Miracle Ball: My Hunt for the Shot Heard 'Round the World »

BRIAN BIEGEL is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. PETER THOMAS FORNATALE collaborated on the New York Times bestseller A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex.

"Nothing short of mind-blowing . . . Just amazing stuff"—Newsday

"A fast-paced, fascinating tale that combines shoe leather, high-tech forensics and some healthy dollops of luck….Biegel makes a compelling case that he's solved the mystery…his book is a home run." – Associated Press
 
October 3, 1951. Giants third baseman Bobby Thomson hit the most dramatic home run in the history of baseball. The moment occurred in the bottom of the ninth inning of a sudden-death playoff game between the New York Giants and their arch rivals from Brooklyn, the Dodgers. People across the nation watched on their new TV sets, and the home run became known as “the Shot Heard ’Round the World.”

But after clearing the left-field wall, the central artifact of the play—the ball itself—inexplicably went missing. The mystery of what happened to the legendary baseball has remained unsolved for a half century.

Until now.

Miracle Ball is the gripping account of author Brian Biegel’s two-year effort to unravel the mystery that experts said could never be solved. A sports story for the ages, an engrossing mystery narrative, and a moving account of a man’s unbreakable bond with his family and of his struggles to save himself, Miracle Ball delivers both heart and headlines.

Kirkus Reviews

The search for one of baseball's most famous relics. At 3:58 in the afternoon on Oct. 3, 1951, New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson produced a baseball miracle. With his team down to its last out in the bottom of the ninth inning, he hit a three-run homer that clinched the National League pennant for the Giants. The so-called "shot heard 'round the world" is documentary filmmaker Biegel's subject in the first book-length account of his search for the Thomson ball. With freelancer Fornatale (co-author: A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex, 2007, etc.), Biegel deftly chronicles the stages of his quest, which captured his interest and rescued him from deep depression and the "life of tortured fear" he experienced after a bitter divorce. The author also traces and convincingly contextualizes why that home run-which didn't even occur during a World Series game-achieved instant mythic status. To find the ball, which is worth more than an estimated $1 million, Biegel enlisted the help of private investigators, retired detectives and forensic photo experts. He also interviewed Thomson and traveled from New York to New Mexico and back to solve the mystery that started with the identity of the fan who caught the ball. The narrative is peppered with riveting oral reminiscences of the game and passages from eminent sportswriters like Red Smith, filled with the kind of epic hyperbole that makes baseball writing so captivating. "The art of fiction is dead," wrote Smith. "Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again."Even mild sports enthusiasts will eat up this surprisingly moving account; baseball addicts will be overthe wall. Agent: Scott Waxman/Waxman Literary Agency

Prologue "The Holy Grail of Sports" xi

1 Brooklyn Boy 1

2 The Armoire 11

3 Dad vs. Lelands 25

4 Esther 41

5 "The Whole World Will Know You" 57

6 Searching for Eddie Logan 71

7 CSI: Polo Grounds 83

8 My Fifteen Minutes of Fame 101

9 Junk from the Attic 115

10 Dodger Daze 127

11 "The Best Baseball Writer of His Time" 137

12 Eyewitness 149

13 Private Detectives 161

14 The Angel 173

15 Fervor 181

16 The Three Helens 191

17 Digging Up the Past 205

18 It's Not About the Ball 211

19 New Mexico 217

Epilogue Faith 225

Acknowledgments 229