Bobby Thomson, the man whose shot was heard ‘round the world in 1951, died Monday at the age of 86. But few know, or remember, that Thomson played minor league baseball in North Carolina.

Thomson, a Staten Island, NY native, played 29 games at third base for the Rocky Mount Rocks in 1942 at the age of 18. He batted just .241 but he had three key homers and 18 RBI.

When he was signed by the Rocks, the Rocky Mount Telegram newspaper, where I was sports editor years later, ran a story titled “This Bat Is Rocks’ Insurance.” Thomson’s first professional home run came in his first at bat at Rocky Mount’s Municipal Stadium. Not only was it his first home at bat, but it was the first pitch thrown to him.

Plus, he had his first big-time home run in Rocky Mount. Playing the rival Wilson Tobs in a seven-game playoff, the Rocks were down three games to none but managed to pull even at three games a piece. With the deciding seventh game in Rocky Mount, Thomson blasted a six-inning home run over the left field wall to open up a close game and give the Rocks the victory.

It was believed to be only the second time in pro baseball history that a team came from three games down to win a series. After the game, appreciative and ecstatic fans passed a hat and gave Thomson 11 bucks, which he probably needed at the time.

At the end of the season, he enlisted at the height of World War II. He served in the Air Corps from 1943 through 1945.

After the war, he continued his career and became a regular for the New York Giants in 1947. He was a star for years but he’s most remembered for the Oct. 3, 1951 home run in game three of a three-game playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Thomson came to bat in the ninth inning with one out, two on and his Giants down 4-2. On an 0-1 count, Thompson banged “the shot heard ‘round the world” as he homered off Ralph Branca for a three-run, game-and-series winner.

The Giants’ announcer Russ Hodges shouted the famous call, “The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant.” It was perhaps the biggest home run in major league history… but his first home run came in North Carolina.

ACC NEWS RELEASE – Defending National Champion North Carolina received four first place votes and was selected by the league’s head coaches to win the 2010 ACC Field Hockey Championship, as announced today by Commissioner John Swofford.

The Tar Heels collected 24 of the possible 25 points. First place votes were awarded five points, second place received four, etc., and coaches were not allowed to include their own teams in their predicted order of finish.

Maryland, the 2009 ACC Champion and national runner-up, came in second, picking up 21 points and one first place vote. Virginia took third place with 18 points, followed by Wake Forest (12) in fourth, Boston College (9) in fifth and Duke (6) in sixth. The Cavaliers received the final first place vote.

All six teams were represented on the preseason All-ACC squad, with North Carolina tallying a league-leading three honorees. Duke, Maryland and Virginia each had two representatives, while Boston College and Wake Forest each had one.

Eight of the 11 preseason All-ACC selections earned All-America honors from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association in 2009, including: Emily Kozniuk of Boston College; Rhian Jones of Duke; Katie O’Donnell of Maryland; Katelyn Falgowski, Jackie Kintzer and Kelsey Kolojejchick of North Carolina; and Paige Selenski and Michelle Vittese of Virginia.

O’Donnell, Falgowski, Kintzer, Kolojejchick, Selenski and Vittese were also named to the All-ACC team in 2009.

North Carolina comes off a 2009 campaign in which it went 20-2 overall and 4-1 in league play. The Tar Heels defeated Maryland 3-2 in the NCAA Championship game, earning the program’s sixth national title.

UNC’s Karen Shelton, the reigning NFHCA Coach of the Year, returns seven starters and 15 letterwinners, including Kolojejchick, who was named National Rookie of the Year by womensfieldhockey.com. UNC seeks its 17th conference championship and its first since 2007.

With players having to decide by mid-August if they are going pro or going on to college, Durham-based Baseball America did a piece on the winners and losers in college baseball as players decided to go pro.

Winners included Georgia Tech while North Carolina and Florida State were judged among the losers.

Aaron Fitt wrote about Carolina: “UNC is actually quite pleased with its haul, which includes a solid core in catcher Matt Roberts, lefthander Kent Emanuel and righty Jake Cole, plus good depth. But still, the Tar Heels entered Monday hoping to land one of their three remaining elite recruits—Stetson Allie, Sean Coyle and Ty Linton—and came up empty. Coyle, in particular, would have been a cornerstone player in the UNC infield, but the third-round pick signed with Boston for $1.3 million. The Tar Heels still wound up with a sure-fire top 25 recruiting class—and maybe a top 15 class—but heading into the day it had a chance to be an elite class, and it wound up falling short of that distinction.”

To read the entire piece, please click here.

Ty Linton was also a high school all-state linebacker in football and had been practicing with the Tar Heels.

Before coming to UNC, Linton said, “It’s always been a dream of mine to play at Carolina. And I’m going to be at Carolina unless life-changing money comes my way.”

Selected in the 14th round by Arizona, evidently he got that life-changing money as the Diamondbacks gave him a $1.25 million signing bonus.

UNC football coach Butch Davis said the football program is disappointed to lose Linton to the Diamondbacks.

“We are always going to recruit talented student-athletes and Ty was a very good two-sport prospect in football and baseball. He had an opportunity at Carolina to pursue his education while playing both sports,” Davis said.

“He was making significant progress in training camp and I believe he had a bright football future. After meeting with Arizona over the last few days, Ty and his family felt it was in his best interest to pursue a professional baseball career. We wish him the best of luck.”

The neverending drama surrounding quarterback Brett Favre took another turn minutes ago when he boarded a plane for Minnesota.

Reportedly, he has told a few fellow Minnesota Viking teammates that he is coming back for one more season – at least.

The Washington Redskins may have found its fastest player since Darrell Green in the person of Garner native Brandon Banks.

