[COUGHING]
Branca.
Ralph Branca was the 15th of 17 children.
This poem is not the poem of the speaker.
A very famous historian liked this poem very much
when it appeared in a magazine.
And he said he just loved the poem.
He didn't understand that first thing.
It's part of the inner callouses and jargon of us
English teachers.
[LAUGHTER]
I'll begin again.
Ralph Branca was the 15th of 17 children.
This poem is not the poem of the speaker.
His father was an immigrant from Calabria.
These words are those of Robert Pinsky speaking.
Branca wore Dodger uniform number 13.
Speaking is the punch punchline of a Jewish joke.
Some Romans called Calabrians Africani.
Brooklyn had its own daily, The Brooklyn Eagle.
At 85, Branca learned about his mother.
He was 21 when Robinson joined the Dodgers.
At 11, I loved Robinson for his daring running the bases,
stealing home, his fire.
Branca was one of the few who befriended him.
I was too young to understand his mission.
The fuel of that dancing to taunt the pitcher.
Robinson never forgot Branca's kindness.
What the old man found out about his mother
is she was born a Jew in Hungary, Kati.
After he gave up the most famous home run ever,
back in the clubhouse, Branca lay weeping face down.
Kati gave birth to 17 Catholic children.
The Giants won the pennant, 1951.
Branca means claw, a fit name for a pitcher.
His teammates thought it best that he cry alone.
But, quote, only my dear friend Jackie, who knew me so well,
came over and put his arm around my shoulder, end quote.
The Nazis killed the aunts and uncles Branca didn't know
existed until he was old.
42 in itself is a nothing of a number.
The Dodgers traded Branca to the Tigers.
Grief with its countless different ways and strains.
Glory, a greater thing than success, but slower.
Some of the Tigers, who had been Giants,
explained to Branca how the Giants had stolen the signs
from opposition pit catchers.
The telescope in center field, wires,
buzzers, Branca chose not to talk about it.
It's all in Prager's book.
His research unearthed Kati, those aunts and uncles.
The Dodgers were taken from Brooklyn by their owner.
I, Robert Pinsky, choose not to say his name.
[LAUGHTER]
I didn't live in Brooklyn, but I knew the score.
I knew it was a kind of underdog place.
Nowadays, once a year, all Major Leaguers
wear Jackie Robinson's number, 42.
Big deal.
In the joke.
In the joke, the person who answers
the telephone at Goldberg, Goldberg, and Goldberg
keeps replying that Goldberg is out of the office.
And so is Goldberg.
All right.
Then let me talk to Goldberg.
Speaking.
[LAUGHTER]
Robinson spoke to Branca.
Without you, he said, we never could have made it this far.
[APPLAUSE]
I've written about poems and jokes
and how similar they are to me, and I
think one of the things that affects
my writing is I did grow up among expert joke tellers.
Expert joke tellers, complainers, arguers, liars,
all of that.
I was surrounded by high grades of excellence in those things.
[LAUGHTER]