StoryCorps: Harvey Sherman

From: StoryCorps
Length: 01:29

Harvey Sherman remembers October 3, 1951, when the Brooklyn Dodgers lost the pennant on a home run known as the "shot heard 'round the world." Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps: Harvey Sherman
From: StoryCorps

Sherman2_small Harvey Sherman tells his friend Alex Reisner about the "shot heard 'round the world," when the Brooklyn Dodgers lost the pennant to the New York Giants on Oct. 3, 1951. Sherman was a teenager at the time and was rooting for the Dodgers.

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Piece Description

Harvey Sherman tells his friend Alex Reisner about the "shot heard 'round the world," when the Brooklyn Dodgers lost the pennant to the New York Giants on Oct. 3, 1951. Sherman was a teenager at the time and was rooting for the Dodgers.

Broadcast History

NPR Morning Edition 9/30/11

Transcript

Harvey Sherman (HS): In 1951, we blew a thirteen and a half game lead and we had the playoff against the Giants. I think a guy by the name of Thomson hit a home run off a guy by the name of Branca. Still hurts to talk about it. Many of our fathers were Giant fans but all of the sons and daughters were Dodger fans because Ebbets Field was a neighborhood place.

Those were the days where baseball was during the day. So in 1951 when Thomson hit the home run, my pals and I were in school. The teacher, Mrs. McPherson, lovely old Irish lady, stopped teaching. "Put your radios on. Let's listen to the Dodger game."

Archival Audio:
One out, last of the ninth... Branca pitches... Bobby Thomson takes a strike called on the inside corner...

HS: And that's what happened in the whole high school. Everybody had a portable radio and we all listened to the game, including the teachers.

Archival...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

It is Friday morning when we hear from our project StoryCorps and today we have a baseball story. For those baseball fans who are not so dismayed from earlier developments from this week they can't listen any more.

The Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves failed to make the playoffs with hysteric late season collapses.

It's eerily similar with what happened sixty years ago.

That season, the Brooklyn Dodgers lost their hold on first place ...

... and ended up in a playoff with their crosstown rivals, the New York Giants.

The Dodgers lost in spectacular fashion -- giving up a ninth-inning home run to Bobby Thomson.

Today -- we hear from HARVEY SHERMAN, who ...

... like everyone else living in Brooklyn at the time ...

... remembers every detail about that day.

OUTRO:

Stuff like that. Harvey Sherman telling that story to his friend, Alex Reisner, in New York City. Their conversation will be archived along with all the others at the Library of Congress and you can find the podcast at NPR dot org.