Ralph Theodore Joseph "Hawk" Branca (January 6, 1926 – November 23, 2016) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1944 through 1956. Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944–1953, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953–1954), and New York Yankees (1954). He was a three-time All-Star. In a 1951 playoff, Branca surrendered a walk-off home run to Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants; the game-winning hit was known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World". Early life Ralph Branca was born in Mount Vernon, New York, as the fifteenth of 17 children. His father, John Branca, was a trolley car conductor from Italy. His mother, Kati (née Berger), who was Jewish, immigrated to the United States in 1901 from Sandorf, Hungary (now Prievaly, Slovakia). His uncle Jozsef Berger was murdered at the Majdanek concentration camp, and his maternal aunt Irma was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. He was raised Roman Catholic. Branca graduated from A. B. Davis High School and attended New York University (NYU) for one year, before he entered the big leagues. He played college baseball and college basketball for the NYU Violets. Career Branca was exempted from military service during World War II, due to his asthma and a punctured eardrum. After Branca attended a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, the team signed him to a contract. He debuted in the major leagues at age 18 on June 12, 1944, and put up a 3.04 earned run average (ERA) in 109 innings pitched in his rookie year. On Opening Day in 1947—which was also Jackie Robinson's major league debut—Branca lined up on the field beside Robinson, while other players refused. That year, he had a 21–12 win–loss record and a 2.67 earned run average (ERA) in 280 innings pitched. He earned his first All-Star appearance and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant. He was second in the league in wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts (148), third in ERA, and sixth in won-lost percentage (.636). Branca was also the starting pitcher in Game 1 of the 1947 World Series. A three-time All-Star, Branca won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. In 1948, he was ninth in the league in wins (14) and won–lost percentage (.609). In 1949, he led the National League (NL) in won-lost percentage (.722). In 1951,