A Picture Worth A Few Million Words

There's a great article today, in the Murdoch Street Journal, from writer Joshua Prager, on the infamous Bobby Thompson homerun ("The Giants win the pennant! ... The Giants win the pennant! ...) that is well-worth reading;

The Man Who Shot 'the Shot Heard 'Round the World'

On Oct. 3, 1951, in the upper deck of the Polo Grounds, a little man with a big camera snapped a portrait of Yankee outfielder Hank Bauer seated nearby. Rudy Mancuso had just one more exposure. And so, as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants waged their final playoff game in Harlem, the amateur photographer let pass 77 balls and 142 strikes, at last clicking his Busch Pressman at 3:58 p.m., a split second after Giant Bobby Thomson pulled an 0-1 fastball from Dodger Ralph Branca with one out in the bottom of the ninth.

Unbeknownst to him, the 31-year-old Mancuso had just taken what is arguably the most famous photograph in the history of baseball (see nearby). "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" coalesced hours later in a tub of dektol on East 79th Street. Mancuso had stilled a Spalding some 280 feet before it cleared a green wall, won the Giants the pennant (won the Giants the pennant!) and commenced inspiring so much prose as to imperil, wrote Daniel Okrent, "great stretches of Canadian pulpwood forest."

[snip]

Many years passed. Mancuso's pencil moustache turned from black to white as newswires and then vendors and then Web sites hocked an inexhaustible supply of his photo. He made no money from his shot and held no proof that it was he, an embosser and die cutter living in a Lower East Side walk-up, who'd most famously preserved baseball's greatest moment.

"It was one of those family legends," says his nephew Peter Vincent. "You wondered if it was true or not."

Then, in January 2001, I wrote an article for this newspaper describing how the Giants stole the signals of opposing catchers in the months leading up to Thomson's homer. Messrs. Thomson and Branca discussed it with me that fall at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Montclair, N.J. Mancuso, 80 years old and pink-faced, approached me and told of his supporting role in their mid-century drama. He had no proof. But Hank Bauer confirmed that he'd sat where Mancuso alleged and I eventually found that Sylvania ad. And so, I put Mancuso in "The Echoing Green," my 2006 book about the home run.

There's a lot more to read here, the arc of a mans', and photos', life ... Of fame lost, then found ... Of a legacy delayed

Go read The Man Who Shot 'the Shot Heard 'Round the World'


Bonus Bonus

The Shot Heard 'Round The World




Special Essay - Play Ball! ... Batter Up! ... Could You Please Tell Me, What Is This Thing Called Baseball?

Top Ten Cloves: Ways NFL Will Tweak Rules In Wake of Plaxico Burress Shooting

News Item: Giants suspend Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress

10. Everytime announcers say "It's a real duel here today", game stops so they can have a "real duel"

9. NFL.Com soon to offer official team handguns, with your teams' logo on the handle!

8. Draw Plays - Everyone clears out, and it's a shootout between the Quarterback and Middle Linebacker

7. Extra 5-yards tacked onto Crack-Back Blocking penalty, if offending player is carrying a concealed weapon

6. Field goal records broken all day long, as now will be conducted with football-shooting cannon

5. Halftime shows? ... What else, other than Skeet Shooting?

4. Burress's shooting kicks off new trend - Instead of doing end zone dance after scoring touchdowns, players shoot themselves in leg

3. QB's who have a "rifle for an arm" can now carry rifles, holding defense at bay while they complete pass

2. Defensive backs can pistol-whip wide receivers, but only within the first 5-yards from line-of-scrimmage

1. Offenses that run the "Shotgun Offense" can use real, loaded shotguns


Bonus Pistol Plaxico Riffs

Newsday: Cops seek to question Plaxico Burress about shooting

NBC Sports: Police investigating cover-up in Burress case; Teammates Pierce, Bradshaw may be involved in nightclub shooting

New York Times: Police Again Take Issue With N.F.L. in Shooting


Bonus Bonus NFL Riffs

Developing Story! Tancredo: Shut Down Super Bowl; Says Two Black Coaches "Amounts To Segregation"... Appeals To NFL Commissioner To Make Big Game "Color-Blind"; Biden Weighs In, Backs Coaches

Flutie Sends "Cease-and-Desist" Letter To Media Over 'Hail Mary' References Regarding Surge ... Diminutive QB Longtime Copyright Holder; "It Still Feeds My Family"; Says Open To Negotiate On Usage

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Your Next Door Neighbor May Be Conducting Illegal Dogfights

18 - 1

This is to follow-up my post, from the end of December, when the NFL season ended and the New England Patriots went 16-0.

In it, I noted a nearly lifetime of disappointments associated with the Patriot franchise and how unbelievable it was to see their current success.

Tonight, for millions here in New England, and elsewhere, the perfect season dream ended, with a blistering, thrashing, Joe-Frazier-in-Manila, beating.

The New York Football Giants tattooed the Patriots, in case you haven't heard by now, 17-14, in Super Bowl 42.

And, while it was a thrilling game, right down to the final minute (not a common occurrence in the Super Bowl), the score is a bit deceiving.

The Giants kicked the Patriots asses, in the trenches, on the line, standing them up and knocking them down.

Again and again ... Over and over ...

Tom Brady is going to seriously sore tomorrow ... It almost seemed, for a good chunk of the game, that it was mandatory they bat-and-beat Brady around.

While Manning, the 3rd, will win a great deal of attention (he was named MVP of the game, giving the history books a new entry, for back-to-back Super Bowl MVP brothers, as Peyton won it last year), for driving the Giants down, with less-than 3:00 left in the game, for the winning touchdown, make no mistake about who won this game.

The Giants defense.

They totally disrupted Brady & Co., making them, quite uncharacteristically, pedestrian for most of the game.

The Patriots were outcoached as well, also something uncharacteristic.

This was one-for-the-ages, perhaps equal to, if not surpassing Namath, and Super Bowl III.

Congrats to all you New York Football Giants fans out there ... It was a great game and, as it should be, on the field, the better team won this evening.


Giants Win Super Bowl

Giants Beat Patriots 17-14

New York Giants win Super Bowl