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.
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.
The Cards play a rare doubleheader – the first in the 20th century – with two different teams, defeating the Giants, 6 – 4, in the first game in the afternoon when they score six runs against Sal Maglie in the 2nd inning. In the nitecap, against the Braves, the Cards manage just one hit – by pitcher Al Brazle – in losing to Warren Spahn, 2 – 0. The Cards’ total attendance is 8,865 – 4,160 for the Giants and 4,705 for the Braves. It is the first time since 1883 that three-team twin bill has been played.
In St. Louis, New York’s Dave Koslo wins the opener of a twinbill, 10 – 5, ending the Cards’ 7-game win streak. Bobby Thomson has three hits and Monte Irvin has a double and his 5th steal of home this year. He has 13 steals overall. Leading 6 – 4 in the 9th, Wes Westrum breaks an 0 for 20 skein and delivers a grand slam. The Cards win the nitecap, 4 – 3, behind Cliff Chambers to leave the Giants six games in back of the Dodgers.
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.
Giants P Jim Hearn defeats the Dodgers, 3 – 1, as Willie Mays makes a miraculous play in the 8th. With the score 1 – 1 and Billy Cox on third, Mays makes a running catch of a Carl Furillo drive in deep right center field and whirls counterclockwise to throw out the astonished Cox at home. Wes Westrum’s two-run homer off Ralph Branca in the 8th provides the two-run margin. Hearn allows just six hits, all singles, as the Giants move to 10 1/2 behind Brooklyn.
In a day-night doubleheader the Dodgers sweep a pair from the Giants, taking the first game, 7 – 2, behind the solid relief of Carl Erskine. Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo homer. Brooklyn takes the nitecap, 6 – 5, in 10 innings, after jumping on Sal Maglie for a 5 – 1 lead. Snider and Furillo homer again, while Bobby Thomson goes deep for the Giants. Billy Cox’s RBI single wins it, giving the Dodgers an 11 1/2 game margin, the greatest lead in Brooklyn history.
In game one at Cincinnati, Willie Mays steals the first of 338 bases. Then pitcher Willie Ramsdell picks him off second base. But the Giants win, 3 – 1, behind Sal Maglie. New York takes the nitecap as well, 6 – 4, as Monte Irvin (2) and Mays both swipe bases.
1951 – Ouch!! Willie Mays’s oft-recalled bare-handed grab of left-handed Rocky Nelson’s screaming opposite field line drive takes place in Forbes Field in the 1st inning of a 5 – 4 Giant loss to Pittsburgh. Mays runs to the left-center corner of the bullpen (also known as Greenberg Gardens, or Kiner’s Corner), about 410 feet from the plate. At the last minute, the wind gets a hold of Nelson’s slicing shot and starts pushing it back towards right. Mays looks up and locates the ball but too late to adjust. As he will recall on June 3, 1957, after robbing Roberto Clemente on a shot to almost the same spot, “I couldn’t get my glove around. So I just stuck my bare hand up and the ball stuck.”
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