One of the fringe benefits of writing a column is the mail you receive. I try to answer every letter as long as the return address is readable and in the future I thought I’d occasionally share some of them with other readers.

Here’s one to begin. It’s from John R. Lancellotti of Hackensack, a former political reporter for the old Newark News and Metro Editor for the Bergen Record in the 1960s. John then moved on to the news desk at WCBS radio and TV in New York City

His letter is in response to the column I wrote following the Giants Super Bowl win and memories of the Polo Grounds where the football Giants first played. For many of us the Polo Grounds will always be associated not with the football Giants but with the baseball team and one particularly memorable game played there in 1951 between the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

John hasn’t lost the touch. Here’s his letter:

I was there alone, an 18-year old kid, sitting in the bleachers but those were the days when, if you were a baseball fan in a New York stadium, you couldn’t be alone. And so, I struck up a temporary friendship with a guy sitting next to me, a Dodger fan.

By the time we got to that final inning, we were betting on the game, practically pitch by pitch. No money… just "I betcha he’s gonna do this… or "I betcha he’s gonna do that." You know what I mean. It was the way we talked to each other in those days, and when Bobby Thomson (I’m pretty sure that’s the way you spell it. He was a Scotsman and didn’t use the ‘p’) came to bat we were betting anything we owned.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, had called the bullpen to tell them to warm up a relief pitcher and Branca got up. I had been watching as he threw and having been a catcher in the city’s sandlots, I fancied I knew what to look for. Branca was quick… but he was throwing as straight as a string. That was the way I figured it. No movement on the ball. I thought to myself, "This guy is gonna get slammed." Then the Giants rallied and the Dodgers called on Branca to put out the fire.

"He ain’t gonna do it," I thought and turning to my new friend, I said, "I betcha the Giants win. I betcha the Giants win. My shoes against yours."

"It’s a bet," says the guy. "A bet."

Pretty soon after that Bobby smacks it! The ball was still rising straight as an arrow when it slams into history in the lower left field stands. And as Russ Hodges was shouting "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" over and over on the radio, I was screaming, "Gimme your shoes! Gimme your shoes!" to the guy next to me. I don’t think I made him do it but we hugged suddenly, understanding the importance of the moment and feeling grateful that we had shared it.

But I wasn’t finished celebrating. I jumped out of the stands and onto the field. It was darn near a full story drop but I didn’t care. I jumped anyway and joined literally hundreds of other crazed Giant fans chasing their heroes who were running as hard as they could toward the clubhouse to escape the mayhem. However, I managed to intercept Clint Hartung, one of the last Giants on the field.

"Where’s Bobby? Where’s Bobby?" I screamed at him.

"I don’t know," he screamed back.

"I wanna hug him!" I shouted back.

"Me, too!" he yelled. "Me too!" and we grabbed each other, hugged, and spun in a circle, right there in center field. Then he was gone and the moment was over.

I look for myself whenever I see the film of that moment on TV but I can never find me or Clint, so nobody believes me but I know I was there.

And years later, I told that story to Thomson and Branca, who had turned up at WCBS-TV for an interview with our sports correspondent on an anniversary of that "shot heard round the world." Of course, I shook hands with both of them.

"I was there," I said.

"Wasn’t everybody?" said the man who had throw that fateful pitch, a pleasant but skeptical Ralph Branca.

(NOTE: Well, not everybody. I was in a bar on 42nd Street where I heard Russ Hodge’s famous call over the radio. Unlike John who danced with joy, I sat there in shell-shocked silence, a crushed Dodger fan. If you have a "Moment to Remember" that you would like to share, send it to me for consideration, care of this newspaper. Please keep it as brief as possible. Ed Flynn.)