Bobby Thomson HR books

Absolutely. Mazeroski's HR won the World Series for a team that hadn't won a championship in 35 years, and beat the scary Yankees in a Series where the Yankees' three wins were by a score of 200-2.

Thomson's HR is a great moment, but it won the NL pennant for a team that went on to lose the World Series.

 

In that regard, it's like Fisk's home run, Elway's drive and Jordan's shot. What do those things really mean, when their teams lost in the next round (or in Fisk's case, the next night)?

 

While I’m not nearly old enough to remember Thomson’s HR, I think winning a pennant meant a lot more before divisional play, play-offs, wild card teams, and inter-league play.

Sure winning the WS was the ultimate goal, but winning a pennant was still a championship in its own right and celebrated much more than it is today.

I think.

 

A lot. You still won your league. You think Cubs fans would like to win a National League pennant? Think they would consider it meaningless without a World Series victory? Think the Rockies considered their N.L pennant last season meaningless? The Tigers in 2006?

 

Especially if it was in the NY intramural league :

(No offense meant . . . just couldn't resist).

 

True, but that isn't relevant to the Thomson-Mazeroski comparison.

 

Honestly, there's no other book on that specific moment/game/season that can compare to Prager's. I second Waylon's suggestion to go through the bibliography of that book for further reading. One book would be "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," by Ray Robinson. I haven't read "The Era: 1947-57" by Roger Kahn, but I'm sure that's pretty good, too.

I'd also recommend "The Boys of Summer" (Kahn) or "The Lip" (Ezkenazi) or one of the Willie Mays biographies (Hano or Einstein).

 

Well, Maz's homer broke a tie. Thomson brought the Giants back from two runs down....and capped the "miracle" comeback. I don't think it ever mattered to the Giants or their fans that the Yankees beat them in the World Series that followed. What they had accomplished was pretty damn special in its own right.

Besides, if you're a Yankees fan, what do you remember/think about the 1951 World Series? Joe DiMaggio's swan song and Mickey Mantle fucked up his knee for the first time. Yeah, the team won it all, but would a Yankee fan trade that WS win for another year or two of Joltin' Joe, or for a healthier Mick, or both? Damn right.

 

Oh, I'll bet losing the WS to the Yankees actually did matter.

 

Add Pujols' homer off Lidge in 2005 NLCS to that. Astros still won the series, though it screwed up the Astros' rotation for the World Series.

 

Oh, wah. And Bud Selig made them open the roof. Etc., etc., etc. The White Sox swept their asses and were already 7-1 in the playoffs coming in. You would have thought that they got robbed in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 the way some Astros fans talk sometimes.