Robert Brown "Bobby" Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "The Staten Island Scot", he was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants (1946–53, 1957), Milwaukee Braves (1954–57), Chicago Cubs (1958–59), Boston Red Sox (1960) and Baltimore Orioles (1960).

His season-ending three-run home run for the Giants in 1951, known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", is one of the most famous moments in baseball history. It overshadowed all of his other accomplishments, including eight 20-home run seasons and three All Star selections. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me," he later said. "It may have been the best thing that ever happened to anybody."

Thomson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the youngest of six children. He arrived in the United States two years later. His father, a cabinet maker, had moved to New York City shortly before Bobby's birth and sent for his family in 1925.

Thomson grew up on Staten Island in New York City and signed with the New York Giants for a $100 bonus right out of Curtis High School in 1942. However, on December 5, 1942 he joined the United States Army Air Forces and trained as a bombardier. His entire service was within the continental United States. In fact, he played semi-professional baseball in the summer of 1945 while awaiting his discharge.

Charles Ross Mitchell (born June 24, 1962 in Dickson, Tennessee) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He played during two seasons at the major league level for the Boston Red Sox. He was drafted by the Red Sox in the 4th round of the 1982 amateur draft. Mitchell played his first professional season with their Class-A (Short Season) Elmira Pioneers in 1982, and his last with the Cincinnati Reds' Triple-A Nashville Sounds in 1991.

Mitchell is the brother of fellow former major league pitcher John Mitchell.

William Earnest "Ernie" Harwell (January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 years, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the action on radio and/or television. In January 2009, the American Sportscasters Association ranked Harwell 16th on its list of Top 50 Sportscasters of All Time.

Ernie Harwell grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, working in his youth as a paperboy for the Atlanta Georgian; one of his customers was writer Margaret Mitchell. He was an avid baseball fan from an early age; he became visiting batboy for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association at the age of five, and never had to buy a ticket to get into a baseball game again. At sixteen he began working as a regional correspondent for The Sporting News.

Harwell attended Emory University, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and helped edit The Emory Wheel. After graduating, Harwell worked as a copy editor and sportswriter for the Atlanta Constitution. In 1943, he began announcing games for the Crackers on WSB radio, after which he served four years in the United States Marine Corps.

Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sportscaster.

Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–38), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional football in his primary market of New York City.

Barber was born 1908 in Columbus, Mississippi. He was a distant relative of poet Sidney Lanier and writer Thomas Lanier Williams. The family moved to Sanford, Florida in 1918 and, at the age of 21, he hitchhiked to Gainesville and enrolled at the University of Florida, majoring in education. During his first year he worked at various jobs including part-time janitor at the University Club. There in January 1930 Barber got his start in broadcasting.

An agriculture professor had been scheduled to appear on WRUF, the university radio station, to read a scholarly paper over the air. When the professor's absence was discovered minutes before the broadcast was to begin, janitor Barber was called in as a substitute. Thus the future sportscaster's first gig was reading "Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics". After those few minutes in front of a microphone, Barber decided to switch careers. He became WRUF's director and chief announcer and covered Florida football games that autumn. Then he dropped out of school to focus on his radio work. After four more years at WRUF he landed a job broadcasting the Cincinnati Reds on WLW and WSAI when Powel Crosley, Jr., purchased the team in 1934.

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca (born January 6, 1926) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball.

From 1944 through 1956, Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944–53, 1956), Detroit Tigers (1953–54), and New York Yankees (1954). He batted and threw right-handed.

His mother, Kati née Berger, was Jewish and immigrated to the United States in 1901 from Sandorf, Hungary (now Prievaly, Slovakia). His uncle Jozsef Berger was killed at the Majdanek concentration camp, and his maternal aunt Irma died at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. His father was John Branca, a trolley car conductor from Italy.

Branca was signed as a free agent by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943. He debuted on June 12, 1944, with the Dodgers, and put up a 3.04 ERA in 109.2 innings pitched in 1945, his rookie year.

A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career-high 21 wins in 1947. In 1947, he was second in the league in wins, innings pitched (280), and strikeouts (148), third in ERA (2.67), and sixth in won-lost percentage (.636). In 1948, he was ninth in the league in wins (14) and won-lost percentage (.609). In 1949, he led the NL in won-lost percentage (.722). In 1951, he was tenth in the NL in ERA (3.26).