Banks, wearing the No. 16, returned a punt 77 yards for a touchdown in the Redskins 45-17 romp over the Buffalo Bills in preseason action. The Redskins, under new head coach Mike Shanahan, are looking for more production from the special teams, which failed to get a touchdown on any runback last season.

Banks stands just 5-foot-6 and weighs less than 150 pounds. Compare that to hall of famer Darrell Green who was 5-9, 180 pounds and called himself “itty bitty.” While it wasn’t as spectacular as Green’s famous hurdling 50-plus-yard punt return for a TD in the 1987 playoffs against the Bears, Banks blew by and through five or six defenders to remind Redskins’ fans of days gone by.

After getting in the end zone, Banks paid tribute to his fellow Triangle buddy John Wall, the Washington Wizards rookie, by performing Wall’s signature dance. To read more about the connection between the two and to watch the return, please click here.

Receiver Devin Thomas came into the game as the top kick returner while defensive back Phillip Buchanon was slated as the first-team punt returner. Neither distinguished themselves in the game. In fact, Thomas muffed the opening kickoff. (To be fair, Banks earlier dropped a punt as well.) And, depending on other roster desires, Banks, who is listed as a receiver, could fail to make the team because he doesn’t figure to play anywhere else except on special teams.

While it was just one return, if Redskins special teams coordinator Danny Smith goes by his own words, Banks has a good chance of making the team.

“I want a guy that’s sure-handed so we don’t have to worry about catching the ball. I want a guy with a quick first step, I want a guy with toughness, I want a guy with good vision, I want a guy with good balance, I want a guy that can make somebody miss, I want a guy that can take it the distance,” he said.

It appears Banks fits the bill except maybe being “tough.” Although former Redskins returner Brian Mitchell says “toughness” comes down to something besides brute strength or even the physical ability to take a hit. Mitchell says the one muscle they don’t test at combine is heart.

Banks, who went undrafted out of Kansas State, was a two-time all-conference football selection at Garner High School and was named to the USA Today’s All-USA high school track and field team in 2006.

While most Americans appreciate the various cultures coming together for a melting pot society, most (about 80 percent) do not appreciate illegal immigrants taking advantage of a free public education, free health care and other taxpayer costs to the tune of $113 billion a year, according to one recent study.

The cost of illegal immigration has extended to local youth leagues. For instance, one area soccer league has a scholarship program for children who can’t afford the tuition to play. According to a reliable source, nearly all the money awarded in recent years has gone to Hispanic children whose parents don’t speak English. That is money that could be going to poor American families.

Speaking a foreign language and the inability to speak English, no matter what some open borders types will tell you, is an indicator of being an illegal immigrant. Federal rules say that in order to be a naturalized citizen, one must be able to read, write and speak simple English.

One source in a local youth sports league told me the coaches have to translate and email team instructions and schedules to players in Spanish. That evidently isn’t enough for some Hispanic families who have demanded that they be called each week to get verbal instructions over the phone. Someone who speaks English has to be located while the coach waits on the phone. Other Hispanic families told one coach that their children couldn’t make it to practices often but that they wanted their children to play in the games nonetheless.

One soccer league in particular has a regular league and a travel team league. One source indicated to me that at least two Hispanic families, where the parents don’t speak English, insisted that their children be bumped up to the travel team or the kids wouldn’t play. Not only are travel team players considered better but their tuition to play is at least partly paid for by the league.

So, let me get this straight… a family illegally comes into our country, gets a job that an American would otherwise have (only 12 percent of illegals are employed in the low-desired agriculture field), takes advantage of the public education system, takes advantage of the health care system, etc. and they are so comfortable being here that they are applying for, and getting, money from area sports youth leagues to the detriment of poor American children… and, further, demanding special treatment because they don’t speak English. So much for being in the shadows.

It seems the problem is even worse in border states such as Texas. The Eagle Pass, Texas little league baseball team made it to the U.S. Southwest regional finals this year. That team was fully comprised of Hispanic players whose coach speaks to them in Spanish. The team lost to Pearland, Texas yesterday but could you have imagined if that team represented the U.S. in the World Series. That would be a spit in the face of our sovereignty and our rule of law. In past years, little league teams have been ruled ineligible for having players a few months too old to play. But evidently teams can have players who aren’t even in the country legally and that’s ok.

Some may say that while the parents are illegally here, the children are citizens. That could be true for some of them who have been in the country for more than 12 years (since that’s the age of most little leaguers). The debate rages nationally about whether the 14th Amendment is being interpreted correctly that children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants are or should be considered citizens. One recent study showed that there are 60,000 births per year to illegal alien parents in Texas alone. That includes nearly 12,000 in Parkland Hospital – the hospital where President Kennedy was taken after he was shot in Dallas.

Another study out Thursday indicates that more than eight percent of the children born each year in the U.S. are children of illegal alien parents (termed anchor babies). The study also says that four percent of the people living in the U.S. today are here illegally (of course that doesn’t include the eight percent of children born to illegals each year who are considered citizens).

One local charity, just this year, started a Hispanic Youth Soccer League and advertised for Spanish-speaking coaches. Not only is that accommodating illegal immigration, it is bordering on, if not actually, racist to single out and target a particular race in favor of another. Might there be a poor, white neighborhood of native-born North Carolinians in need of a sports program? Would anyone suggest, support or even allow a White, Native-Born Soccer League?

Even if the charity somehow verified that the participants are legally in our country, should they be excluding other races from participation, isolating one particular race, and working against their assimilation into our society? We certainly don’t want to penalize children who were brought to our country illegally by their law-breaking parents. Nor should we reward them for their parents’ actions.

The affects of illegal immigration are being felt all the way down to the ball fields in the Triangle with special treatment for illegals and special financial advantages for illegals, not to mention the player slots being taken up by illegal immigrants to the detriment of American children.