Al Corwin, reminded others that "not many guys depended on it because the pitcher isn't standing around, he's in the middle of his windup." As the sign of stealing was restricted to the Polo Grounds, it would appear that it would be more improvable. In the first game at Ebbets Field off the coast of Branca, Thomson had a game winning home run. Clem Labine, a rookie, pitched a shutout in the Dodgers' second game at the Polo Grounds, and the Dodgers defeated the Dodgers 10–0. If the Giants were losing in the top of the 9th, it would have been difficult to believe that any kind of sign of stealing was involved. All of this was explained in the HBO documentary 'Shot Heard Round the World.' Many former members of the 1951 Giants and Dodgers are interviewed, including Branca, other than Yvars, who believes Thomson was the sole one who saw Thomson.

Don DeLillo's novel "Underworld" revolves around the pursuit of the homerun ball in the stands and afterwards.

Branca's performance was limited due to a back injury suffered during spring training in 1952. During the 1952 season, Branca appeared in only 12 games for the Dodgers. Branca was dismissed from the dugout by home plate umpire Larry Goetz for bench jockeying in Game 7 of the 1952 World Series against the New York Yankees in the eighth inning. Branca was only the second player to be ejected from a World Series in baseball history, and the first to be out of the game at the time. He did not appear in the series.

Branca began with Brooklyn in 1953, but the Detroit Tigers claimed waivers on July 10, 1953. Branca was first released by the Tigers in July 1954. After he pitched batting practice for the Yankees, the Yankees drafted him and played him in five games later this season. Branca played for the Minneapolis Millers in 1955 but was suspended due to arm injury in effect.

Branca was a fan of the Old Timer's Day for the Yankees in 1956, feeling his career was over. His pitching velocity returned, and he stayed with the Dodgers for the last month of the season, making just one appearance.

Branca had an 829 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA in 1,484 innings pitched in an 88-68 record.

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