Happy 75th Anniversary of the Shot Heard ‘Round the World!

by DrLefty

October 3 has become a magical date for Giants fans. Consider:

• The Giants beat the Dodgers to win the NL pennant on October 3, 1962
• Joe Morgan hit a homer to knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs in the final game of the season on October 3, 1982
• The Giants won the NL West on October 3, 2010
• The Giants won Game 1 of the NLDS on October 3, 2014
• The Giants won the NL West on October 3, 2021

(We’ll just skip right over October 3, 1993. You can look it up if you really want to know.)

 

Before all that, though, there was October 3, 1951, the Shot Heard ‘Round the World that started it all. As it happens, that was 75 years ago today! To set the scene, the New York Giants had clawed their way back into relevance after being 13.5 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 11. They won 37 of their final 44 games* to catch the Dodgers on the last day of the season, forcing a three-game playoff to decide the winner of the NL pennant. The Giants won the first game, the Dodgers won the second game, and in the third game, the Dodgers led 4-1 going to the bottom of the ninth. The Giants started a rally that scored a run to make it 4-2 and led to the Dodgers’ manager lifting starter Don Newcombe for Ralph Branca, who had started Game 1 and was pitching on just one day’s rest. With two on and one out, outfielder Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer into the left field stands and the Giants won 5-4.

 

Besides the obvious drama of the walk-off, come-from-behind win, there are a couple of fun tidbits about Thomson’s homer. First, we all know that Giants announcer Russ Hodges became immortal for his “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT” home run call, but did you know it was kind of a fluke that we ever got to hear it? Back in 1951, they weren’t archiving radio broadcasts. It’s not like you could go on a website and dial it up. However, a Dodger fan in Brooklyn had her little tape recorder capturing the broadcast from the radio, and after what happened, she thought Hodges might enjoy having a keepsake of his iconic moment and sent him the tape.

The other thing, of course, was that a terrified 20-year-old rookie named Willie Mays was in the on-deck circle when Thomson hit his Shot, hoping the season wouldn’t come down to him.

Bobby Thomson himself, while not a Hall of Famer, was not exactly Travis Ishikawa, either. He played 15 seasons and was a three-time All-Star and got MVP votes in three seasons. 1951 was his best season, with 32 homers and 101 RBIs. (His teammate, Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, led the NL in RBIs that season.) Thomson hit 267 homers in his major league career. (He’s also a great Immaculate Grid answer if you need someone born outside the U.S. because he was born in Scotland.).

*Yes, there was a documented sign-stealing operation that helped to fuel the Giants’ run. However, the Dodgers also had to collapse down the stretch. Also, Bobby Thomson maintained until his death that he had not received the sign before Ralph Branca’s famous pitch. Branca, to his credit, said “…even if Bobby knew what was coming, he had to hit it…. Knowing the pitch doesn’t always help.”

 

A Few Thoughts on the 2026 Giants Season

There’s obviously a lot one can say, and we’ve said most of it as the season progressed, but I want to focus on the (much-maligned) end-of-season presser conducted by President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey, General Manager Zack Minasian, and manager Tony Vitello. I have the video for you below if you missed it, but here were the main points:

• Posey took responsibility for the Giants’ terrible season, especially “overestimating” the bullpen talent they had in house
• They don’t expect many changes in the coaching staff
• Willy Adames will be the presumed shortstop next year (Posey attributes his bad season to the nagging back injury he dealt with)
• Harrison Bader is still under contract and in the mix
• Both Posey and Vitello declined to say anything substantive about lessons learned from the Pride Night fiasco
• The offseason emphasis will be on acquiring additional pitching
• Posey believes the Giants “can compete” in 2027

 

 

There were several very critical articles about this press conference, and while I get what the writers are saying–it was not an impressive performance–it’s nonetheless a little hard to imagine what one could have expected them to say. It was a terrible year. We all know that. No one was denying that. We also knew that Posey had already given Vitello a vote of confidence, so there was not going to be any announcement that the Giants would replace their manager (again). They need pitching? Well, duh. The lack of serious reinforcements to the bullpen was a major miscalculation? Um, we knew that before a single pitch was thrown.  Nor should we have expected that, two years into a seven-year contract, Adames was going to lose his position at shortstop. Nor should he (yet). Yes, he had a terrible year, but in his first season as a Giant, he had positive defensive stats–better, in fact, than in his final season with the Brewers. As for Bader, his contract status is a legal/union matter, and Posey can hardly say publicly at this point that Bader will never wear a Giants uniform again, even if that’s what they’ve already decided. (DFA’ing Bader and eating the money is always an option if they can’t void his contract.)

It is a shame that no one on the Giants will do a better job of explaining their thoughts on the Pride Night thing, but I think that ship has sailed. Clearly they’re hoping that everyone will just “move forward” (Posey’s words). I guess we’ll see what happens next season when this comes up again. (My two cents: have Pride Night but don’t have special caps.  That’s how some other teams handle it. The Giants don’t wear special caps for Irish night or San Jose State night or whatever else. Problem solved.)

