Labine paved way for Thomson's historic homer

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

Far off I hear the rolling, roaring cheers.

They come to me from many yesterdays. ...

Great stars that knew their days in fame's bright sun.

I hear them tramping to oblivion.

-- Grantland Rice,

"The Tumult and the Shouting," 1954

Right-hander Clem Labine wasn't a great star on the fabled Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s. But if it hadn't been for him, the most dramatic moment in baseball history might never have occurred.

Oct., 2, 1951, Polo Grounds, second game of the best-of-three playoff for the National League pennant: Labine pitched a six-hitter to beat the New York Giants 10-0 and even the series at 1-1, making it possible for Bobby Thomson to swat his ninth-inning, pennant-winning "Shot Heard 'Round the World" off Ralph Branca the next afternoon.

In baseball, as in life itself, there often is a thin line between success and failure. As Casey Stengel used to say, you could look it up.