Today in History:
Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)
In baseball, the "Shot Heard 'round the World" is the term given to the game-ending home run hit by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds to win the National League pennant at 3:58 p.m. EST on October 3, 1951. As a result of the "shot" (baseball slang for "home run" or any hard-hit ball), the Giants won the game 5–4, defeating the Dodgers in their pennant playoff series, two games to one. It is one of the most famous moments in Major League Baseball history.
The phrase shot heard 'round the world is from the poem "Concord Hymn" (1837) by Ralph Waldo Emerson, originally used to refer to the first clash of the American Revolutionary War and since used to apply to other dramatic moments, military and otherwise. The main reason for the terminology of being a shot heard around the World was due to the high number of U.S. servicemen who listened to the game on Armed Forces radio.
Thomson's homer, and the Giants' victory after overcoming a double-digit lead in the standings by the Dodgers in the weeks preceding the playoff, are also sometimes known as the "Miracle of Coogan's Bluff."
Source: encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com
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