Home run list: Bobby Thomson’s death doesn’t change his ranking
The death of Bobby Thomson on Tuesday, at the age of 86, revives the memory of baseball’s most famous home run. Time has not faded the amazing story of the Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff. In fact, other home runs’ glory has slipped, while Thomson’s blast still reigns.
In 1998, in honor of Mark McGwire’s historic 62nd, I did a list of baseball’s top 10 home runs of all time. In 2005, in honor of Albert Pujols’ NLCS home run against the Astros, I made a list of the 10 most dramatic home runs in baseball history. The lists were similar but not identical.
With new knowledge that some home runs were not to be celebrated — McGwire’s — and in honor of Thomson’s shot, let’s update the list. The top 10 home runs in baseball history. Except let’s make it 12, since I had two extra I didn’t want to go unmentioned.
12. Babe Ruth’s 60th: Less than a decade before 1927, the major-league home run leader had clubbed 11. Now Ruth was trying to climb Mount 60, one more than the amazing 59 he hit in 1921. On Sept. 30, in the next-to-last game of the season, in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium, Ruth hit Tom Zachary’s high curve into Yankee Stadium’s right-field seats for No. 60. Hats were tossed, papers torn and a spirit of celebration ruled. “Sixty, count ‘em, sixty,” Ruth crowed to the New York Times. “Let’s see some other son of a b– match that.” It generally was agreed that no son of a b– ever would.
St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols (5) and Houston Astros closer Brad Lidge (54) watch Pujol's three-run homer in the ninth inning to give the Cardinals a 5-4 win in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series Monday, Oct. 17, 2005, in Houston. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)
11. Albert Pujols, 2005: Only twice in baseball history has a home run saved a team one out from playoff elimination. Pujols’ three-run homer at Houston in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series gave the Cardinals a 5-4 victory, capping a no-on, two-out rally. Alas, the Astros won the series, four games to two.
10. Frank Baker, Athletics, 1911: Baker’s ninth-inning homer ends Game 3 of the World Series; Baker’s Philadelphia Athletics go on to beat the Giants in six games. Baker’s given name slid off into anonymity; he forever after was known as Home Run Baker.
9. Dave Henderson, 1986: The greatest baseball game ever played was Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series. The Red Sox beat the Angels 7-6 in 11 innings. The Red Sox trailed three games to one in the series and 5-2 in the ninth inning of Game 5. Then Don Baylor hit a two-run homer to draw the Red Sox within one, and later Henderson launched a two-out, two-strike two-run homer to give Boston the lead. It was the first time in baseball history a team one out from elimination stayed alive with a home run. California tied it in the bottom of the inning, but the Red Sox won it in 11 and went on to the World Series.
8. Roger Maris’ 61st: Thirty-seven years after Maris’ home run, McGwire’s 62nd home run would charm America. But we now know McGwire’s feat was ill-gotten gains, restoring a little luster to Maris’ accomplishment. Maris’ record is appreciated more today than it was 1961, when Maris’ assault on Ruth’s 34-year-old record was not warmly received. Commissioner Ford Frick declared Ruth’s record valid unless Maris broke it in 154 games. Only 23,154 fans showed up in cavernous Yankee Stadium for New York’s final game of the season, the 162nd, with Maris stuck on 60. But in the fourth inning, off Boston’s Tracy Stallard, Maris launched a drive into the right-field seats. His record would last longer than Ruth’s and be broken only by cheats.
Hank Aaron, Atlanta Braves slugger, eyes the flight of the ball after hitting his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth's all-time home run record, Monday night April 8, 1974, in Atlanta against the Los Angeles Dodgers. With the 30th anniversary coming up on Thursday, the hit still resonates as one of sport's magical milestones. Aaron would go on to hit 40 more homers before he retired in 1976. (AP Photo/Harry Harris,file)
7. R-e-g-g-i-e! R-e-g-g-i-e!, 1977: The Yankees led the Dodgers three games to two in the World Series, but LA led 3-2 in Game 6. Then Jackson started swinging. He had homered in his last at-bat of Game 5, walked in his first appearance in Game 6 and then hit two straight two-run homers, off Burt Hooton and Elias Sosa. In the eighth inning, Jackson came to the plate with his team on the verge of the championship, and the Yankee Stadium crowd roared, “Reggie! Reggie!” Reggie heard them. He hit Charlie Hough’s knuckleball some 450 feet into the center-field bleachers.
6. Aaron catches Ruth, 1974: We knew it was coming, Henry Aaron’s 715th home run, we just didn’t know when. The when came on April 8, 1974. Between 1955 and 1973, Hank Aaron never hit fewer than 24 or more than 47 homers. And finally, on a fastball from the Dodgers’ Al Downing, Aaron passed the immortal Ruth. Home run No. 715, breaking Ruth’s career record. He was engulfed by fans, and what surprised him most, he said, was how hard his mother could hug.
