Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca was born on January 6, 1926, in Mount Vernon, New York, and died on November 23, 2016.
He was an American professional baseball player.
He was a pitcher.
Branca played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1944 through 1956.
He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944–53, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953–54), and New York Yankees (1954).
He was a three-time All-Star.
During 1951, Branca gave up the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” to Bobby Thomson.
Branca’s father was John Branca, a trolley car conductor from Italy.
Branca’s mother Kati (née Berger), who was Jewish, immigrated to the United States in 1901 from Sandorf, Hungary (now Prievaly, Slovakia).
Branca’s uncle Jozsef Berger was killed at the Majdanek concentration camp, and his maternal aunt Irma died at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.
He was raised Roman Catholic.
He was number 15 of 17 children
He graduated from A. B. Davis High School, and attended New York University (NYU) for one year.
Branca played college baseball and college basketball for the NYU Violets.
Ralph Branca passed away at 90 years old.