Ralph Branca

AKA:

Hawk

Birth Name:

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca

Birth Date:

January 6, 1926

Birth Place:

Mount Vernon, New York

Death Date:

November 23, 2016

Place of Death:

Rye, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Natural causes

Cemetery Name:

Gate of Heaven Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Sports

Ralph Branca was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1944 through 1956. As a college student, Branca played for NYU in the NCAA basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden. After NYU lost the game, Branca left school and reported to spring training with the Dodgers. He made his major league debut that year at the age of 18. Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944–1953, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953–1954), and New York Yankees (1954) and was a three-time All-Star. However it was a single pitch by Branca that lives in infamy - the pitcher who had three consecutive All-Star seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers was never allowed to forget one pitch that crushed crushed the Brooklyn Dodgers. Branca’s unforgivable offense (at least to Dodger fans) came on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1951, when, in a final game with the New York Giants to determine the National League championship, he served up Bobby Thomson’s electrifying (at least to Giants fans), pennant-winning home run — the “Shot Heard Round the World” — probably the one of the most memorable moments in baseball history.

Fun Facts

Ralph Branca was born in Mount Vernon, New York, as the fifteenth of 17 children. That is not a typo.

After the Shot Heard Around The World, Branca slipped off of a chair the next spring training landed on a Coke bottle on the bottom of the spine. The Coke bottle didn’t break, but it wrecked his spine. He never was the same pitcher with that injury.

Branca later learned from Detroit Tiger Ted Gray that the Giants had stolen the signs to the two pitches he threw Thomson. That rumor was confirmed in The Wall Street Journal in 2001, when Giant Sal Yvars admitted that he relayed to Thomson the stolen signs for Branca’s fastballs. Joshua Prager detailed the revelations in a book entitled The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and The Shot Heard Round the World. Thomson acknowledged to Prager that the Giants had stolen signs in 1951, but denied that he had foreknowledge of the pitch he hit off Branca for the pennant-winning home run. Thomson later cha ged his story and admitted to accepting the stolen signs during his first three at-bats of that game, but claimed that he did not do so in the final at-bat.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Gate of Heaven Cemetery

10 West Stevens Avenue

Hawthorne, New York, 10532

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York

Grave Location:

Section 26, Row 102, Space: 3

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery from Stevens Avenue, make an immediate right turn and drive straight ahead, up the hill, to the 3rd intersection. Turn right and then turn left and park at the intersection of Sections 13, 14 25 and 26. The memorial to Ralph Branca can be found behind the beautiful Bastone Family memorial. Don’t forget to walk over to Section 25 and visit with baseball legends Babe Ruth and Billie Martin (just look for all the baseballs).