The Most Dramatic Moment in Major League Baseball History

As the years pass, an Oregon octogenarian grows more secure in his place as a key figure in the most dramatic moment in Major League baseball history. Forest Grove's Larry Jansen was winning pitcher in the "game of the 20th century," when the Giants came from behind in the bottom of the ninth inning to win a playoff series against the Dodgers and get into the World Series against the New York Yankees.

How long ago was that for the boy born in little Verboort, Ore.? Consider that the Giants then were in New York, playing in the Polo Grounds, while the Dodgers were crosstown in Brookyn, at home in Ebbets Field. Neither of the legendary ballparks survives as both teams chose to move to the West Coast, the Giants to San Francisco and the Dodgers to Los Angeles. Jansen was the top starting pitcher of the Giants under Manager Leo Durocher. Going into that final playoff game of 1951, he led the National League with 22 victories. In desperation, the Giants used Larry in relief in the top of the 9th inning in a "must-win" game in which they trailed, 4-1. He got the Dodgers out without giving up a run, but things looked bad as the Giants came to bat for the last time.

Approaching disaster turned into spectacular triumph when Outfielder Bobby Thomson hit a three-run home run to win the game, 5-4, and give the Giants the pennant.

I was in my first year of college. As I walked the campus that afternoon, I kept a small portable radio to my ear to follow the game. When the Giants came to bat for the last time, I passed a school recreation room where I heard a buzz of excitement.

I stepped inside and found students crowded around something new: a TV set. It showed black and white images on a 12-inch screen, and was a marvel, revealing what was happening as it happened on that baseball field a thousand miles to the east. Stopping in to watch turned out to be the luckiest choice of my lifetime as a baseball fan.

Basehits by Al Dark, Don Mueller and Whitey Lockman-- the names ring out today as if they were my old friends-- had cut the lead to 4-2, and brought to the plate Thomson, the potential winning run with two runners on base. As we watched, Brooklyn replaced its starting pitcher, Don Newcomb, with Ralph Branca. He pitched, and Thomson swang the bat. Then it was nothing but bedlam as Bobby blasted the ball into the bleachers to win the game.

With that one swing of the bat, Thomson became the man-of-the-hour, the player-of-the-season, and for some, the player-of-the century. I still can see that unforgettable moment on the tiny TV screen with Thomson circling the bases as if he were in a daze. As he approached third base, his teammate, little second baseman Eddie Stanky, dashed onto the field to leap on the back of an ecstatic Durocher. He had to restrain the manager from grabbing Thomson with joy until Bobby stepped on home plate to make official this most exciting moment in the history of our national pasttime.

Decades later, Jansen shared with me his memories of that moment: "I was on the bench with the rest of my teammates, just hoping against hope," he told me after we'd listened to a recording he had of the game's end, with the voice of announcer, Russ Hodges, screaming over and over: "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"

Oregon's Jansen had a place in that historic game second only to Thomson. "That victory in relief was my 23d of the season," he recalled. "That was something. But since then it has become nothing but a sports footnote to Bobby's home run, the biggest hit in the game's history."

Jansen needed no footnotes for a career that saw him win 122 games and lose 89 during nine seasons in the big leagues. But he got one more. In the World Series, which the Yankees won, he was the last pitcher ever to face the great centerfielder of the Yanks, Joe DiMaggio, before the great hitter retired. "DiMag" doubled off him.

"No problem," said Jansen. "Just another footnote."