Ralph Branca, the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who had three consecutive All-Star seasons for the team but who was never allowed to forget one pitch that crushed them — the ninth-inning fastball that Bobby Thomson drove into the left-field stands at the Polo Grounds in 1951 and on into baseball legend — died Tuesday at his home in Rye, N.Y. He was 90.
His son, John, an entertainment lawyer, confirmed the death through his publicist, the D. Baron company, in Santa Monica, Calif. No cause was given.