Scott reminds me that today is the anniversary of Bobby Thomson’s famous home run that won the 1951 playoff for the Giants against the Dodgers. In commemoration of the event, I’ve got a little trivia quiz for you:
1. Who pinch-ran for the injured Don Mueller?
2. Who was the winning pitcher for the Giants?
3. What uniform number did Ralph Branca wear?
Scott has already given the correct answers in the comments here, but for convenience I’ll put them under the More link. Scott also has a great followup question whose answer is unfortunately eluding me…
1. Clint Hartung, one of the great all-time busts in baseball history. He was a pitcher and hitter who was supposed to be great at both but wound up being good at neither.
2. Larry Jansen, a 23-game winner for the Giants in 1951.
3. Quoted by Scott ,a href=”http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/B/Branca_Ralph.stm”>from the Baseball Library: “Before the ’51 playoffs, Branca had worn number 13 and good-naturedly posed with black cats. Afterward, he changed his number, but not his luck.”
HINT: It lost out to American Pastoral, a (yet another) Philip Roth snoozer. Much gnashing of teeth commenced at my end when I heard that.
Well, that’s some failed schtick: the novel I had in mind was Underworld by Don DeLillo. If you’re of a literary bent, and haven’t read this one, you should. I love DeLillo…