December 14, 1894: The Consolidation of "Greater New York"

December 14, 1894: The New York State Board of Canvassers releases the official tally of the referendums on creating "The City of Greater New York." Most of the constituencies approved it.

Up to this point, the City of New York consisted of Manhattan Island and part of what became known as The Bronx. But Brooklyn was a separate city, and there were other separate cities around both, which is why the westernmost neighborhood in Queens is called Long Island City.

Queens County then consisted of Long Island City, and the Towns of Elmhurst, Flushing and Jamaica, and what are now called "The Rockaways," then part of the Town of Hempstead. Richmond County, making up the entirety of Staten Island, consisted of the Towns of Castleton, Middletown, Northfield, Southfield and Westfield.

The building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, and the idea of building other bridges and a subway system connecting the two cities, replacing the old ferry boat system, helped put forward the idea of a single city that would be home to about 4 million people.

But Brooklyn, in particular, didn't want to do it: They liked their independence, and didn't want Manhattan telling them what to do. They'd already endured the heavy-handed control of the Manhattan-based Tammany Hall political machine dominating the State legislature, not to mention professional baseball teams calling themselves "New York" while playing at Brooklyn facilities such as the Union Grounds in Williamsburg and the Capitoline Grounds in Bedford-Stuyvesant. (Both had since been demolished.)

Nevertheless, the vote was taken, with a "Yes" vote meaning "For Consolidation," and a "No" vote meaning "Against Consolidation." Here were the results:

* Richmond County (Staten Island): 78.61 percent Yes. Over time, Staten Island would become the Borough the least satisfied with the setup, and has voted at least once to secede from the City, but this has not been permitted by the State government.

* Town of Pelham (in Bronx County): 62.13 percent Yes.

* Queens County: 61.93 percent Yes.

* New York County (Manhattan): 61.78 percent Yes.

* Town of East Chester (in Bronx County): 58.99 percent Yes. Eastchester (usually written as one word since then) has always been part of Bronx County, never Westchester County.

* Kings County (Brooklyn): 50.11 percent Yes. The winning margin was just 277 votes.

* Town of Westchester (in Westchester County): 50.04 percent No. The margin of victory was, literally, one single vote, 621 to 620.

* City of Mount Vernon (in Westchester County): 64.74 percent No. They remained separate, not joining Bronx County.

And so, on January 1, 1898, the Counties of New York, Bronx, Queens, Kings and Richmond became, respectively, the Boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island; and, collectively, the City of New York. Westchester and Mount Vernon remained separate, and Mount Vernon became the seat of the new version of Westchester County.

The term "City of Greater New York" was never a legal or official designation; both the original Charter of 1898 and the newer one of 1938 use the name "City of New York." It is used today only to refer to the time period when the consolidation took place.

*

December 14, 1894 was a Friday. There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball was out of season, college football's regular season was over with only 4 postseason games (not yet called "bowl games") remaining to be played, hockey was all-amateur, and basketball was a new invention.

December 13, 1973: John Cappelletti's Heisman Speech

As a native of New Jersey, and a fan of the football team at Rutgers University, I loathed Penn State University, their Nittany Lions, and their head coach, Joe Paterno, long before it was cool. But they have provided perhaps the greatest speech any college football player has ever given.

December 13, 1973: Penn State running back John Cappelletti wins the Heisman Trophy, as yet the only Nittany Lion so honored. His acceptance speech transcended sports.

Born in 1952 in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, he was apparently no relation to New England Patriots legend Gino Cappelletti. He graduated from the storied Monsignor Bonner High School. He did not play for Penn State in his freshman season, 1970, because the NCAA did not let freshmen play on the varsity until 1972. He was a defensive back in his sophomore season, 1971, because the starting running back slots were occupied by Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell, who went to 12 Pro Bowls between them. He did start as a junior in 1972.

In 1973, helping Penn State complete an undefeated regular season, he rushed for 1,522 yards and scored 17 touchdowns in 11 games. Paterno would later call him the best player he ever coached. Ohio State also went through the regular season undefeated, but they had 3 players splitting the votes that only 1 would have gotten: Offensive tackle John Hicks finished 2nd, sophomore running back Archie Griffin finished 5th, and linebacker Randy Gradishar finished 6th.

Giving his acceptance speech at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan, after having been seated next to newly-sworn-in Vice President Gerald Ford, himself an All-American center at the University of Michigan in 1935, Cappelletti said:

I'm very happy to do something like this. I thought about it since the Heisman was announced 1- days ago, and this is to dedicate a trophy that a lot of people earned, I've earned, my parents and the people I've mentioned, and numerous other people that are here tonight and been with me for a long time.

The youngest member of my family, Joseph, is very ill. He has leukemia. If I can dedicate this trophy to him tonight, and give him a couple days of happiness, this is worth everything.

I think a lot of people think that I go through a lot on Saturdays and during the week, as most athletes do, and you get your bumps and bruises, and it is a terrific battle out there on the field. Only for me, it is on Saturdays, and it's only in the Fall. For Joseph, it is all year 'round, and it is a battle that is unending with him. And he puts up with much more than I'll ever put up with. And I think that this trophy is more his than mine, because he has been a great inspiration to me.

At the Heisman ceremony. Left to right:

Anna, Joey, John Jr., John Sr.

It was similar to the speech that Gale Sayers gave in New York in 1970, upon receiving the NFL's George S. Halas Most Courageous Player Award, named for the owner of his team, the Chicago Bears. Despite having led the League in rushing after surgery on both knees in 1969, Sayers dedicated the award to an even more courageous teammate, running back Brian Piccolo, who was dying of cancer.

Cappelletti's speech brought those big tough football men to tears. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the famed "TV priest" of the 1950s, had been asked to deliver the ceremony's benediction. He told a national TV audience, "There is no need for a benediction. God has already blessed you with John Cappelletti." Between this, and the Italian ancestry of both player and head coach, the viewing audience could have been excused for thinking that, like Notre Dame, Penn State was a Catholic school, instead of a State school.

(I used to make that same mistake with Temple University, thinking it was either Catholic or Jewish. Villanova, St. Joseph's and La Salle are Catholic schools in or around Philadelphia, but Temple is not.)

Despite their undefeated record, being an independent meant that Penn State meant that they had no Conference Championship to play for, and they didn't play a single ranked team until their Thanksgiving Saturday matchup with arch-rival University of Pittsburgh, and even they were only ranked Number 20. Penn State won that game, but remained at Number 6. In Cappelletti's last college game, Penn State beat Louisiana State University (LSU) in the Orange Bowl, but stayed Number 6 in the last poll. For the 3rd time in the last 6 years, the Nittany Lions had gone undefeated for an entire season, and yet were denied the National Championship. Not until 1982 would they be awarded one.