5. Carlton Fisk, 1975: Game 6 of the ’75 World Series lasted four hours, ended at 12:34 a.m. in Boston, had three-run comebacks by both teams, saw the winning run thrown out at home in the ninth inning and had a game-saving catch in the 11th. But one of the best games of all time is remembered most for Fisk waving desperately for his 12th-inning drive off the Reds’ Pat Darcy to stay fair. When it hit the foul pole over FenwayPark’s Green Monster, he leaped with his hands in the air as the Fenway organist played the Hallelujah Chorus andchurch bells rang throughout New England.
4. Joe Carter, 1993: The first World Series-ending homer was thrown by an Oklahoman, Ralph Terry. More on that later. The only other one was hit by an Oklahoman. Toronto led the World Series three games to two but trailed 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6. With two on and one out, Philadelphia’s Mitch Williams threw a 2-2 pitch that Joe Carter, the pride of Millwood, swatted into history. The only come-from-behind homer to end a World Series. “They haven’t made up the word yet,” said Carter, “to describe what the feeling is.”
3. Bill Mazeroski, 1960: In 57 previous World Series, none had ended on a homer. Until Mazeroski. Perhaps the best-fielding second baseman ever, but hardly a power hitter, Mazeroski batted eighth in the Pirates’ batting order. But in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, with a wild game tied 9-9, Mazeroski led off and sent a slider from Ralph Terry (of Chelsea) over the left-center wall at Forbes Field. The crowd erupted. Mazeroski flung his cap, waved his arms and was escorted around third base by a mob of delirious Pittsburgh fans.
This Oct. 3, 1951, file photo shows Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hitting a home run, to win the national League pennant against the Brooklyn Dodgers, in the ninth ining of a baseball game at the Polo Grounds in New York. Famed home run hitter Bobby Thomson died Monday night, Aug. 16, 2010. He was 86. (AP Photo/File)
2. Kirk Gibson, 1988: Has it really been 22 years since Gibson limped into immortality? A ripped hamstring and torn knee had reduced Gibson, the ’88 NL MVP, to a hobble. He wasn’t even supposed to suit up for the World Series, but Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda placed Gibson on the roster, and with Oakland leading 4-3 in the ninth inning of Game 1 and A’s reliever Dennis Eckersley on the mound, Lasorda asked Gibson if he had one swing in him. One good swing. Gibson limped to the plate. The count was 3-2, and Gibson hadn’t used that one good swing, fouling off a couple of pitches with feeble swats. Eckersley tried a slider, and there went Gibson’s swing. The ball soared 10 rows into the Dodger Stadium bleachers, and Los Angeles had a 5-4 victory. LA won the Series in five games. It was Gibson’s only at-bat of the Series.
1. Bobby Thomson, 1951: The Miracle of Coogan’sBluff. The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. There have been several glorious names for the events of Oct. 3, 1951. Red Smith wrote, “The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again.” This was the of the grandest rivalry in sport. The end of the greatest chase in baseball history. The most glorious home run in baseball history. Thomson’s three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the New York Giants the National League pennant in a three-game playoff with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants had trailed Brooklyn by 13 1/2 games on Aug. 13, and Dodger manager Charlie Dressen declared, “The Giants is dead!” Even after catching Brooklyn, the Giants looked dead in the ninth inning in Game 3 of the playoffs, trailing 4-1. But the Giants scored once, and with rookie Willie Mays on deck, Dressen called on reliever Ralph Branca to put out the threat. Mays never got to bat. Thomson lined a shot barely into the left-field bleachers, giving the Giants a 5-4 win. While Thompson danced through chaotic fans and around the bases, Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges screamed, “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
I still have a copy of the program for this series. It was my late mother’s who was a die hard Giant fan who came to this country in 1930 via Tipperary. I still get goose bumps watching these clips even though I was not born until 1957 when the Giants had their last season in NY. This year with the Giants winning the series was just spectacular for me growing up a SF Giant fan. I finally was witness to a Giant victory in the World Series…Oh it felt good for me and all former Giant players. God Bless the Giants……
Excellent list Mr. Tramel. Not only was my dad at the Polo Grounds on Oct. 3, 1951, but Bobby Thomson’s shot fell ten rows directly in front of him.
When I met Bobby Thomson, forty years later, he could not have been more gracious or humble. I asked what it was like to hit the greatest home run in baseball history. He said, “I never thought people would still be talking about forty years later.” Bobby Thomson, people will be talking about it a lot longer than that.