When Bobby Thomson unloaded a game-ending home run to win the National League pennant for the New York Giants on Oct. 3, 1951, Russ Hodges’s radio call on WMCA 570 was memorable for its volume and touch of hysteria. The Giants had triumphed over the rival Brooklyn Dodgers in a three-game playoff and were headed to the World Series, which they lost to the Yankees.
Hodges’s call was a feast of hometown histrionics, the centerpiece being his shouting, “The Giants win the pennant!,” five times.
Sixty-three years later, San Francisco Giants left fielder Travis Ishikawa imitated Thomson’s feat with a game-ending home run at AT&T Park Thursday night that won the pennant.
Each Giant hit a three-run homer. Thomson’s ball traveled into the lower deck of the left-field stands at the Polo Grounds. Ishikawa pulled his home run deep to right.
Jon Miller was indeed excited as he made the call. He works for KNBR, the Giants’ radio station. But he was in greater control of his emotions than Hodges even as he evoked the old Giants voice a bit.
“Now the stretch,” Miller said. “Here it comes. There’s a drive, deep into right field, way back there. Goodbye! A home run. For the game. And for the pennant. The Giants have won the pennant and Travis Ishikawa is being clobbered as he comes down the third-base line and he is mobbed at home plate. It’s Travis Ishikawa. Travis Ishikawa with the Bobby Thomson moment.”
It was inevitable that Miller, a Giants fan who grew up near San Francisco, adopted the famous (and quite accurate) phrase, but put it in a different tense.
On Fox Sports 1, Joe Buck lifted Hodges’s famous line for his terse call, saying: “Hits one into right! The Giants win the pennant.”
Buck said in an email that the line was “was bouncing around in the back of my mind” before the home run. “How can you not? Even if it hadn’t gone out of the park, I was still going to say it ‘cause it applied. It just made it cooler that the ball got out. You have to anticipate those moments.”
On Fox Deportes, an English translation of Pablo Alsina’s upbeat call included: “And Ishikawa says, ‘Bye-bye baby’ — the San Francisco Giants return to the World Series with Travis Ishikawa’s bomb!” He pronounced Ishikawa’s name as if he were a soccer star, then added that “this home run” — he used the word “cuadrangular” — “is brought to you by the bold, new Toyota Camry. Drive together.”
His partner, Jose Tolentino, said, “Say it, Pablo: ‘The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant.’ ”
On ESPN Radio, Dan Shulman ignored the vocal ghost of Hodges and offered this call: “Wacha laboring in his first appearance in the postseason. A look back and the 2-0 and a swing and a ball hit deep to right field and it is gone” — he extended and shouted “gone” until his voice sounded hoarse — and continued: “Travis Ishikawa has just launched the Giants into the World Series.”
At KMOX, the St. Louis Cardinals’ radio station, Mike Shannon was under no obligation to sound cheerful. He began calling Cardinals games in 1972 after playing for the team for nine seasons. He was matter-of-fact, saying: “Here she comes. Swing, and a long one into right field and this game is over, and the San Francisco Giants, on a walk-off, three run homer, will go to the World Series.”
After noting that the Cardinals had a left-hander in the bullpen who could have faced Ishikawa, a left-handed batter, he quickly added, “We’ll be back with the totals for you next.”
And the station went quickly to a commercial break.
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated when Travis Ishikawa hit a home run to send the Giants to the World Series. It was Thursday night, not Friday night.