The last Sunday in September 1951, in a game that some sports writers still say is the greatest game in baseball history, because of the events that will change baseball history.

This was the final game of the 1951 season. The Brooklyn Dodgers were playing the Phillies at Shibe Park. Although many baseball parks were still without lights, that was not a problem in this game since lights were installed in 1939. The game was tied, 8 to 8, going into the twelfth inning.

Ace Don Newcombe, a twenty game winner, was pitching in relief for the Dodgers. The bases were loaded with two outs and Eddie Waitkus was standing at the plate. The Phillies first baseman drove what looked like a game-winning low line-drive up the middle. Jackie Robinson, moving to his right, dove flat out and speared the ball inches off the ground. When Robinson hit the ground his elbow jammed into his stomach and he blacked out briefly. When he got up, second base umpire Lon Warneke called Waitkus out.

Waitkus, a very good clutch hitter who hit low line drives on a regular basis, stood stunned after the catch. He protested, claiming Robinson had not caught the ball but had instead trapped it. But he was not going to get the umpire to change his call. The Phillies players in the dugout were livid to the point that they were warned of possible ejections.

Robinson then homered in the fourteenth inning to give the Dodgers the victory. For many that day, the question lingered. Did Robinson make that catch on Eddie Waitkus with the bases loaded and two out in the twelfth, or did he trap it? In which case Bobby Thomson might well be remembered as the only baseball player born in Glasgow, Scotland. And Ralph Branca would have been spared the pain of the barely fair, "home run heard around the world".