25 October 2021
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Baseball player Bobby Thomson was born on 25 October 1923.
Baseball player Bobby Thomson, the man who hit the shot 'heard round the world' was born on 25 October 1923 in Glasgow. Thomson was the youngest of six children and emigrated to the USA with his family at the age of two. He grew up on New York's Staten Island and made his name in baseball as the 'Staten Island Scot', playing for the New York Giants between 1946 and 1953, during which he hit the 'shot heard round the world'.
The shot heard round the world
Thomson's most famous moment came in 1951 with a three-run home run for the New York Giants which he later said 'may have been the best thing that ever happened to anybody'. The shot was made against Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca and led to the New York Giants' dramatic winning of the 1951 League Pennant.
Bobby Thomson travelled to Scotland in 2003 to be inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and to open the ground of the Edinburgh Diamond Devils baseball team.