Joey Cappelletti hung on until 1976, at the age of 13. In 1977, the film Something for Joey was made about the brothers.

John Cappelletti played for the Los Angeles Rams from 1974 to 1979, and the San Diego Chargers from 1980 to 1983. But, like so many Heisman winners, his professional career was a disappointment, in his case due to injuries. The Rams reached Super Bowl XIV in the 1979-80 season, but Cappelletti was unable to play in it.

He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, and the Orange Bowl Hall of Honor. On September 7, 2013, at their home opener, Penn State honored their 1973 football team, and retired Cappelletti's Number 22. He remains the only Penn State athlete to have his number retired.

Cappelletti moved to Laguna Niguel, California, with his wife Betty and 4 sons. Betty's sister is the daughter of another Heisman Trophy winner, Alan Ameche, who won the Trophy with Wisconsin in 1954, and starred in the NFL for the Baltimore Colts.

UPDATE: In 2023, on the 50th Anniversary of the award and the speech, Cappelletti was interviewed. He said, "The speech gave me an opportunity to express some things I think on all our behalf’s. Just what we were feeling. I don’t think even I expected it to come out like that. It’s something you can’t really rehearse. It was just a feeling at the time, the feeling of all my family, not just myself."

*

December 13, 1973 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 97-94 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now named the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.) And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-108 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The San Antonio Spurs beat the Virginia Squires, 96-94 at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. And the San Diego Conquistadors beat the Memphis Tams, 107-104 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Atlanta Flames, 6-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.

And there was 1 game in the World Hockey Association: The Toronto Toros beat the Cleveland Crusaders, 3-1 at the Varsity Arena in Toronto.

November 3, 2014: The New World Trade Center Opens

November 3, 2014: One World Trade Center opens in Lower Manhattan, the replacement for the "Twin Towers," One and Two World Trade Center, that had stood from 1973 until their destruction by terrorists in 2001.

It was inevitable that the Towers would be replaced by something. Plans ranged from exact duplicates to, partly in jest, a series of five towers of varying heights, with the tallest in the middle, so that it looked like both a clenched fist and a raised middle finger. Eventually, a design was chosen with a main tower and three smaller (but still very tall) ones.

The new building's architect was David Childs, born in 1941 in Princeton, New Jersey, although he graduated not from Princeton University but another Ivy League school, Yale University. He had previously designed One Worldwide Plaza, on the site of the old Madison Square Garden; the redesign of the James A. Farley Post Office Building into the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station; the National Geographic Society's headquarters in Washington, D.C.; and the American Embassy it Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Perhaps most interestingly, given this project, he had designed a "twin towers": The Time Warner Center (now the Deutsche Bank Center), on the site of the New York Coliseum on Columbus Circle.

Childs was with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, one of the world's great architectural firms, which has designed 2 buildings that have held the title of tallest building in the world: The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago, and the current titleholder, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Due to various delays, construction on its replacement could not begin until on April 27, 2006. On April 30, 2012, it surpassed the height of the Empire State Building, reclaiming for the World Trade Center name the title of tallest structure in New York City. On May 10, 2013, the structure was topped off by the completion of its spire, giving it the height of 1,776 feet, matching the year of the Declaration of Independence.

The building opened for business on November 3, 2014. The Observatory opened on May 29, 2015. Officially, it has 94 stories, compared with its predecessor's 110. But the top floor is labeled the 104th, and it is 1,268 feet above the ground. The roof is 1,368 feet, matching the height of the previous One World Trade Center. (The old 2 World Trade Center was slightly shorter, at 1,362 feet.)

The mailing address is 285 Fulton Street. Fulton is to the south, and it is also bordered by West Street on the west, Vesey Street on the north, and West Broadway on the east. Compare this to the Twin Towers, whose footprints are now part of the 9/11 Memorial: Fulton on the north, West Broadway on the east, Liberty Street on the south, and West Street on the west.

Construction of a new Two World Trade Center has begun, on the site of the former 5 World Trade Center. It will rise to 1,345 feet, but the COVID epidemic stopped construction. It will not resume until tenants start applying. An opening of 2025 currently seems like a good guess.

The new 3 World Trade Center opened on June 11, 2018, and is 1,079 feet high. The new 4 World Trade Center opened on November 13, 2013, and is 978 feet high. Construction of the new 5 World Trade Center is set to begin in 2023, for a 2028 opening, and is currently planned to be 900 feet high. And the new 7 World Trade Center opened on the site of the original on May 23, 2006, the first part of the new complex to open, and is 743 feet high.

There are no current plans to build a new building with the name 6 World Trade Center. The old one was damaged badly enough that it had to be torn down, and the new One World Trade Center was built on the site.

UPDATE: As of November 3, 2024, the new 2 WTC has only the foundation built, and there is no timetable for construction to resume. 5 WTC is now set to be completed in 2029. There is still no plan for a new 6 WTC.

*

November 3, 2014 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended 5 days earlier, when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, beating the Kansas City Royals in Game 7, 3-2. On ESPN Monday Night Football, the Indianapolis Colts beat the New York Giants, 40-24, at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just 11 miles from the World Trade Center complex.

There were 6 NBA games played that night:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-85 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, only 3 1/2 miles from the World Trade Center complex.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 104-93 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia. James Harden scored 35 points for the Rockets.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 93-81 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Boston Celtics, 118-113 at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Jeff Green scored 35 points in a losing effort for the Celtics.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Denver Nuggets, 110-105 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Utah Jazz, 107-101 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

There was only 1 NHL game played that night, and it was at Madison Square Garden, just 3 miles from the World Trade Center complex. The New York Rangers lost to the St. Louis Blues, 4-3 in a shootout.

October 28, 1963: The Demolition of the Old Penn Station

October 28, 1963: Demolition begins on the original Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan, built in 1910. Since most of the station's operations were underground, there wasn't much disruption of service.

By this point, the most beloved train station in America didn't look so good. That photo above is not colorized: The marble had been stained by over half a century of pollution. (Note the tailfins on the taxi.) And with the decline in train travel compared to the rise of driving and flying, a train station this grand was no longer necessary. The successor station would be utilitarian at best -- and a commuter's nightmare at worst.

When the Pennsylvania Plaza complex opened in 1968, including the new Madison Square Garden above it, Penn Station had become completely subterranean, and it went from being one of the most beloved transit centers in America to one of the most hated.

