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The 1951 National League tie-breaker series was a best-of-three playoff series at the conclusion of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1951 regular season to decide the winner of the National League (NL) pennant. The games were played on October 1, 2, and 3, 1951, between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. It was necessary after both teams finished the season with identical win–loss records of 96–58. It is most famous for the walk-off home run hit by Bobby Thomson of the Giants in the deciding game, which has come to be known as baseball's "Shot Heard 'Round the World". This was the second three-game playoff in NL history. After no tiebreakers had been needed since the American League (AL) became a major league in 1901, this was the third such tie in the previous six seasons. The Dodgers had been involved in the previous one as well, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1946 season in two straight games. In addition to the 1946 series, the AL had a one-game playoff in . The Giants won game one, while the Dodgers came back to win game two. After trailing for most of game three, the Giants rallied to win the game and the series. Consequently, they advanced to the 1951 World Series, in which they were defeated by the New York Yankees. In baseball statistics, the tie-breaker series counted as the 155th, 156th, and 157th regular season games by both teams; all events in the games were added to regular season statistics. ==Background== Sportswriters projected that the Giants, Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies would face off during the 1951 Major League Baseball season. The previous season, the Phillies won the NL pennant with a 91–63 record, while the Dodgers and Giants finished in second and third place, two and five games behind the Phillies, respectively. In the annual Associated Press poll, Brooklyn was projected as the favorite to win the pennant with 1,413 points, New York was second with 1,281, and Philadelphia was third with 1,176. The United Press, however, had New York winning the pennant; they had 81 votes compared to 55 for Brooklyn and 18 for Philadelphia. Throughout the first half of the season, the Dodgers stayed in first place by a large margin. By August 10, they were games ahead of the Giants and games ahead of the Phillies, and as a result they were already looking ahead to facing the New York Yankees in the 1951 World Series; the Associated Press commented on their dominance, saying that "unless they completely fold in their last 50 games, they're in." While the Phillies fell out of contention, the Giants won 16 consecutive games from August 12 to August 27, cutting their deficit from games to six. By September 20, the Dodgers had ten games left to play while the Giants had seven, and the Dodgers had a game advantage, making a pennant win appear imminent. However, the Giants won their last seven games, and the Dodgers needed to defeat the Phillies in the final game of the season to force a playoff; they did so by winning 9–8 in 14 innings, leaving both teams with a record of 96–58. The National League used a three-game playoff (prior to 1969) to break a tie for the pennant, the winner of which would face the American League champion Yankees in the 1951 World Series. The Dodgers won the coin toss for home field advantage, but opted to host game one at Ebbets Field on October 1, while the Giants would as a result get to host games two and three at the Polo Grounds on October 2 and 3.〔()〕 The Dodgers chose Ralph Branca, who also started the first game of the 1946 tiebreaker, to start game one because he had beaten the Giants twice in the regular season, while the Giants chose Jim Hearn, who had beaten the Dodgers twice that year. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1951 National League tie-breaker series」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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