Photo of Ralph Branca

[shikaiwen]

Hi, I am reading "Out of my League" by George Plimpton. There is a section where he discusses a photo of Ralph Branca in the dugout or lockerroom immediately after giving up the home run to Bobby Thompson. I have never seen this photo, and an images.google search turned up nothing. Does anyone know where I can find a copy of the photo on the internet.

Thanks in advance.

[DODGER DEB]

It was a photo of Ralph laying down, head in hands, on a stairs in the BROOKLYN clubhouse at the Polo Grounds. There was a second photo of him sitting up, but with his head down low in front of him. I believe they were taken by OUR club photographer, Barney Stein.

A few years ago Barney's daughter put up a website with many of his terrific photos.

Here is the link, with one of the photos..

http://www.barneystein-photography.com/baseball_main.html

c.

[DODGER DEB]

You would be interested to know that Barney won two top awards for his photo of Ralph on that infamous day in OUR BROOKLYN history.

c.

[shikaiwen]

Excellent, thanks!

[DODGER DEB]

You are quite welcome, shikaiwen.

BTW, welcome to OUR forum. Always nice to see new members post here.

c.

[StanTheMan]

Joshua Prager's book The Echoing Green spends some time on the photos. I did not know they were award winning, that's probably why they are in the book, as photos, and as a subject in the text.

Stein was of course torn between doing his job, and being saddened by the whole event. He hung around Branca for a while... Branca saw Stein there but did not ask him to leave.

Probably the worst moment of his life, certainly his worst baseball moment, but Branca did not ask a photographer to leave, like many players would have.

That's the kind of guy Branca was. He probably recognized Stein had a job to do, even at his own expense/comfort/desire to be alone.

Stein was the photographer at Branca's wedding 17 days later.

The famous photos were taken just thirteen minutes after the Homer.

[Paulmcall]

I understand that Barney's daughter is trying to get a book
of his photos published.

[Brooklyn2Boca]

The new book featuring photos by my grandfather, Barney Stein, is scheduled to be released in May.

:waving