Bobby Thomson

Bobby Thomson hit the most famous home run in baseball history, the last-inning “Shot Heard Round the World” that vaulted the New York Giants over the Brooklyn Dodgers in their 1951 National League playoff.

The Curtis High School grad hit 263 home runs in a 15-year major-league career with the Giants, Braves, Cubs, Red Sox and Orioles, drove in 100 runs four times, and led the Giants in homers five years in a row.

Baseball

Class of 1995

Did You Know?

Two days before he hit the “Shot heard Round the World,” Bobby Thomson hit a two-run homer to beat the Dodgers 3-1 in Game One of their three-game National League playoff, the country’s first nationally televised baseball game.

From Our Collection

Bobby Thomson hitting the homerun in the deciding game of their 1951 National League playoff Giants Vs. Dodgers

For a brief span in baseball’s Golden Age, Bobby Thomson was one of the most productive hitters in the game – a three-time National League All Star who averaged 27 home runs and 102 runs-batted-in from 1949 through 1953 – but one swing of the bat secured his place in history.

Thomson’s three-run, bottom-of-the-ninth homer lifted the New York Giants to a walk-off 5-4 victory over the rival Brooklyn Dodgers in the deciding game of their 1951 National League playoff. Christened “The Shot Heard Round the World” by newspaper headline writers, it remains the most celebrated home run of them all.