So before we put this wretched season to bed, let’s recap a few things:

• The Giants finished 65-97, the third-worst record in franchise history (after 1985 and 2017).
• Their .401 winning percentage was fourth worst in MLB, ahead of the Athletics, Angels, and Rockies.
• Nonetheless, because of new draft rules, unlike those previous two terrible seasons, for which the Giants got the #3 pick and the #2 pick, respectively, they can pick no higher than tenth in next year’s draft.
• They finished bottom five in MLB in runs scored and OBP and bottom 10 in OPS. They were dead last in drawing walks and 22nd in stolen bases.
• They were 23rd in team ERA, 25th in yielding walks, and 29th in saves (30 saves in 57 opportunities).
• They led MLB with 108 errors and were 24th in defensive fWAR.

You get the picture. They were bad in just about every possible area you can be bad. Now, some of that was connected to a decimated roster after multiple injuries and trades, but that’s too easy of a narrative. Pretty much the season went like this, in this order:

1. The front office had an underwhelming offseason, adding two mediocre starting pitchers (neither Adrian Houser nor Tyler Mahle was on the Athletic’s Top 50 Big Board, but there were 14 other starting pitchers who were), and signing only injured, rehabbing relievers for the bullpen (Rowan Wick, Sam Hentges, Jason Foley). Especially incomprehensible was the decision to ride with Ryan Walker as the presumed closer despite a putrid 2025 season. On the position player side, they did a good job with Luis Arraez, who was an All-Star for them, and whom they traded for a couple of good pitching prospects. But they also added Bader, known to be injury-prone (he played only 30 games for the Giants) and immature (see “scooter” and “fire engine”).
2. The team got off to a very bad start, beginning with a three-game sweep at home at the hands of the Yankees and never recovering. They never spent a single day at or over .500, they never won more than three games in a row, and they didn’t sweep a series until September. From late March through April, the offense was dreadful, last in the majors in most categories, and with their “Big Three” (Adames, Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman) off to terrible starts.
3. While they started hitting better in May–Devers in particular–the under-resourced bullpen began to implode, and ace Logan Webb went on the injured list for the first time since 2021. The Giants were pretty much buried by Memorial Day.
4. By the August 3 trade deadline, it wasn’t a question of if the Giants were selling but how many players they could offload. Counting the shocking May trade of Opening Day catcher Patrick Bailey, they traded seven players off the major league roster (Bailey, Arraez, Robbie Ray, Caleb Kilian, Heliot Ramos, Erik Miller).
5. The injuries started to pile up. Chapman did not play after June. Casey Schmitt, who was having a breakout season and had taken over as the everyday 3B, had a season-ending knee injury in late July. Four young starting pitchers (Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell) sustained elbow injuries requiring Tommy John surgery; the latter three will miss all of 2027. By the end of the year, the only players left from the Opening Day roster were Landen Roupp and Christian Koss. Everyone else was injured, traded, or DFA’d.
6. As a result of all of this, the Giants tied the major league record by using 71 different players this season. It was just an odious mess of underperformance and bad luck. (Two of the final injuries were to Bryce Eldridge, who sustained a concussion from running into a hotel doorway, and Jung Hoo Lee, who fouled a ball off…his family jewels. You can just imagine the baseball gods snickering.)

In his scathing write-up of the presser, Andrew Baggarly said this: “From the start to the end of a 65-97 season, the Giants didn’t have any good answers for what was happening to them. And in their postseason media availability Tuesday morning, it was more of the same.” And there you have it. They shouldn’t have been this bad. On paper, at worst they should have been mediocre, like they were from 2022-25. But instead, they were desultory, putrid, and feculent. Why? Well, if you figure it out, email bposey@sfgiants.com. I’m sure he’d appreciate the input.

Now, were there bright spots? Sure. Eldridge had a fine rookie season, Devers hit 37 homers, Schmitt looked like a valuable everyday player, and, most notably, the farm system took huge strides forward. (MLB Pipeline just published their year-end top 100 prospects list, and the Giants have five prospects on the list, four in the top 50, and one, Josuar Gonzalez, in the top 10. That’s the highest ranking a Giants prospect has had since Posey himself and Madison Bumgarner were coming through the system.)  We could also mention Jonah Cox, Drew Gilbert, Trent Harris, and even the late return of Camilo Doval as possible building blocks for 2027.

But…it’s a short list. There’s no sugarcoating this: 2026 was a terrible year. I for one am glad it’s over.

 

The Postseason

Today, along with all the college football, all four Division series kick off. It will be a busy day of baseball.

 

Out of Left Field Hiatus

One of the (many) cool things about being retired is that we can travel in October! That was never an option when I was on an academic year schedule. Anyway, MrLefty and I are leaving on a trip next Friday, so Out of Left Field will not appear on October 10, 17, or 24. Travel gods permitting, I’ll be back to post on Halloween!  I will try to pop into the comments and say hi, though. See you all soon!  Lefty out.