'Shot Heard 'Round the World' Just a Moment in Time to Baseball Legend Branca

Ralph Branca, the 12-year Major Leaguer—who is probably best known to fans for having been on the mound when Bobby Thomson hit the famous "Shot heard 'round the world'" ending the 1951 National League playoff—has written a memoir, "A Moment in Time." The book is set to be released this month.  In it he discusses, for the first time, the allegations that the New York Giants had an elaborate sign-stealing system that changed the pennant race, as well as the playoff.

Branca took a few minutes last week to talk to Bleacher Report about the book, his career and that fateful moment.

BR: It's been 60 years since the '51 season.  Why is now the time for you to say more about that year and the sign-stealing controversy in this book?
RB: I never really had a conversation with myself about what I should or shouldn't do, but I guess it evolved that I was not going to mention it until somebody else mentioned it.  I wasn't going to be the first guy to talk about it. And looking back, I think knowing that they cheated maybe helped me make that decision, but realistically, I thought 'let somebody else break it.'  And it got broken 50 years later when Josh Prager wrote 'The Echoing Green.'  It's a great book and Josh did a wonderful job— he researched the heck out of it and he really pins it down. Thomson says he took the signs up to that point but not that pitch—nobody's going to believe that. In Bobby's mind, I think that if he had admitted it, that would demean him.  But, I mean, he hit a bad pitch, up and in, and he just stepped in the bucket and hit it.

BR:  You and Bobby Thomson had a friendship that eventually developed over time.  How did that begin and evolve?
RB:  The first time I went on anything involved with Bobby we went to Toronto for a baseball show and I wasn't very nice because I knew that they had cheated.  Then, like in 1984, I got invited to do my first card show and he was there.  So we started doing card shows and we'd sit there and talk before it started or when there was a lull and I got to realize that he's a nice guy, has almost the same convictions that I do, and so we became friends. I'm a little disappointed that he didn't admit that he got the signs, because it doesn't demean him.  There should have never been a playoff.  If they stole one game they shouldn't have, like a 15-14 game, there should never have been a playoff.   And Bobby did a lot, he was hitting like .238, and he raised his average to either .293 or .296, he hit .365 once they got the signs. I remember the first time he hit a home run off me, I threw a perfect slider, down and away, he stepped into it, and I said, 'he outguessed me.'  My only regret is that I didn't walk in the dugout and say [it] to [Carl] Erskine or [Don] Newcombe or Clyde King or Preacher [Roe], maybe they'd say, 'Oh, maybe they got the signs.'  The maybe we would change the signs every inning, every batter.

BR: There is a story of many athletes whose great careers are overwhelmed by a single moment, and they could never recover, but you were able to overcome that and look at the wonderful life you have led.  How have you done it?
RB: It was 'one moment in time' yet life goes on.  I look at baseball players and they think they're going to play forever and they don't prepare for life after baseball so, injuries come and unfortunately my injury came when I was 26 and basically, I hung on but I was not near as good as I had been.  I realized I had to be thinking about something else and future life. I had a wife and a couple of kids.

BR: What would you consider the high point of your career?
RB: If I look at the season of '47, I led the league in starts, third in ERA, second in strikeouts, that would be the highlight.  For one game, it would be Sept. 14, 1946 when I was 20 and I was supposed to pitch to one man against the Cardinals. Durocher was the manager and he wanted me to start and load the lineup with lefthanders and then bring in Vic Lombardi—a little lefthanded pitcher—and I got a little ticked at that, being the starting pitcher and sacrificial lamb, so I end up getting them out on five pitches in the first inning, and I pitch a three-hit shutout, and the next game I pitched another shutout.

BR: If Bobby Thomson fouls that pitch off, and you strike him out on the next pitch, what is different in your life?
RB: Well, if he takes the pitch, I pitch him differently. I don't know [that] he has the signs, but I would have thrown him my curveball down and away and maybe my fastball down and away, just try to get him to hit a ground ball. If I get him out and Willie Mays out we win the pennant, it's a whole different story.  But I think, even with that pressure, Newcombe and I got a little overused in September. I think if we had won we would have had a better chance of beating the Yankees. We had really good starting pitching.

BR: Your views on Branch Rickey are more personal than most people.  What might you do differently in your dealings with him?
RB: Well, you can't put an old head on a young body. Unfortunately, he's in baseball 45 years and I'm a 20-year-old kid who just the year before won 19, with 15 starts, seven complete games and a 3 ERA. I'm making $3,300, so I go in and I gave him a figure of $6,000.  He says, 'No young player in your age bracket is making that.' I had no answer for him, because I didn't anticipate that.  So I settled for $5,000 but it would have been better off if he gave the thousand more and made me feel good.  Now, in 1948 he told me I walked too many men and I didn't complete enough games.  So, again, not knowing how to negotiate, I went $15,000—I was making $6,500—won 21 games, led the league in starts, 15 complete games, third in ERA, second in strikeouts, I settled for $12,500. I just look at him as he knew the reserve clause was in his pocket, and if I didn't sign I'd have to sit out, so I'm not very fond of Branch Rickey, I think he hid under the thing about being very religious and I think he's a total hypocrite.

BR: You still follow the game closely.  Who is going to win the World Series this year?
RB: The team that wins four games (laughs).  I have to pick Philadelphia on their pitching.  But they don't hit enough, so their pitching has to do it for them.  Texas has enough pitching and enough hitting that they can do it too.  The Yankees' pitching may come up a little short.  But you never know, it's baseball and some unknown could pitch a masterpiece.

Jerry Milani is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained first-hand.