Pafko at the Wall: A Novella

Pafko at the Wall: A Novella by DeLillo, Don. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780743230001.

"Theres a long drive. Its gonna be. I believe. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant." -- Russ Hodges, October 3, 1951 On the fiftieth anniversary of "The Shot Heard Round the World," Don DeLillo reassembles in fiction the larger-than-life characters who on October 3, 1951, witnessed Bobby Thomsons pennant-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jackie Gleason is razzing Toots Shor in Leo Durochers box seats; J. Edgar Hoover, basking in Sinatras celebrity, is about to be told that the Russians have tested an atomic bomb; and Russ Hodges, raw-throated and excitable, announces the game -- the Giants and the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in New York. DeLillos transcendent account of one of the iconic events of the twentieth century is a masterpiece of American sportswriting.