The Liberty Network, WCFL, Chicago aircheck. 
The National League Championship game number three,  that included the famous game-ending home run by Bobby Thompson ("The Shot Heard Round the World"). 

This radio broadcast is actually a re-creation, using data about the game sent in by wire. The announcer is Gordon McLendon, who owned the Liberty Network. 

                    

   Recorded coverage beginning in the last of the ninth inning, with the New York Giants Whitey Lockman at bat; the score 4 to 2 Brooklyn. Announcer Russ Hodges calls the play by play, as Bobby Thomson hits a homerun ("The Shot heard Round the World"), winning the best two out of three playoff series. 

Wrap up of the game by Bob Prince who attended the game and sat along side best friend,  Russ Hodges in the booth. 

Clubhouse interviews with Steve Ellis, Ernie Harwell and Russ Hodges. Those interviewed in a emotional celeritous Giant clubhouse are Herman Franks, Alvin Dark, Larry Jansen, Eddie Stanky, Charlie Dressen, Ford Frick, Horace Stoneham, Bill Rigney, Hank Sims, Walter O'Malley, Bobby Thomson, Charley Finney, Jim Hearn, Eddie Bracket, Art Flynn, Leo Durocher, Chris Durocher (son), Willie Mays, Whitey Lockman, Sal Maglie, Monte Irvin Paul Richards, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Sheldon Jones and Willard Marshall.   

NOTE:
 In addition to NBC's TV crew, six radio networks set up shop in the press box attached to the underside of the upper deck.

•	Russ Hodges did the Giants' broadcast solo because NBC hired his partner, Ernie Harwell, to handle their telecast. Hodges's friend Bob Prince, the Pirates' announcer, sat next to him as a guest, and filled in for Hodges and Harwell in the celebratory New York Giant’s locker room after the game beginning the many interviews that would follow and captured on audio.

•	Red Barber and Connie Desmond would, as usual, call the game for the Dodgers (WMGM).

•	The Liberty Broadcasting Network, which recreated most of its baseball and football broadcasts from its studio in Dallas, sent "The Old Scotsman" Gordon McLendon to call the game live. His broadcast is the only one that survives as complete, on audio tape.

•	Al Helfer reported the action on the Mutual Broadcasting System, largest in the nation.

•	Harry Caray of the Cardinals broadcast the game for a group of Mid¬west stations.

•	Buck Canel and Felo Ramirez did the Spanish broadcast for Latin America.

Russ Hodges:  “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field The Giants win the pennant! And they’re going crazy! They are going crazy! Oh-oh!”

 “Everybody remembers it now,” said Bobby Thomson. “But you have to understand the feeling between those teams. I didn’t think of the pennant — only that we beat the Dodgers.” 

Hodges: “I don’t believe it! I do not believe it! Bobby Thomson hit a line drive into the lower deck of the left-field stands, and the whole place is going crazy! The Giants Horace Stoneham is now a winner. The Giants won it by a score of 5 to 4, and they’re picking Bobby Thomson up and carrying him off the field!”

NOTE:
Before videotape, a film camera had to tape a TV screen or monitor to record, a process called kinescope. “Kinescopes were fuzzy and extremely bulky, so the networks of the 1950s saved almost nothing. Few even had a radio reel-to-reel recorder which were hard to carry around, so the average guy didn’t have one. However, In Brooklyn, restaurant waiter Laurence Goldberg did. Goldberg was a New York  Giant fan from the time he was 8 years old. Having to leave for work in Manhattan, he had his mother, Sylvia, hit the “record” button in the bottom of the ninth with one out and Whitey Lockman at bat, the score now 4 to 2 Brooklyn.
Lockman doubles. The Giants now have men on second and third base. Bobby Thomson comes to the plate, and the rest is history!
 Ultimately, Larry Goldberg communicated with Russ Hodges about his tape recording. Hodges sent Goldberg $10 to use his borrowed copy to record a Christmas gift for friends. That fall sponsor Chesterfield cigarettes released a record of “the most exciting moment in baseball history.”

The National Recording Registry chose announcer Russ Hodges’ call of the 1951 National League tiebreaker between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers for inclusion in their archive of iconic American sounds.
Courtesy National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Why so memorable: 
Russ Hodges’ “The Shot Heard ’Round the World.” 

At the time, Dodgers-Giants forged sport’s greatest rivalry, yearly playing 22 games against each other, radio and TV broadcasting through The City. America was the world’s post-war colossus, perhaps baseball never meaning more. What made the moment wonderwork was the Giants announcer’s call.
On August 13, Brooklyn led the National League by 13 and 1/2 games. By September 20 the Giants trailed by 6 with 7 left. The Dodgers fell behind, 6-1, rallying to win, 9-8, in 14 innings. Next day the best-of-three NL playoff began: “a world,” said Russ, “focused on our rivalry.” Even the Voice of the American League Yankees was transfixed. “Think of it,” said Voice Mel Allen. “Three New York teams out of the big leagues’ 16 remain. One’s already in the Series [his], the other two tied.” For years a red-blooded American could recite the script by rote. It is easy to see why.
The NL playoff became the then most widely aired event in radio and nascent TV history. Seven networks, five of them radio, did at least one game: the Mutual and Liberty Broadcasting system with announcer Gordon McClendon, Dodgers’ radio WMGM and Brooklyn Dodgers’ Re-created Network(s); Giants’ WMCA Radio; and CBS TV—the latter airing the first coast-to-coast network sports telecast for game one of the playoffs (October 1st), with Red Barber doing the play by play. With the playoff series moving the following day to the Giants’ home park, the Polo Grounds, NBC TV moved in to pick up the rights, negotiating directly with WPIX, New York, which had carried the Giant’s home schedule all year. CBS TV held on to westbound relay until 3 pm and NBC broadcast the game from 3:00pm to conclusion. It was necessary for the two networks to swap time each day to permit their carrying the full game which started at 1:30pm.  

