Get a behind-the-scenes look at baseball’s greatest moment Oct. 24 during a unique roundtable discussion at the Old Town Baseball Experience at Frasher’s Tavern.
Bobby Thomson stunned the world 75 years ago with his three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Dodgers and propel the Giants to an unlikely pennant in 1951.
The Frasher’s Tavern event will feature Megan Thomson Hann, Bobby Thomson’s youngest daughter, and Eric O’Mara, who claims to own the ball Thomson hit for the deciding home run.
Megan will discuss her father’s hard-scrabble upbringing in Staten Island, his rise to the Major Leagues and what he was thinking in the moments before delivering what Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News consider the paramount event in baseball history.
She’ll also describe how that moment changed her father’s life, transforming him into an enduring sports hero and celebrity.
The ball Thomson hit for his home run has never been definitively found – but O’Mara insists he has evidence to prove he received it as a gift from the widow of a Giants minor league trainer in the 1990s.
O’Mara will share the documents that he says support his claim and will make his baseball available for up-close viewing.
Signed by the 1951 Giants team, the ball was on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum from the year 2000 to 2003 and was described by museum curator Peter Clark as a “valuable historic artifact from one of the outstanding moments in baseball history.”
The roundtable promises its own outstanding moments. O’Mara and Megan Thomson have never appeared together; their discussion and insider details promise to be of historic interest for both dedicated followers of baseball and casual fans.
The roundtable discussion begins at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Complimentary appetizers will be provided by Frasher’s Tavern, 4180 N. Drinkwater Blvd., Scottsdale.
The event is hosted by both Frasher’s Tavern and the nonprofit group Arizona Baseball Legacy and Experience, which operates a small museum in Frasher’s and is hosting an exhibit about the Thomson home run at Scottsdale Stadium through Nov. 6.
Attendees can RSVP by emailing AzBaseballLegacy@gmail.com
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