But the original station's destruction spurred the landmark preservation movement in New York City, which helped to save Grand Central Terminal in the 1970s, Carnegie Hall in the 1980s, and so many other great buildings. Still, not every great building was saved: Once Lincoln Center opened, the original Metropolitan Opera House was demolished in 1967, and a boxy skyscraper was put up in its place.

*

October 28, 1963 was a Monday. Actress Lauren Holly was born.

Baseball season had ended 3 weeks earlier, with the  Los Angeles Dodgers beating the New York Yankees in the World Series. And there would be no Monday Night Football for another 7 years. And while the NBA and NHL seasons were underway, no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 24, 1934: Nero Wolfe Debuts

Edwin Arnold as Wolfe

October 24, 1934: Rex Stout publishes Fer-de-Lance, his first novel featuring the detective Nero Wolfe. Wolfe was a bit unusual, in that he sent his leg man, Archie Goodwin, out to do the leg work, while he sat back and built his deductions around Goodwin’s findings.

Rex Todhunter Stout was born on December 1, 1886 in Noblesville, Indiana, and grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He served in the U.S. Navy, including as a yeoman on the Presidential yacht under Theodore Roosevelt. By 1910, he had stories published in magazines, but it took until 1929 for him to publish his first novel, How Like a God. From 1934 until his death on October 27, 1975), Stout published 33 novels and 39 novellas or short stories about Wolfe.

Rex Stout

Wolfe lives in a brownstone on West 35th Street in Manhattan, although no brownstones ever existed on that street in real life; and the address frequently changed in the stories, ranging from 506, which would put it between 10th and 11th Avenues; to several in the 900s, peaking at 938, which would put it into the Hudson River, past the furthest-extending piers.

In the 1957 novella Fourth of July Picnic, speaking from the living room in his brownstone, Wolfe describes himself as follows:

I was born in Montenegro and spent my early boyhood there. At the age of sixteen I decided to move around, and in fourteen years I became acquainted with most of Europe, a little of Africa, and much of Asia, in a variety of roles and activities. Coming to this country in nineteen-thirty, not penniless, I bought this house and entered into practice as a private detective. I am a naturalized American citizen.

According to a 1949 memo, Stout gave Wolfe's height as 5-foot-11, and his weight as a too-much 272. But Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories and the man who does Wolfe's "leg work," frequently describes Wolfe as weighing "a seventh of a ton," equivalent to about 286 pounds. This was intended to indicate unusual obesity at the time of the first book. In a 1947 short story, Archie makes it worse: "He weighs between 310 and 390, and he limits his physical movements to what he regards as the irreducible essentials."

That 1949 Stout memo lists Wolfe's age as 56, which would mean he was born in 1893, but the characters do not age. "Those stories have ignored time for thirty-nine years," Stout told his authorized biographer, John McAleer. "Any reader who can't or won't do the same should skip them. I didn't age the characters because I didn't want to. That would have made it cumbersome and would seem to have centered attention on the characters rather than the stories."

In a 1956 article for The Baker Street Journal, a magazine dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective in fiction, science fiction writer J.D. Clark ran with the 1893 birthday, and suggested that, during his "hiatus" after his faked death at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland in 1891, Holmes reunited with the woman he described in A Scandal in Bohemia as "the woman," Irene Adler, and Wolfe's birth was the result.

In his fictional biography of Holmes, published in 1962, the writer William S. Baring-Gould ran with this, and many Holmes fans now accept it in their "head canon." Stout, still alive at this point, never confirmed the theory, starting only in the 1st novel that Wolfe's mother was still alive (this being 1934), living in Budapest, Hungary, and that Wolfe sent her a check every month. Stout did, however, place a painting of Holmes above Goodwin's desk in the brownstone.

Another popular theory is that Wolfe's mother is the Queen of "a Balkan principality," which could be Montenegro; and his father is Arsène Lupin, the French gentleman thief created in 1905 by writer Maurice Leblanc. It has been noted that the name Lupin comes from the root word "loup," the French word for "wolf."

Wolfe is described as being loath to leave his home for business, or for anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. In the 1947 story Before I Die, Wolfe says, "I rarely leave my house. I do like it here. I would be an idiot to leave this chair, made to fit me."

He is very demanding: His first line in his first story is, "Where's the beer?" His tastes are expensive: Gourmet food, and a rooftop greenhouse with rare orchids. And he does not suffer fools gladly: If he believes he is being disrespected by a guest in his brownstone, he has Goodwin physically remove him, in what usually results in a humiliation. (Goodwin, a native of Ohio but the exact city varies in the stories, describes himself as just under 6 feet and 180 pounds, and is very capable of such physicality.)

Goodwin also lives in the brownstone, and serves as Wolfe's bodyguard as well as his investigator. As he put it in a 1937 story:

I know pretty well what my field is. Aside from my primary function as the thorn in the seat of Wolfe's chair to keep him from going to sleep and waking up only for meals, I'm chiefly cut out for two things: to jump and grab something before the other guy can get his paws on it, and to collect pieces of the puzzle for Wolfe to work on.

Goodwin is a ladies' man. Wolfe is not: He is wary of them, and tends to keep them at arms' length, and trusts Goodwin's judgment on which women connected to cases -- whether Wolfe meets them are not -- are of good character, something Wolfe feels free to decide for himself among men.

Wolfe has been played by Edwin Arnold and Walter Connolly in 1930s films, Sydney Greenstreet in a 1951 NBC radio series, Robert Eckles in a 1957 ABC movie, Thayer David in a 1979 ABC movie, William Conrad in a 1981 NBC series, and Maury Chaykin in a 2000s series on the cable network A&E. An ad in TV Guide said of Conrad's version, "He likes his orchids rare, his steaks medium, and his murders well-done!" Each new version was set in the present day, until the A&E series, which went back to the character's 1930s roots.

Goodwin was played by Lionel Stander in the 1930s films, Wally Maher in the 1951 NBC radio series, future M*A*S*H co-creator Gene Reynolds in the 1957 ABC movie, Tom Mason in the 1979 ABC movie, future Matt Houston star Lee Horsley in the 1981 NBC series, and Timothy Hutton in the 2000s A&E series.

*

October 24, 1934 was a Wednesday. Baseball season had ended 15 days earlier, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season started 15 days later. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 19, 1978: The Tragedy of Gig Young

October 19, 1978: Actor Gig Young shoots his wife of 3 weeks, Kim Schmidt, in their Manhattan apartment. Then he kills himself. He was 64, she was 31.

A motive for the murder-suicide was never made clear. But Young was a heavy drinker, and was under the care of the psychotherapist Eugene Landy, who would later have his professional California medical license revoked amidst accusations of ethical violations and patient misconduct, including his mistreatment of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson.

