The Echoing Green

The highs and low of America?s national pastime merge in this investigative report on innocence lost as Wall Street Journal sportswriter Joshua Prager revisits the legendary October 1951 game in which a home run by Bobby Thomson clinched the win and the National League pennant for the New York Giants against their hometown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was an emotionally charged series, and Thomson?s homer is forever referred to in baseball lore as the shot heard ?round the world. Prager reveals that the Giants had cracked the code of baseball signs--and he explains how--and they knew what pitch was coming across the plate. He explores the powerfully felt and long-term emotional effects on both Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca as well as on Bobby Thomson, who had to live with the truth of the technically not illegal but perhaps not quite fair tactic. He presents perceptive portraits of Branca and Thomson, while evoking the spirit and drama of the game in its heyday. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.