Pafko at the Wall: A Novella"There's a long drive. It's gonna be. I believe. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant." -- Russ Hodges, October 3, 1951 On the fiftieth anniversary of "The Shot Heard Round the World," Don DeLillo reassembles in fiction the larger-than-life characters who on October 3, 1951, witnessed Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jackie Gleason is razzing Toots Shor in Leo Durocher's box seats; J. Edgar Hoover, basking in Sinatra's celebrity, is about to be told that the Russians have tested an atomic bomb; and Russ Hodges, raw-throated and excitable, announces the game -- the Giants and the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in New York. DeLillo's transcendent account of one of the iconic events of the twentieth century is a masterpiece of American sportswriting. |
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aisle arms ball baseball beer Bill says Bill Waterson Bobby Thomson body bomb booth Branca breath buddy bullpen catch clubhouse college boy coming Cotter says crowd dead deep Dodgers Don DeLillo dugout Durocher Edgar Edgar Hoover eyes face fans fastball feels feet field Frank says Giants win Gleason goes hand Harry Caray head hears hot dog jacket Jackie Jackie's Kaesong KMOX leaning left-field stands Leo Durocher light Lockman stands look mike Mueller noise Pafko paper peanuts pitch players Polo Grounds radio Ralph Branca ramp rival's Russ Hodges Russ says Russ thinks score seat leg seventh-inning stretch shakes Shor says shoulder shouting Sinatra sitting Speedy Gonzalez spin steps street talk tell there's thing Thomson hits Toots says Toots Shor Underworld upper deck voice walking wall watch win the pennant
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Page 7 - ... this metropolis of steel and concrete and flaky paint and cropped grass and enormous Chesterfield packs aslant on the scoreboards, a couple of cigarettes jutting from each. Longing on a large scale is what makes history. This is just a kid with a local yearning but he is part of an assembling...