WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.820 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.820 --> 00:00:05.170 align:middle line:90% [COUGHING] 00:00:05.170 --> 00:00:06.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.510 --> 00:00:07.010 align:middle line:90% Branca. 00:00:07.010 --> 00:00:09.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.530 --> 00:00:15.470 align:middle line:84% Ralph Branca was the 15th of 17 children. 00:00:15.470 --> 00:00:21.140 align:middle line:84% This poem is not the poem of the speaker. 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:24.770 align:middle line:84% A very famous historian liked this poem very much 00:00:24.770 --> 00:00:27.020 align:middle line:90% when it appeared in a magazine. 00:00:27.020 --> 00:00:30.200 align:middle line:84% And he said he just loved the poem. 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:33.320 align:middle line:84% He didn't understand that first thing. 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:37.700 align:middle line:84% It's part of the inner callouses and jargon of us 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:38.590 align:middle line:90% English teachers. 00:00:38.590 --> 00:00:40.830 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:40.830 --> 00:00:41.330 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.330 --> 00:00:42.690 align:middle line:90% I'll begin again. 00:00:42.690 --> 00:00:45.930 align:middle line:84% Ralph Branca was the 15th of 17 children. 00:00:45.930 --> 00:00:50.390 align:middle line:84% This poem is not the poem of the speaker. 00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:54.440 align:middle line:84% His father was an immigrant from Calabria. 00:00:54.440 --> 00:01:00.350 align:middle line:84% These words are those of Robert Pinsky speaking. 00:01:00.350 --> 00:01:05.120 align:middle line:84% Branca wore Dodger uniform number 13. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:10.240 align:middle line:84% Speaking is the punch punchline of a Jewish joke. 00:01:10.240 --> 00:01:15.640 align:middle line:84% Some Romans called Calabrians Africani. 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:20.590 align:middle line:84% Brooklyn had its own daily, The Brooklyn Eagle. 00:01:20.590 --> 00:01:24.940 align:middle line:84% At 85, Branca learned about his mother. 00:01:24.940 --> 00:01:29.680 align:middle line:84% He was 21 when Robinson joined the Dodgers. 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:35.150 align:middle line:84% At 11, I loved Robinson for his daring running the bases, 00:01:35.150 --> 00:01:39.190 align:middle line:90% stealing home, his fire. 00:01:39.190 --> 00:01:43.630 align:middle line:84% Branca was one of the few who befriended him. 00:01:43.630 --> 00:01:46.850 align:middle line:84% I was too young to understand his mission. 00:01:46.850 --> 00:01:51.460 align:middle line:84% The fuel of that dancing to taunt the pitcher. 00:01:51.460 --> 00:01:55.750 align:middle line:84% Robinson never forgot Branca's kindness. 00:01:55.750 --> 00:01:58.960 align:middle line:84% What the old man found out about his mother 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:04.660 align:middle line:84% is she was born a Jew in Hungary, Kati. 00:02:04.660 --> 00:02:08.270 align:middle line:84% After he gave up the most famous home run ever, 00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:15.150 align:middle line:84% back in the clubhouse, Branca lay weeping face down. 00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:20.610 align:middle line:84% Kati gave birth to 17 Catholic children. 00:02:20.610 --> 00:02:25.500 align:middle line:84% The Giants won the pennant, 1951. 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:31.080 align:middle line:84% Branca means claw, a fit name for a pitcher. 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:35.320 align:middle line:84% His teammates thought it best that he cry alone. 00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:42.070 align:middle line:84% But, quote, only my dear friend Jackie, who knew me so well, 00:02:42.070 --> 00:02:47.970 align:middle line:84% came over and put his arm around my shoulder, end quote. 00:02:47.970 --> 00:02:51.960 align:middle line:84% The Nazis killed the aunts and uncles Branca didn't know 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:55.800 align:middle line:90% existed until he was old. 00:02:55.800 --> 00:03:01.440 align:middle line:84% 42 in itself is a nothing of a number. 00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:06.840 align:middle line:84% The Dodgers traded Branca to the Tigers. 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:12.120 align:middle line:84% Grief with its countless different ways and strains. 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:18.960 align:middle line:84% Glory, a greater thing than success, but slower. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:22.300 align:middle line:84% Some of the Tigers, who had been Giants, 00:03:22.300 --> 00:03:26.100 align:middle line:84% explained to Branca how the Giants had stolen the signs 00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:28.510 align:middle line:90% from opposition pit catchers. 00:03:28.510 --> 00:03:32.710 align:middle line:84% The telescope in center field, wires, 00:03:32.710 --> 00:03:37.000 align:middle line:84% buzzers, Branca chose not to talk about it. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.360 align:middle line:90% It's all in Prager's book. 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.450 align:middle line:84% His research unearthed Kati, those aunts and uncles. 00:03:45.450 --> 00:03:49.604 align:middle line:84% The Dodgers were taken from Brooklyn by their owner. 00:03:49.604 --> 00:03:54.340 align:middle line:84% I, Robert Pinsky, choose not to say his name. 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:56.730 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:56.730 --> 00:03:58.650 align:middle line:90% 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:02.410 align:middle line:84% I didn't live in Brooklyn, but I knew the score. 00:04:02.410 --> 00:04:06.510 align:middle line:84% I knew it was a kind of underdog place. 00:04:06.510 --> 00:04:10.740 align:middle line:84% Nowadays, once a year, all Major Leaguers 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:14.850 align:middle line:84% wear Jackie Robinson's number, 42. 00:04:14.850 --> 00:04:17.339 align:middle line:90% Big deal. 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:19.110 align:middle line:90% In the joke. 00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:21.870 align:middle line:84% In the joke, the person who answers 00:04:21.870 --> 00:04:25.550 align:middle line:84% the telephone at Goldberg, Goldberg, and Goldberg 00:04:25.550 --> 00:04:29.600 align:middle line:84% keeps replying that Goldberg is out of the office. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.300 align:middle line:90% And so is Goldberg. 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:32.900 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:04:32.900 --> 00:04:35.630 align:middle line:90% Then let me talk to Goldberg. 00:04:35.630 --> 00:04:36.590 align:middle line:90% Speaking. 00:04:36.590 --> 00:04:38.942 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:38.942 --> 00:04:41.750 align:middle line:90% 00:04:41.750 --> 00:04:44.390 align:middle line:90% Robinson spoke to Branca. 00:04:44.390 --> 00:04:50.644 align:middle line:84% Without you, he said, we never could have made it this far. 00:04:50.644 --> 00:04:53.054 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:53.054 --> 00:05:01.250 align:middle line:90% 00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:03.590 align:middle line:84% I've written about poems and jokes 00:05:03.590 --> 00:05:06.860 align:middle line:84% and how similar they are to me, and I 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:12.110 align:middle line:84% think one of the things that affects 00:05:12.110 --> 00:05:18.770 align:middle line:84% my writing is I did grow up among expert joke tellers. 00:05:18.770 --> 00:05:23.540 align:middle line:84% Expert joke tellers, complainers, arguers, liars, 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:25.520 align:middle line:90% all of that. 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:30.350 align:middle line:84% I was surrounded by high grades of excellence in those things. 00:05:30.350 --> 00:05:33.100 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER]