Unlucky Shot

The 1951 National League baseball regular season ended when Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit a walk-off three-run homer known ever since as "The Shot Heard Around The World."

This took place at the long-ago ballpark in upper Manhattan known as the Polo Grounds. Interesting to note, the year before, another shot at the same ballpark was more tragic but lesser noted.

I bring this up because, as you might have heard, the game at Washington between the hometown Nationals and the San Diego Padres last Saturday night was halted in the sixth inning when, thanks to the NRA's unstinting efforts to put weapons in the hands of everyone all over the country, people started shooting at each other outside the ballpark, leading to a frenzied departure of the 33,000 in attendance. It was quite a scene in the nation's capital, and just another in the endless parade of gun violence in America. Three people, one of whom was leaving the game, were injured. 

Back to 1950, when gun violence seemed a bit more rare. On July 4, 49,314 fans packed the Polo Grounds to watch a doubleheader between the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers. 49,313 of them survived.

A man named Barney Doyle, an Irish immigrant aged 54 years who had once managed heavyweight champion James Braddock, had taken a family friend to see the twin bill, as newspaper writers insisted on calling double headers. His guest was 13-year-old Otto Flaig. The two of them settled into their seats in the upper grandstand and were watching pregame practice when a bullet struck Doyle in the forehead, knocking his hat off and staining his white shirt red. 

As Flaig's son Chris related years later, “Poor Barney wasn’t bothering anybody. He was minding his own business on a nice summer afternoon.”

His summer afternoon ended forever when the bullet hit him. He was pronounced dead by a doctor who was at the game.

The following events ensued:

• Fans previously relegated to the Standing Room Only section fought with each other to get the seats vacated by Doyle and Flaig.
• A squad of 80 cops was detailed to find the source of the mystery bullet.
• Young Flaig was taken for questioning to the police station and released.
• Perhaps because his being 13 prevented him from appreciating the full gravity of the situation, Flaig complained about having to miss the games.
• Forensic evidence led the police to the roof of 515 Edgecombe Avenue, an apartment building 1,200 yards away from Doyle's seat.
• 14-year-old Robert Peebles, a resident of the building, admitted to firing the one bullet that he said was in the gun that he said he found in Central Park. He fired the gun as a means of celebrating the Fourth of July, not intending harm to anyone. 
• Peebles led the police on a search of the area where Peebles said he threw away the pistol, but it was never found. Charges against him were eventually dropped, but he did two years at a state training school for boys because police found two .22 rifles in his apartment.
• The Dodgers and the Giants both left New York for California in 1958. The Polo Grounds became the home of the expansion New York Mets in 1962 and 1963 and was torn down in 1964 to build housing projects.
• Flaig joined the Marines, came home and became a police officer, retiring as chief of police in Teterboro, NJ, a Mets fan to the end of his days.

Flaig being questioned by police.