October 3, 1951. Over 34,000 fans came too see this one-game playoff between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. The Giants had come from behind, 13.5 games during the regular season, something no team had ever done. Don Newcombe and Sal Maglie had kept the game at a 1-1…
The Giants’ 3-1 victory over the Dodgers in the first game of the National League playoffs is the first major league contest to be televised coast-to-coast. CBS, who obtained rights to the game, transmits the picture from Ebbets Field but has to get the signal from ABC, who had made previous arrangements with WOR-TV, the New York station which carried Brooklyn’s regular season games.
Don Newcombe becomes the first black to win twenty games in a season. In a must win for the Dodgers, the right-hander bests Robin Roberts, also a 20-game-winner, when he blanks the Phillies at Shibe Park, 5-0.
Trying for his 23rd win, Preacher Roe loses just his 3rd game, 4 – 3, to Chet Nichols and the Braves. The Dodgers now lead New York by half a game. Future Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Sharman becomes the only man in history to be thrown out of a major league baseball game without ever having played in one. With the score tied at 3 – 3 in the 8th inning, umpire Frank Dascoli clears the entire Brooklyn bench after a home plate call by him results in a violent protest. Sharman, up from St. Paul (American Association) at the end of the season, is one of the players thrown out. Dascoli’s safe call at home on Bob Addis’s score results in the winning run.
1951 – The Giants stay one game behind the Dodgers as Jim Hearn tops the Phillies, 10 – 1, and the Dodgers crush the Braves, 15 – 5. Roy Campanella drives home three runs in the 1st inning and Don Newcombe coasts to his 19th win. With a 13 – 3 lead in the 8th inning, Jackie Robinson steals home against rookie P Lew Burdette, infuriating the Braves.
In Chicago, the Dodgers beat up on the Cubs, winning, 6 – 1, behind rookie Clem Labine. Rookie Bob Kelly takes the loss, allowing six hits, including Gil Hodges’ 38th homer.
Preacher Roe wins his 20th game against just two losses, as the Dodgers edge the Pirates, 3 – 1. Andy Pafko hits his 14th homer for Brooklyn, still six games ahead of the Giants.
Ralph Branca, despite twinges in his arm, pitches the Dodgers to a 5 – 2 win over the Phillies. Gil Hodges drives home four runs on a grand slam off Ken Johnson. It is Gil’s 37th homer of year, setting a new Dodger record.
Don Mueller hits two more home runs, giving him five in two days, to tie a major league mark. His second homer, again off Phil Haugstad, comes a minute after he learns he is a new father. Bobby Thomson adds his 25th homer and Jim Hearn beats the Dodgers, 11 – 2. After Mueller’s second homer, Haugstad decks Thomson and hits Willie Mays with a pitch, evoking a warning from umpire Al Barlick. Barlick had earlier thumbed Ralph Branca and Dick Williams in the 5th inning, Don Newcombe in the 6th when he objected to a call, and Jackie Robinson and rookie Clem Labine. Chuck Dressen then clears his bench to avoid any more thumbings. The Giants move to five games behind Brooklyn.
With his second home run of the game, the sixth time he has accomplished the feat this year, Gil Hodges hits his 36th round-tripper to establish a new franchise record for homers in a season. The Dodger first baseman’s seventh-inning three-run blast in the team’s 13-1 rout of Cincinnati at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field surpasses the mark of 35 set by Babe Herman in 1930.
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