Thursday, October 24, 2002
How can Thomson's HR not be in top 10
By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service
SAN FRANCISCO - Wait a minute. Can we ask for a recount? An investigation? A do-over? The top 10 memorable moments in baseball history were announced Wednesday, voted on by the fans, most of whom apparently want their MTV. Or else how to explain such a list without the most famous home run in baseball history?
No place fouls up elections this badly. Not Chile. Not Iraq. Not even Florida.
But this is no misprint. Bobby Thomson is not on there. Ralph Branca is not on there.
“The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
Not on there.
The Shot Heard 'Round the World didn't make the cut. Evidently a lot of the voters never heard it. I guess the Blink 182 CD was on too loud.
Nothing has ever replaced the romance of the dramatic game-winning home run in baseball. Nothing ever will.
You play in the backyard as a kid, you hit a hundred of them in your imagination. But you rarely see them for real.
And Bobby Thomson is to game-winning home runs what the Golden Gate is to bridges.
Ruth never had one like it. Neither did Aaron, McGwire, Bonds.
Most memorable moment? It could have been top-three. Certainly top-five.
But not even 10th?
Cal Ripken breaking Gehrig's record deserved its spot. So did Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Pete Rose. I guess the voters could recognize what they can see in a record book.
But this is like a top-10 cities list without Paris.
Timing is the problem, of course. MasterCard, sponsoring this list, geared its voting toward a younger audience. Thomson cleared the Polo Grounds wall in 1951.
To a lot of Americans, whose grasp of history is done with tweezers, a home run in 1951 might just as well have been hit by Marco Polo. Whoever he was.
The replay of it 1/2ndash 3/4 the replay no baseball history is complete without, by the way 1/2ndash 3/4 is in black and white, for goodness' sake.
And as we all know, black and white is only for old war movies and I Love Lucy.
Black-and-white clips predate ESPN, as does Stonehenge.
And so this balloting accomplished what it set out to do, which was draw in Generations X and Y, none of whom has seen Bobby Thomson even appear on David Letterman.
But it's not a top-10 list. It's missing a piece.
Willie Mays was asked the other day how he will be remembered, by generations who never saw his multiple talents.
“I honestly believe I did everything in baseball that a baseball player can do, and I did it with love,” he said. “I think people in this day, or in this time, they remember what they want to remember.”
It happens to aging stars, and not just sports. The impact fades, like a picture.
TV Guide published a list of the most memorable animation characters not long ago. It must have been picked at a high school lunch table.
Mickey Mouse, worldwide image of an empire, was down at 19th.
But Beavis was fourth, not to mention Butthead.
We are a people of short attention span. If it's not on television, it gets forgotten. Even those things unforgettable.
Mike Lopresti is a columnist for Gannett News Service.
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How can Thomson's HR not be in top 10
