Robin Roberts, Bobby Thomson, and the Ultimate Redemption

Each of us has a role to play in the great tale of history.

Today is officially Opening Day for Major League Baseball. In honor of this annual milestone, I present a brief baseball story - and a message.

Have you ever heard of Robin Roberts?

Unless you’re a big baseball fan or a Philadelphia native, you probably have not. That’s unfortunate, as Robin Roberts was one of the greatest starting pitchers of all time.

(If you don’t care about baseball statistics, skip the next paragraph. But after that, no more Robin Roberts stats. I promise.)

In a career spanning 19 years, with his best years coming before the Cy Young Award existed, he received MVP consideration in seven consecutive years, finishing among the top seven vote getters in five seasons. He had impeccable control, and led the National League in strikeout-to-walk ratio five times. For those who like advanced statistics, you’ll appreciate that he led the Major Leagues in bWAR twice, and the National League an additional three times. His career bWAR of 86.1 is the 11th highest of any postwar pitcher, and his JAWS is 12th. He was very, very good, and was deservedly inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976.

He also was involved, however tangentially, in one of the most famous home runs of all time.

In 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants were tied for first place on the last day of the season. According to the rules at that time, they played a three game playoff to decide which team would win the pennant and have the honor of losing to the Yankees in the World Series. (The Yankees won the World Series five consecutive years from 1949-1953, the longest such streak in baseball history.)

On October 3rd, in the third and final playoff game, the Giants trailed the Dodgers 4-1 entering the bottom of the ninth inning; three more outs until the Dodgers were crowned National League champions. But the Giants came back, scored a run, and had men on second and third with one out and third baseman Bobby Thomson at the plate. Dodger manager Charlie Dressen brought in Ralph Branca in relief of starting pitcher Don Newcombe, and on his second pitch, Thomson hit a home run into the Polo Grounds’ shallow left field, winning the game and the pennant for the Giants, and producing one of the most iconic broadcasting calls in sports history.

That home run became known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” and is unquestionably among the most famous moments in the annals of baseball.

In order for Thomson’s home run to take place at that time, the Dodgers and Giants needed to reach the third game of the three-game playoff. In order for there to be a playoff at all, they needed to be tied on the final day of the season. And in order for them to be tied on the final day of the season, the Dodgers needed to beat the Phillies in Philadelphia on September 30th, 1951. And they did, in dramatic fashion.

As the sportswriter Joe Posnanski writes in his wonderful book, The Baseball 100:

The Phillies led the game 6-1 early and 8-5 going into the eighth inning. But the Dodgers came back to tie it.

And that’s when manager Eddie Sawyer called for [Robin] Roberts to pitch relief and the Dodgers’ manager Charlie Dressen called in Don Newcombe to match up. Talk about a different time: Roberts and Newcombe had pitched the day before. They were on zero days rest.

The two greats matched zeros for five innings. Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, Newcombe was spent and was replaced by a pinch-hitter. But Roberts went on.

In the 14th, Roberts faced Jackie Robinson. In all, Jackie Robinson faced Robin Roberts 176 times - more than he faced any other pitcher. They had many epic battles. Robinson won this one. He crushed a long home run, and that won the game.

What was Roberts’s reaction to giving up that home run to allow the Dodgers to face the Giants in the playoff? Years later, he discussed that question with Posnanski:

And how did Roberts remember such a difficult loss? Like so: “If I don’t give up that home run to Jackie, there is no Bobby Thomson home run. There is no playoff.”

And he smiled. “It’s a good thing I gave up that home run, isn’t it?”

Last week I wrote an article entitled, “Who Knows?” where I suggested that the Book of Esther teaches us that we never know when the central events that will define our lives will take place: “We have been placed in this world to do a job, and we simply don’t know when the key moments that define our lives will occur. Who knows if it will be tomorrow? Who knows if it is today? And who knows if, God forbid, it was yesterday and we allowed the moment to pass without performing the role we were created to fulfill?”

Robin Roberts’s reaction to giving up Jackie Robinson’s home run, which then, however indirectly, led to the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, teaches us a parallel message. Yes, sometimes we are involved in important moments in history, and yes, there are central events that define our lives. More often, however, big events take place where we are not the central players. In most circumstances, the central drama of history involves people other than ourselves.

But even when we assume that we’re standing on the sidelines, all of us, at all times, remain involved in the story.

We are usually not the main players; we are not the stars of the show. If life were a movie, we are most commonly the extras whose presence appears tangential to the main plot. We can then believe that what we do does not matter, and that our activities are irrelevant.

This is false. Because even when we are not the central players, we are all Robin Roberts. The small kindnesses, the attempts at activism, the daily grind of living our lives: all of these appear insignificant - and yet, in the endless flow of history and the endlessly complex interplay of humanity, every action matters. The great moments only take place because of the choices that you and I make every single day.

Even when we’re not the story’s primary actors, the story would not take place in the manner that it does without each of us playing our role. Like the butterfly effect of chaos theory, the small movements we make change the world for the better or for the worse.

When we acknowledge that our role is crucial even when it is hidden, and when we realize that the Great Director placed us in that role for a reason, we allow our lives to become suffused with meaning and direction. Even when things do not go as we planned or desired, the knowledge that we did what we could and attempted to faithfully fulfill our roles should fill us with hope. History marches, however fitfully, toward the ultimate redemption - and every single one of us takes part in making that happen. 

When we finally reach that denouement - when history arrives at its long-awaited climax - I hope that we, too, can look back at the disappointments and failures of our lives, and still smile and admit:

“It’s a good thing I gave up that home run, isn’t it?”