Baseball has lost one of the game's enduring gentlemen, who lived for more than 60 years with a most conspicuous yet somewhat unwarranted smudge on his pitching reputation. Ralph Branca, the losing pitcher in one of baseball's most famous games, is dead at age 90. The game -- no, American society -- is diminished by the loss of a man of such integrity, heart and strength. We haven't often seen the likes of Branca since the day that labeled but didn't change him, nor are we likely to see many of his kind again.
Former big league manager Bobby Valentine, Branca's son-in-law, shared the news Wednesday morning on Twitter.