How it unfolded
In mid-August the Giants trailed Brooklyn by thirteen and a half games. They then went 37–7 to force a three-game playoff. In Game 3, trailing 4–1 in the ninth, Alvin Dark and Don Mueller singled and Whitey Lockman doubled to make it 4–2 with runners on second and third. Charlie Dressen lifted Don Newcombe for Ralph Branca. Bobby Thomson, who had already homered off Branca in the series, was at the plate with rookie Willie Mays on deck. After a first-pitch strike, Thomson drove the second pitch into the lower left-field stands. Russ Hodges's radio call — "The Giants win the pennant!" five times — became the most famous sports broadcast in American history. New York then lost the World Series to the Yankees 4–2.
Why it still matters
The prototype of the walk-off in baseball consciousness, and an early mass-TV sports event. In 2001 reporting detailed how the Giants stole signs with a telescope from the centre-field scoreboard late that season — still cited whenever sign-stealing returns as a live issue.