He was born Byron Ellsworth Barr on November 4, 1913 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and grew up in Washington, D.C. He had a few bit parts in films in the 1940s, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the 1952 James Cagney film Come Fill the Cup.

He preferred not to do comedies. That changed with his successful role in the Broadway comedy Oh Men! Oh Women! in 1953 and '54: While the movies still wanted him to do dramas, Broadway and television wanted him to do comedies.

He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor again in 1958, in the Clark Gable and Doris Day comedy Teacher's Pet. He was the promoter for Elvis Presley's boxing character in Kid Galahad. He starred on the 1964-65 NBC sitcom The Rogues, and won an Academy Award for Best Actor as the dance marathon master of ceremonies in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

That character was an alcoholic. For a few years by that point, so was Young. His career went into decline. His drinking cost him the role of The Waco Kid (ironically, an alcoholic) in Blazing Saddles, a role that went to Gene Wilder. He appeared in Game of Death, which was left unfinished until 1978 due to the 1973 death of its star, Bruce Lee. It turned out to be Young's last film as well.

He married 5 times. His 3rd wife was Elizabeth Montgomery, but they divorced before she became the star of the sitcom Bewitched. He and Kim Schmidt had been married for 22 days at the time of their deaths.

In 1955, Young went to the set of the film Giant, and filmed a public service announcement with James Dean. The subject was safe driving. Dean said, "Drive careful, you know? The life you save might be mine!" And right after that, he died in a car crash. With considerably less mystery than Gig had when he died.

*

October 19, 1978 was a Thursday. Baseball season had ended 2 days before, when the New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series in 6 games. Football was in midweek.

There were 2 games played in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz beat the Boston Celtics, 120-115 at the Superdome in New Orleans. And the Kansas City Kings beat the Houston Rockets, 108-103 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 2-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

There were no games played in the World Hockey Association.

October 17, 1966: The 23rd Street Fire

October 17, 1966: A fire breaks out at 7 East 22nd Street, in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. It spreads to the building behind it, at 6 East 23rd. Firemen rush into that 2nd building, and a floor collapses, killing 10 of them. Two others die in a blaze that reaches 5 alarms before it is finally put out.

The lost:

Deputy Chief Thomas A. Reilly, FDNY 3rd Division

Battalion Chief Walter J. Higgins, FDNY 7th Battalion

Lt. John J. Finley, FDNY Ladder Co. 7

Lt. Joseph Priore, FDNY Engine Co. 18

Firefighter John G. Berry, FDNY Ladder Co. 7

Firefighter James V. Galanaugh, FDNY Engine Co. 18

Firefighter Rudolph F. Kaminsky, FDNY Ladder Co. 7

Firefighter Joseph Kelly, FDNY Engine Co. 18

Firefighter Carl Lee, FDNY Ladder Co. 7

Firefighter William F. McCarron, FDNY 3rd Division

Firefighter Daniel L. Rey, FDNY Engine Co. 18

Firefighter Bernard A. Tepper, FDNY Engine Co. 18

It is the FDNY's deadliest day on record, until September 11, 2001. On October 21, 10 fire trucks each carried a coffin down 5th Avenue, to services at St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church. There were 10,000 firefighters lining the route in salute, including 500 from Boston. Some came from across the country, and some even from Britain and Ireland. 

*

October 17, 1966 was a Monday. Basketball star Danny Ferry was born. This was also the day the game show The Hollywood Squares premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball season had ended 8 days earlier, with the Baltimore Orioles completing a 4-game sweep of the defending World Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Football was in midweek: Monday Night Football was still 4 years away. The NBA season had just started, but no games were played on this day. And the NHL season was 2 days from starting. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 3, 1951: The Bobby Thomson Game

October 3, 1951: Along with the Bucky Dent Game of 1978, the Bobby Thomson Game may be the most written-about single game in the history of baseball. And if you have to ask why, then you don't know the history of baseball.

Funny thing: Life was imitating art. Just a month earlier, on August 29, 1951, a film titled Rhubarb premiered, based on the novel by H. Allen Smith. The owner of a Brooklyn baseball team dies, and leaves ownership of the team to his cat, which he had named "Rhubarb," an old baseball term for an argument, often used by Dodger broadcaster Walter "Red" Barber.

The plot has the Brooklyn team playing the New York team in a Playoff for the Pennant. It was only the 2nd film role for 20-year-old Leonard Nimoy, and the future Star Trek star was not credited. The most unfair thing about this movie, if not the most illogical.

In real life...

The New York Gothams began play in the National League in 1883. In 1886, after a particularly rousing victory, their manager, Jim Mutrie, called them "my big boys, my giants," and they were the New York Giants from then on. In 1925, a football team would be named after them, and they still use that name.

Their first home had been a polo field in what became known as the East Harlem section of Manhattan. In 1890, they moved to 155th Street and 8th Avenue, where Harlem meets Washington Heights, with a cliff called Coogan's Bluff overlooking it. The stadiums that would be built there, first one, then another on the same site after a 1911 fire, would carry the name "the Polo Grounds" from their previous home, even though polo was one of the few outdoor sports capable of being played outdoors that the place never hosted.

Up until 1898, New York and Brooklyn were separate cities. In 1883, a team was founded in the American Association. It would eventually become known as the Trolley Dodgers, due to Brooklyn being covered with trolley lines and locals having to dodge them. Eventually, this was shortened to "Dodgers."

In 1913, their owner, Charles Hercules Ebbets, built a ballpark on a spot near Prospect Park, where the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Flatbush come together. Someone suggested he name it for himself, and Ebbets Field was born.

The separate cities of New York and Brooklyn, and after 1898 the Boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, developed a rivalry above and beyond baseball. But the rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers was nasty, even more so than the one that eventually developed between the 3rd team established in New York, the American League's Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox.

After all, not only were the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field just 13 miles apart, but, with the 154-game schedule and 8-team Leagues of the time, they played each other 22 times a year. Like the old saying goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt." As Keith Jackson would later say of certain college football rivalries, "These two teams just don't like each other." And the fans, who had to live together, side-by-side, sometimes even in the same family, in the City, and in the nearby suburbs, didn't like each other, either.

The Giants always had money, and the Dodgers rarely did. The Giants won the Pennant in 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1933, 1936 and 1937; and the World Series in 1905, 1921, 1922 and 1933. The Dodgers didn't win nearly as much: The Pennant in 1916 and 1920.

Because of a messy divorce, Charlie Ebbets died broke in 1925. At his rainy funeral, another part-owner, Ed McKeever, caught a cold and, in those pre-antibiotic days, developed pneumonia and died. As if the team's finances weren't precarious enough, the Great Depression came. Eventually, one-quarter ownership of the team came into possession of a bank, the Brooklyn Trust.

