Dodgers rewind: Andy Pafko

Sep 28, 2022 - 1:02 PM

On today’s Leading Off with True Blue LA podcast, we have a Dodgers rewind for you, looking back at outfielder Andy Pafko, who played two years with the team in Brooklyn.

Pafko was a five-time All-Star with the Cubs in the 1940s and even played in a World Series for Chicago. The Dodgers acquired him in June 1951 in a blockbuster, eight-team trade, looking to pad their lead over the Giants in the National League.

Brooklyn famously coughed up a 13-game lead that season, though Pafko did quite well for them. In the infamous three-game playoff to decide the pennant, Pafko homered in the first two games, and drove in a run in the third game. He also stood at the left field wall at the Polo Grounds, looking up as Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ‘round the world” left the park for a game-winning homer, captured in a famous photo.

Pafko had an accomplished 17-year major league career, including two years with the Dodgers, but his obituary in the New York Times was entitled, “Andy Pafko, Who Watched Thomson’s Shot, Dies at 92.” That’s rough.

In 1952, in the very first baseball card set put out by Topps, Pafko was card number one.

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