In a time when racial hatred defined a sport and a nation, Ralph Branca chose to stand against the wave of intolerance.
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The life of former Brooklyn Dodgers’ pitcher Ralph Branca epitomizes the randomness in how time chooses to remember us. A memory can paint over the unique chapters of our lives just as simply as it can highlight them. The truth is we never know exactly which stroke will be the one that colors our story. For a long time Ralph Branca was remembered for one pitch. And for a long time a pitch and a Shot Heard Round the World cast a shadow over the other innings in his story. But as time passed a seemingly ordinary event begun to characterize him more than any one pitch ever could. He probably didn’t realize when he stood next to Jackie Robinson on Opening Day in 1947 that he was writing one of the most defining chapters of his life. In a time when racial hatred defined a sport and a nation, Ralph Branca chose to stand against the wave of intolerance.
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Branca could have been swept up in that great current of hate running through baseball in 1947.
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That wave hasn’t changed much from the black and white afternoons of 1947. Today, the impressionability of the crowd can blindly play to the emotions swirling around it. Branca could have been swept up in that great current of hate running through baseball in 1947. Or he could have just drifted along with the tide without recognizing the life altering importance of the simple plays in the game going on around him. I could just blend in with the current he thought. After all, who remembers the distinct components of a wave?
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Just think about how the stream of time has chosen to portray those men who shunned Jackie Robinson.
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Some of his teammates probably thought the same thing as they succumbed to the pressures churning around the simple act of a black man wanting to play baseball like other men. Yet despite their seemingly uniform movements, currents aren’t unrecognizable swirls of indistinguishable elements. Every ebb and flow is unique and can be uniquely remembered. Just think about how the stream of time has chosen to portray those men who shunned Jackie Robinson. Has the public consciousness of Hollywood been kind and allowed them to be remembered for their exploits on the diamond or for what they did in the other innings of their lives? Or was that the moment, the moment they will forever be painted as partners in a game of pitch and catch when they stood on the wrong side of history?
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Will we be able to justify to our children why we stood on the side of unacceptance?
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Sadly the aversion to different has only changed color since Branca stood next to Jackie all those years ago. Waves of distaste still shout from the seemingly anonymity of the dugout. Will we have the courage to do what is right or will we stand by hoping to blend in with the tide? Will we be able to justify to our children why we stood on the side of unacceptance? Will they understand the excuses we make for our transgressions because the current was too strong for us to stand against or will they be ashamed of how we couldn’t accept something that will one day seem as ordinary as a black man playing baseball?
We may think we can blend into the crowd just as the men who wanted to keep a game white probably thought in the ballparks of 1947. But life has a funny way of choosing how it paints our remembrance. Seemingly big moments are suddenly overshadowed by the ordinary plays in the game. Branca certainly didn’t choose to be the unwilling recipient of the Shot Heard Round the World. But the ordinary act of standing next to a man made Branca more than just the pitcher who gave up a homerun.
And after all these years Branca can grin knowing that he helped a man and a nation find its voice.
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Photo: Getty Images