(In 1950, Brooklyn Trust became part of Manufacturer's Trust. In 1961, after another merger, it became Manufacturer's Hanover, or "Manny Hanny." In the 1970s and '80s, it was one of the few companies that advertised on the television broadcasts of both the Yankees and the Mets. In 1991, it was bought out by Chemical Bank. In 1996, Chemical bought Chase Manhattan Bank, and adopted its name. In 2000, Chase merged with J.P. Morgan & Co., so the little bank that once owned a key piece of the Brooklyn Dodgers is now part of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., tying Charlie Ebbets to the Morgan and Rockefeller families.)

In 1934, the Giants were leading the NL, and, in a radio interview, someone asked Bill Terry, the Giants' manager and 1st baseman, about the upcoming series with Brooklyn. He mockingly said, "Brooklyn? Is Brooklyn still in the league?" Down the stretch, the Dodgers beat the Giants enough times that a surge by the St. Louis Cardinals cost the Giants another Pennant. The Dodgers, already known in the Brooklyn dialect as "Dem Bums," couldn't win, but they could spoil things for the "Jints."

In 1938, Ed's brother and fellow part-owner, Steve McKeever, died. Ownership of the Dodgers was now divided as follows: 1/8th, Grace Ebbets, Charlie's widow; 1/8th, Joseph Gilleaudeau, Charlie's son-in-law; 1/8th, Elizabeth "Dearie" Mulvey, daughter of Steve McKeever; 1/8th, James Mulvey, Dearie's husband; 1/4, a trust set up by Ed McKeever before his death; and 1/4, Brooklyn Trust.

The bank hired Larry MacPhail away from the Cincinnati Reds, and installed him as team president. He renovated Ebbets Field, brought broadcaster Red Barber with him from Cincinnati, and rebuilt the team. By 1941, they were Pennant winners again. But, as the Giants did in 1923, '36 and '37 (after beating them in '21 and '22), the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees. The words "WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR" appeared in a headline of the Borough's newspaper, The Brooklyn Eagle.

Except "Next Year" never seemed to come. The Dodgers had replaced the Giants as New York's 2nd team, but the Yankees had already replaced the Giants as New York's 1st team. The Dodgers fell 2 games short of the Pennant in 1942. Then came World War II. MacPhail left, and St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey was hired as team president and GM. Rickey and Pfizer executive John L. Smith bought out the Ebbets and Ed McKeever trusts, and were now each a 25 percent owner, as were the Mulveys and Brooklyn Trust.

Meanwhile, Giants ownership had been fairly steady. John T. Brush, who rebuilt the Polo Grounds, died in 1912. He left the team to his son-in-law, Harry Hempstead. In 1919, Hempstead sold the team to Charles Stoneham. In 1936, Stoneham died, leaving the Giants to his son, Horace Stoneham.

In the 1st season back from The War, 1946, the Dodgers finished in a tie with the Cardinals, but lost a Playoff. In 1947, the Dodgers desegregated baseball with Jackie Robinson, and won the Pennant -- but lost the Series to the Yankees. After missing out in 1948, they won again in 1949, but lost the Series to the Yankees. In 1950, they lost the Pennant on the final day of the season, to the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 1942, Brooklyn Trust chose one of its lawyers to manage its quarter share of the Dodgers. They could have chosen William A. Shea -- yes, the man for whom Shea Stadium would be named, as the team that played there would have been impossible without him -- but he was a Giants fan. So they chose someone who cared not at all about baseball, only money: Walter Francis O'Malley.

In 1950, John L. Smith died. O'Malley saw his chance. He bought Brooklyn Trust's share. He bought Smith's share. He knew he could intimidate the Mulvey's into approving whatever he did. All he had to do was buy Rickey out. While they had a few things in common, Rickey and O'Malley hated each other's guts, and Rickey knew the game was up, but, also being a clever lawyer, found a way to make O'Malley pay through the nose. If there's one thing a rich man values more than money, it's control, and O'Malley paid the price to get 75 percent ownership, and 100 percent control, of the Dodgers.

So, going into the 1951 season, the Dodgers were financially secure. But, competitively speaking, there were successful, not not enough: They'd already had 3 recent World Series losses, were 0-5 in the Series overall, and had 3 nasty near-misses for the Pennant.

But they were loaded: 1st baseman Gil Hodges was a slugger and a fine fielder; 2nd baseman Robinson excelled in all aspects of the game, especially baserunning; shortstop Harold "Pee Wee" Reese and 3rd baseman Billy Cox were slick fielders; center fielder Edwin "Duke" Snider might have been the best all-around player in the NL; right fielder Carl Furillo was a terrific hitter with a great arm; catcher Roy Campanella was a slugger who was the best game-caller in the NL; and the starting rotation was strong with Don Newcombe, Elwin "Preacher" Roe, Carl Erskine and Ralph Branca. Oddly, they could never settle on a regular left fielder.

The Giants? The infield was Whitey Lockman, Eddie Stanky, Alvin Dark and Hank Thompson; the outfield was Monte Irvin, Bobby Thomson and Don Mueller; the catcher was Wes Westrum; and the rotation was Sal Maglie, Larry Jansen, Jim Hearn and Dave Koslo. Pretty much every regular was good, and Irvin and Maglie were genuine stars. But, aside from Irvin in left field, I don't think most Dodger fans would have swapped players with the Giants at any position.

The players on each team didn't like each other. To make matters weirder, the Giants manager was the man who had managed the Dodgers to the Pennant in 1941, Leo Durocher, a nasty man in so many ways, including his arguments with umpires that got him nicknamed "Leo the Lip."

He had been suspended for the entire 1947 season by Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler, for what he called "conduct detrimental to the game." It was Burt Shotton who managed the Dodgers to that Pennant. Durocher was reinstated for 1948, but Rickey, a moralist, was tired of Durocher and his amorality.

When Horace Stoneham fired Mel Ott, one of the Giants' most popular players ever but a poor manager, he called Rickey, and asked if he could hire Durocher. One man's trash being another man's treasure, Rickey told Durocher about the idea, and Durocher, knowing that Rickey was a cheapskate and Stoneham would pay him more, went for it. Dodger fans considered him a traitor, and hated him above all other Giant personnel, not knowing that it wasn't his idea.

Shotton returned, and managed the Dodgers through the 1950 season, winning the 1949 Pennant. He was replaced by Charlie Dressen for 1951.

