The Home Run Heard 'round the World : the Dramatic Story of the 1951 Giants-Dodgers Pennant Race / Ray Robinson

Retells the dramatic story of the crosstown rivalry between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers that led to the fateful 1951 pennant playoff that the Giants won by a nose

The story of the New York Giants' rise from 13 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers to tie for the National League pennant in 1951 and then win the playoff has been written countless times. Not that Robinson ( Iron Horse ) hasn't done his homework, for he has supplemented his examination of the press clips with interviews with virtually everyone involved who is still alive, from Bobby Thomson, who hit the famous pennant-clinching homer, to Walter Matthau, an embittered Dodgers fan who lost a bundle on the crucial game. But the saga is old hat nonetheless. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sports fans will enjoy this thrilling account of the 1951 Giants-Dodgers pennant race. Robinson, the author of the recently published Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time ( LJ 7/90), ably recounts the closing months as the Dodgers' 13-game lead in August vanished. The upshot was a three-game playoff, decided in the final game by a home run in the ninth inning by the Giants' Bobby Thompson. It was a different world then, and Robinson recaptures the hope and innocence of those times through fine journalistic portraits of the protagonists in the great baseball drama. While not in the league with Roger Kahn's elegaic The Boys of Summer ( LJ 2/15/72), this book is a winner. Recommended for most popular reading collections.
- Paul Kaplan, Highland Park P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.