Larry Jansen, Giants Pitcher, Dies at 89
Larry Jansen, the right-handed pitcher whose 23 victories helped propel the New York Giants to their storied 1951 National League championship, died Saturday in Verboort, Ore. He was 89.
The cause was congestive heart failure and pneumonia, his daughter Darlene Greene said.
On the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1951, Jansen pitched the top of the ninth inning against the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in the climactic Game 3 of their pennant playoff, relieving Sal Maglie. The Giants had come back from a 13-game deficit in mid-August, but all seemed lost. They trailed the Dodgers by 4-1.
“The Dodgers stood there at the edge of the dugout,” Jansen told Ray Robinson in “The Home Run Heard ’Round the World” (HarperCollins, 1991). “They were yelling at me, ‘Jansen, you can go home now.’ But strange things can happen in this game. It was my duty just to keep pitching and hoping.”
Jansen quickly retired all three batters he faced. Minutes later, he became the winning pitcher when Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca to give the Giants a pennant-winning 5-4 victory in one of the most celebrated moments in baseball history.
Jansen’s 23-11 record in 1951 tied Maglie for the N.L. lead in victories, and he had beaten the Boston Braves, 3-2, on the final Sunday of that season despite an aching back. That summer capped five seasons during which Jansen had become one of the league’s leading pitchers. He was 21-5 for the Giants as a rookie in 1947, when he led the league in winning percentage at .808. He won 18 games the next year and 19 in 1950, and he was a two-time All-Star.
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The cause was congestive heart failure and pneumonia, his daughter Darlene Greene said.
On the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1951, Jansen pitched the top of the ninth inning against the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in the climactic Game 3 of their pennant playoff, relieving Sal Maglie. The Giants had come back from a 13-game deficit in mid-August, but all seemed lost. They trailed the Dodgers by 4-1.
“The Dodgers stood there at the edge of the dugout,” Jansen told Ray Robinson in “The Home Run Heard ’Round the World” (HarperCollins, 1991). “They were yelling at me, ‘Jansen, you can go home now.’ But strange things can happen in this game. It was my duty just to keep pitching and hoping.”
Jansen quickly retired all three batters he faced. Minutes later, he became the winning pitcher when Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca to give the Giants a pennant-winning 5-4 victory in one of the most celebrated moments in baseball history.
Jansen’s 23-11 record in 1951 tied Maglie for the N.L. lead in victories, and he had beaten the Boston Braves, 3-2, on the final Sunday of that season despite an aching back. That summer capped five seasons during which Jansen had become one of the league’s leading pitchers. He was 21-5 for the Giants as a rookie in 1947, when he led the league in winning percentage at .808. He won 18 games the next year and 19 in 1950, and he was a two-time All-Star.