The Dodgers started the season just 11-10, but then won 29 of their next 39, and led the NL by 7 games on June 23. Early on, the Giants had an 11-game losing streak, for a 2-12 start. Then they won 9 out of 11, but it still took them until May 28, Memorial Day, to get back to .500, at 20-20. An 8-1 run got them to 35-27 on June 19, 5 games behind the Dodgers.

Part of the reason the Giants got going is that, on May 25, they called up a black kid from an industrial town outside Birmingham, Alabama, who was tearing up Class AAA ball: A center fielder named Willie Mays. With Hank Thompson not hitting, Bobby Thomson was moved to 3rd base, and Mays turned out to be the NL Rookie of the Year.

But the Dodgers went 10-2 from June 30 to July 13, to lead the NL by 9 games. Then they went 1-6 after the All-Star Break, but still led by 7 1/2. On July 20, they started a 10-game winning streak, and were 9 1/2 up when it ended on July 31. On August 8, they swept a doubleheader from the Giants. The next day, they made it a 3-game sweep.

Someone on the Dodgers declared, "The Giants is dead." The quote hit the newspapers. While grammatically incorrect, it sure seemed accurate: On August 11, the Giants were 13 1/2 games behind the Dodgers, and the rest of the NL was behind the Giants. It looked like another Yankees vs. Dodgers "Subway Series."

A funny thing happened on the way to the Subway Series. The Giants started cheating. They had a sign-stealing system at the Polo Grounds, and it allowed them to go 50-12 down the stretch, including 20-3 at home.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers coasted: From September 9 to 28, they went just 7-11, and fell into a tie for 1st place, blowing their huge lead. On the scheduled last day of the regular season, they needed to beat the Phillies in Philadelphia just to force a best-2-out-of-3 Playoff for the Pennant against the Giants, and while it took them 14 innings, and both fielding and hitting heroics by Robinson, they did it.

There was a coin toss to decide home-field advantage. The Dodgers won. But Dressen chose to open the series at home, assuming that taking an early lead would give them a psychological edge for the rest of the matchups at the Polo Grounds. So Game 1 of the Playoff was set for October 1, at Ebbets Field. Hearn outpitched Branca, who gave up a home run to Thomson in the 4th inning, a foreshadowing. Irvin also homered, and the Giants won, 3-1. So much for Dressen's strategy. 

Game 2 was played on October 2, at the Polo Grounds. The Dodgers bounced back in a big way, with home runs from Robinson, Hodges, Andy Pafko (finally, they found a left fielder) and Rube Walker, who was catching in place of Campanella, who was injured, ending a season in which he would be named the NL's Most Valuable Player. (Home runs on the season: Hodges 40, Pafko 30, Robinson 19, Walker... 4.) Clem Labine pitched a 6-hit shutout, and the Dodgers beat the Giants 10-0.

Dressen stuck with Labine the whole way, making it next to impossible for him to pitch in the deciding game the next day, also at the Polo Grounds. My grandmother was a Dodger fan from Queens, and she told me, "That Dressen was so stupid!"

October 3, 1951. It was cloudy that Wednesday, and there was a threat of rain, so only 34,320 fans came to the 55,987-seat Harlem Horseshoe. Among those in attendance, sitting next to each other, were a pair of Dodger fans: A comedian from Brooklyn named Jackie Gleason, and a singer from Hoboken, New Jersey named Frank Sinatra.

Also in attendance were 2 of the American League Champion Yankees: Campanella's main competitor for the title of the best catcher in baseball, Lawrence "Yogi" Berra; and right fielder Hank Bauer. Watching on television on NBC, with Ernie Harwell as the announcer, was Mays' main competitor for the title of the most exciting rookie in baseball, center fielder Mickey Mantle.

Mickey had asked Yogi who they should root for. Yogi said they should root for the Giants, because the Polo Grounds seated nearly twice as many people as Ebbets Field, meaning the gate receipts for the World Series would be larger if their opponents were the Giants, which meant that the World Series shares for the players would be higher. The Yankees would get almost as much money from losing to the Giants as they would from beating the Dodgers.

At 1:30 PM, home plate umpire Lou Jorda signaled to Giant starter Sal Maglie, and said, "Play ball!" Maglie struck Furillo out. He walked Reese and Snider. Robinson singled Pee Wee home. 1-0 Dodgers. Pafko grounded out, and Hodges popped up. In the bottom of the 1st, Stanky flied out, Dark popped up, and Mueller lined out.

Top of the 2nd inning: Cox grounded out. Walker struck out. Newcombe popped up. Bottom of the 2nd: Irvin grounded out. Lockman and Thomson singled, but Mays lined out. 1-0 Dodgers.

Top of the 3rd inning: Furillo grounded out. Reese popped up. Snider struck out. Bottom of the 3rd: Westrum walked. Maglie bunted him over. Stanky grounded into a double play. 1-0 Dodgers.

Top of the 4th inning: Robinson grounded out. Pafko struck out. Hodges grounded out. Bottom of the 4th: Dark popped up. Mueller lined out. Irvin grounded out. 1-0 Dodgers.

Top of the 5th inning: Cox bunted for a hit. Walker struck out. Newcombe grounded out. Furillo flied out. Bottom of the 5th: Lockman grounded out. Thomson doubled. Mays struck out. Westrum was intentionally walked, to set up a force play. Maglie struck out. Still 1-0 Dodgers.

Top of the 6th inning: Reese struck out. Snider singed, but was caught stealing. Robinson walked. Pafko popped up. Bottom of the 6th: Stanky flied out. Dark grounded out. Mueller popped up. Still 1-0 Dodgers.

Top of the 7th: Hodges popped up. Cox grounded out. Walker singled. Newcombe grounded out. But as the Dodgers took the field for the bottom of the 7th, Newcombe was beginning his 270th inning of the season. He gave up a double to Irvin. Lockman grounded into a fielder's choice that advanced Irvin to 3rd. Thomson hit a sacrifice fly that scored Irvin with the tying run.

A mound conference was convened. Dressen, Walker, and the entire Dodger infield surrounded Newcombe. This included Jackie Robinson. He was the 1st black man to play in the major leagues since 1884. Newcombe was the 2nd black man to become a successful major league pitcher, after Leroy "Satchel" Paige with the Cleveland Indians.

Jackie knew that, if Newk couldn't get the job done, people would say a black pitcher couldn't do it. Newk had already given up what would now be called a walkoff home run to Tommy Henrich in Game 1 of the 1949 World Series, and the home run to Dick Sisler that won the 1950 Pennant for the Phillies. To use another phrase that wasn't yet in use, Newk "couldn't win the big one."