On October 3, 1951 Russ Hodges did play by play on NBC TV for innings four, five and six, and Ernie Harwell did play by play on NBC TV for innings one, two, three, seven, eight and nine. New York Giant’s  Ernie Harwell alternated calling  balls and strikes with partner Russ Hodges on WMCA Radio. Harwell called innings four, five and six. Russ Hodges called balls and strikes for innings one, two and three, and then for innings seven, eight and nine. 
 Only four years earlier Americans had owned 17,000 TV sets v. 58 million radios. By 1951 video had become an irresistible object. Radio was the immovable object, some feeling TV cursory. Such a schism towered as Russ and Ernie “tossed a coin [about a possible Game Three],” Harwell laughed. When Ernie got TV, he joked, “I felt sympathy for ‘Ole’ Russ. All these radio networks and I was gonna’ be on TV, and I thought that I had the plum assignment.” New York won the opener, 3-1. Next day changed place (Polo Grounds) and outcome (Dodgers win 10-0). His plum then spoiled.
The night before the final, Hodges stayed awake gargling. Worse, to test his voice, he kept talking into a  mic at home, hurting his throat. Next day, at 3:48 P.M., Ralph Branca threw a two-on one-out ninth-inning pitch: Brooklyn up, 4-2. “There’s a long drive!” WMCA’s Russ began. “It’s going to be, I believe! … The Giants win the pennant! [5-4] The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! … The Giants win the pennant! And they’re going crazy! They are going crazy! Oh-oh! The Giants . . . have won it by a score of 5 to 4, and they’re picking Bobby Thomson up and carrying him off the field. I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it! I do not believe it. Bobby Thomson hit a line drive into the lower deck of the left-field stands, and the whole place is going crazy!”                                    

Jack Brickhouse calls the play-by-play in the ninth inning as the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1959 World Series against the Chicago White Sox in Game 6. Final Score Dodgers 9, White Sox 3. 

A world series record for The Los Angeles Dodgers coming from seventh place in 1958, their first year in Los Angeles after moving from Brooklyn after the 1957 season, and winning a World Series the following year.  

Vin Scully interviews the victorious Los Angeles Dodgers from their clubhouse. He talks to Warren Giles, Bill Veeck, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Joe Cronin, Walter Alston, Charlie Neal, Roger Craig, Don Drysdale, Larry Sherry, and commissioner of baseball Ford Frick. Vin Scully signs off the air for the Gillette Safety Razor Blades sponsor with the Gillette theme music in the background. This was the last year a Gillette sign off was used for a World Series Television Broadcast.                           

A tribute to Duke Snider at the Polo Grounds with Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson, Abe Stark, Dick Young, Miss Rheingold of 1963, Gil Hodges, and M. Donald Grant. Duke Snider speaks to all his fans at the microphone. Following is a fitting tribute to the N.Y. Giants who used to play at the Polo Grounds. Miss Martha Wright sings "Auld Lang Syne" and the "National Anthem" and asks the fans to join in... "for the Duke!" On Kiner's Korner, Ralph Kiner interviews Snider who reflects on his illustrious career year by year.             

Host Curt Gowdy reminisces with Ernie Harwell, Leo Durocher, Ralph Branca, Don Newcombe, Willie Mays, Duke Snider and Bobby Thomson, who hit the home run heard around the world as the N.Y. Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1951 Playoffs. Also heard is Russ Hodges' live play-by-play of that memorable moment, tape-recorded by a fan from the radio broadcast.                          

October 3rd, 1974-May 14th, 1977  

A half-hour syndicated PBS series sports nostalgia show hosted by Curt Gowdy. Guest athletes view film clips of famous sporting events and reminisce. 

A look back at the 1951 National League playoff and pennant race between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers.  

Host: Curt Gowdy.  

 One in this series of sports nostalgia programs that chronicles notable sports events and profiles outstanding athletes. This program concentrates on the 1951 National League pennant race between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, which was decided in a best of three play-off series. With Ralph Branca pitching for the Dodgers, Bobby Thomson hit the winning home run of the series in the Giants's final inning at bat, and the hit came to be known as "the shot heard round the world." Guests include centerfielder Willie Mays, third baseman Thomson, and manager Leo Durocher, all of the Giants; centerfielder Duke Snider, and pitchers Branca and Don Newcombe, all of the Dodgers; and baseball announcer Ernie Harwell. Topics discussed include the Giant's eleven-game losing streak; Duroucher's attempts to resuscitate the team, including a major league promotion for promising young centerfielder Mays; and the fact that, despite sixteen victories in a row, the Giants were still trailing the Dodgers by six games in mid-September before securing a tie. Guests from both teams and host Curt Gowdy discuss the three-game playoff during footage of key moments. Footage of Thomson's fateful home run on October 3 is accompanied by broadcaster Russ Hodges's famous call, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"