New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Roger Kahn, Jackie's best friend in the media, once wrote that he could converse with Eleanor Roosevelt and curse with Leo Durocher in equal measure. In a high-pitched voice that belied his imposing physical form and his massive moral authority, Jackie told Newk, "You keep pitching until your fucking arm falls off."

The batter was Mays. Lockman was still on 1st. Newk, at this point running on fumes, pitching on brains and guts, got Mays to ground to Dark, who started an inning-ending double play. It was 1-1.

Top of the 8th: Top of the order up. Furillo lined back to Maglie. Then, as if they had sensed his courage, or maybe as if they didn't want to incur Robinson's wrath, the Dodgers began to pick Newcombe up. Reese singled. Snider singled Reese over to 3rd. Maglie threw a wild pitch that advanced the runners, scoring Reese. With 1st base open, Robinson was walked. No good: Pafko singled Snider home. Hodges popped up. But Cox singled Robinson home. Walker grounded out. 4-1 Brooklyn.

In the years to come, Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto became a broadcaster, and joked about leaving the game early, to get home to New Jersey, over the George Washington Bridge. "I gotta get over that bridge!" he would tell his broadcast partners. Well, at this point, thinking the Dodgers had the game in the bag, Berra and Bauer left, got in the car, and headed for the Bridge.

Bottom of the 8th: The 3-run cushion helped settle Newcombe down. He struck out Bill Rigney, who was pinch-hitting for Westrum. Hank Thompson was sent up to pinch-hit for Maglie, and grounded out. And Stanky popped up. End of 8: Dodgers 4, Giants 1. Dem Bums needed 3 more outs.

Top of the 9th. Larry Jansen was now pitching for the Giants, and Ray Noble replaced Westrum as catcher. Dressen should have pinch-hit for Newcombe. He didn't, possibly because it was already known that, for a pitcher, Newcombe was a very good hitter. But he grounded out. So did Furillo. And Reese flew out.

Bottom of the 9th. It is an inning we are still talking about, more than 70 years later. The Dodgers went into it with a 4-1 lead. Just 3 more outs, allowing 2 or fewer runs, and they would face the Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series, the next day, at Yankee Stadium.

But Newcombe was gassed. He allowed a single to Dark. He allowed a single to Mueller. Now, the tying run was at the plate, in the form of a future Hall-of-Famer, Irvin. Newk got him to pop up to Hodges. But Lockman doubled to left, scoring Dark, and sending Mueller to 3rd.

There was a break in the action, because there was a sprain in Mueller's ankle. He was replaced on 3rd base by Clint Hartung.

Dressen knew he finally had to take Newcombe out. He got on the bullpen phone. Clyde Sukeforth, the pitching coach, previously the scout who found Robinson, answered. Dressen could choose between Erskine and Branca, 2 righthanders, to face, potentially, the next 2 batters, both righthanded, Thomson and Mays.

As soon as Sukeforth picked up the phone, Erskine threw a pitch in the dirt. Sukeforth told Dressen this, and told him that Branca was pitching well. Dressen said, "Send in Branca."

The announcement came over the public address system, "Now coming in to pitch for Brooklyn, Number 13, Ralph Branca." Number 13, the traditional unlucky number. Thomson was a good hitter against a fastball, but only against a fastball. And Branca had only a fastball. And he'd already given up a home run to Thomson in Game 1 of the Playoff.

Red Barber was broadcasting the game for the Dodgers, over WMGM, 1050 on the AM dial. My grandmother, then living with my grandfather and mother on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, knew the details. She knew that Branca was the wrong choice in a big situation, especially to face Thomson. She turned off the radio. John Sterling was then 13 years old, and living on the Upper East Side. In his long career as the Yankees' radio announcer, he liked to say, "You just can't predict baseball." That day, Grandma predicted baseball. Because, in this case, it wasn't that hard to do.

Thomson was at bat. Mays was on deck. He may have been Willie Mays, but he was 20, a rookie, and, by his own later admission, very nervous. There's no guarantee that Mays would have done anything good. Had Branca gotten Thomson out, Mays could have made the last out.

Thomson stepped into the box. Branca's 1st pitch was a strike call on the outside corner. It was 3:58 PM. Russ Hodges had the call on the Giants' radio station, WMCA, 570 AM:

Bobby hitting at .292. He's had a single and a double, and he drove in the Giants' first run with a long fly to center. Brooklyn leads it, 4–2. Hartung down the line at third, not taking any chances. Lockman with not too big of a lead at second, but he'll be runnin' like the wind if Thomson hits one.

Branca throws.

There's a long drive, it's gonna be, I believe... (dramatic pause)

The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! (Three seconds of crowd noise)

Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the Pennant! And they're goin' crazy! They're goin' crazy! Hey-oh! (Seven seconds of nothing but crowd noise)

I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I do not believe it! Bobby Thomson hit a line drive into the lower deck of the left-field stands! And this blamed place is goin' crazy! The Giants! Horace Stoneham has got a winner! The Giants won it, by a score of 5-4, and they're pickin' Bobby Thomson up, and carryin' him off the field!

More than any home run, more than Bill Mazeroski's in 1960, more than Carlton Fisk's in 1975, more than Bucky Dent's in 1978, more than Kirk Gibson's in 1988, more than Joe Carter's in 1993, more than any hit by David Ortiz in 2004, this is the most talked-about home run in baseball history. The only other serious contender for the title is Babe Ruth's apparent called shot in the 1932 World Series.

It was Thomson's 32nd homer of the season. The last one may have been the shortest in physical distance, maybe 320 feet. But it has traveled the longest in memory.

Sinatra said that Gleason was so drunk and distraught that he threw up on Frank's shoes. Asked on the 50th Anniversary about having left early, Berra said, "I guess we should have stayed." It would be 1973, and he would be the manager of a team which did not exist in 1951, before Yogi delivered his most famous quote, which would have been appropriate on that cloudy long-ago Wednesday afternoon: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

There's a picture taken from center field, as Thomson touched home plate. Jackie Robinson was standing behind 2nd base, making sure Thomson did, in fact, touch the plate. Was he thinking about the moment in 1908, at 2nd base, on that plot of land (if not at that stadium, which replaced the former Polo Grounds in 1911), when Fred Merkle failed to touch the base, costing the Giants the Pennant?

It didn't matter: Thomson did touch all the bases, including the plate. On the film, Robinson can be seen ripping the cap off his head. He made the long walk, all the way back to the blockhouse in center field, with the Giants' clubhouse on one side and the visiting team's on the other.

There's another photo, showing Branca sprawled on the steps up to the clubhouse, with former Dodger star, now coach, Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto, sitting next to him, a cigarette in his hand.

A priest was in the Dodger locker room, Father Pat Rowley. Branca asked him, "Why me?" Rowley told him, "Because God knew your faith would be strong enough to bear this cross." Rowley was there because his cousin was Branca's girlfriend, Ann Mulvey. Who was also the daughter of Dodger part-owners John and Dearie Mulvey. Ralph and Ann were soon married. Branca lost the Pennant, but got the girl.

The game, and the Giants' comeback to get there, are called "The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff." They could have been expected to flop in the World Series against the Yankees, having expended so much emotion. Instead, they almost kept it going, taking 2 of the 1st 3 games. But the Yankees took the next 3 for the title.

Taking a line from "Concord Hymn," Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1837 poem about the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775 that started the American Revolution, Thomson's homer became known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World." 

The day after the game, October 4, 1951, the New York Daily News ran a front-page game recap under the headline, "The Shot Heard 'Round the Baseball World"; and a New York Times editorial that same day called Thomson's homer "the home run heard round the world." According to baseball historian Jules Tygiel, "These two phrases merged in the popular memory," and the Thomson blast became "The Shot Heard 'Round the World."

Indeed, it was, literally, heard around the world: American troops, fighting in the Korean War, and stationed in various bases in Europe and Asia, and on ships at sea, heard it on Armed Forces Radio. So did writer George Plimpton, a Giants fan studying at Cambridge University in England.

Giant fans were happier about this than they were about winning the World Series 3 years later, because it was against the hated Dodgers. Dodger fans were more crushed by this than they were about losing any World Series to the Yankees, because they hated the Giants more. And, more than 70 years later, Dodger fans now elderly are still hearing about it.

Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again.
-- Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith, in the next day's New York Herald Tribune. If Red wasn't the greatest sportswriter ever, this paragraph certainly shows why he's a contender for that title.

The Dodgers did recover, at least competitively. They won the Pennant in 1952. They lost the World Series to the Yankees. They won the Pennant in 1953. They lost the World Series to the Yankees. The Giants won another Pennant in 1954, and beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, due in large part to the Game 1 heroics of a catch in the 8th inning by Mays and a walkoff pinch-hit home run in the 10th inning by James "Dusty" Rhodes. It would be the team's last until 2010, as they developed a habit of painful close calls similar to those that the Dodgers had faced.

Finally, in 1955, after going 0-7 in World Series play, 0-5 against the Yankees, "Next Year" finally came for Brooklyn. The Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series, thanks to a great catch by Sandy Amoros -- a left fielder -- and a shutout by Johnny Podres in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium. They won another Pennant in 1956, but the Yankees, needing revenge over the Dodgers for the 1st time, got it.

After the 1957 season, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. The move was made by Walter O'Malley, who had been the lawyer that the Brooklyn Trust Company had hired to manage their share of the team's ownership. He had bought the bank's share, and either bought out or dominated the remaining part-owners.

He needed another team in California, to save money on travel costs. Giants owner Stoneham, as unhappy with the condition of the Polo Grounds and its neighborhood as O'Malley was with the size of Ebbets Field and the condition of its neighborhood, was going to move the team to Minneapolis, where their top farm team was. When O'Malley suggested San Francisco, Stoneham went for it. The rivalry went to the West Coast, and while they're now 425 miles apart, it has been every bit as nasty as it was when the gap was 13 miles.

Back in New York, the teams' bereaved fans were united in 1962, by a new team, the New York Mets, whose fans, those old enough to remember the Giants and Dodgers as New York teams and not, hated the Yankees every bit as much as the older fans among them hated each other.

Ebbets Field hosted "midget auto" races for 2 years, and was torn down in 1960. The Polo Grounds hosted a Heavyweight Championship fight between Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson, then became the home of the AFL's New York Titans from 1960 to 1963 (they became the Jets in 1963), and the home of the Mets in 1962 and '63. It was torn down in 1964, just days before its replacement as the Mets' and Jets' home, Shea Stadium, opened. The same demolition crew that tore down Ebbets Field tore down the Polo Grounds, with the same wrecking ball, painted to look like a baseball.

The Dodgers have since won the World Series in 1959, 1963 (over the Yankees), 1965, 1981 (over the Yankees), 1988 and 2020; and won Pennants but lost the World Series in 1966, 1974, 1977 (to the Yankees), 1978 (to the Yankees), 2017 and 2018.

The Giants won Pennants in 1962 (history repeating itself, a Playoff won over the Dodgers, although there was no dramatic home run, and then they lost the World Series to the Yankees), 1989 and 2002, before winning the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014. And there have been times from 1962 onward that the Giants have spoiled Playoff berths for the Dodgers, and the Dodgers have done it for the Giants.

In 2014, Travis Ishikawa hit a bottom-of-the-9th home run to win the NL Championship Series for the Giants, echoing Thomson's homer. But it was against the St. Louis Cardinals, not the Dodgers; and it was in Game 5, not a deciding Game 7. Fox broadcaster Joe Buck used the phrase "The Giants win the Pennant!" only once. 

The rivalry continues: In 2021, the Giants won 107 games, winning the National League Western Division, while the Dodgers won 106, to reach the NL Wild Card Game. They won it, and faced the Giants in the NL Division Series. It went to a deciding Game 5 in San Francisco, and a 9th inning run gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win and the series, although they lost the NLCS to the Atlanta Braves.

Branca, a native of Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York, eventually found out about the Giants' cheating, and was upset about it. Thomson always claimed he never saw a signal about what pitch was coming. He didn't have to: He knew that Branca only had a fastball.

Nevertheless, Branca and Thomson became friends, and often did autograph sessions at memorabilia shows together.

Thomson, born in Glasgow, Scotland and raised in Staten Island (hence his nickname, "The Staten Island Scot"), died in 2010. He was 86. He was cremated, and there is no gravesite. Branca died in 2016, at 90, and was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, Westchester County, the same cemetery as Babe Ruth and Billy Martin.

As of October 3, 2022, Willie Mays, who became one of the greatest players who ever lived, is the only player from the game still alive. (UPDATE: He died on June 18, 2024.)

But the Bobby Thomson Game, and the Shot Heard 'Round the World that won it, will live forever. Indeed, some people consider this the greatest baseball game of all time. In 1981, baseball historian John Thorn published Baseball's 10 Greatest Games. He included this game as one of them.

*

October 3, 1951 was a Wednesday afternoon. There were no other games in any other sports, so there were no other scores on this historic day. But it was a historic day in baseball for another reason, although that wouldn't be known for many years to come: Dave Winfield, who would be elected to the Hall of Fame, was born on this day, in St. Paul, Minnesota.