Ralph Branca
Brooklyn Dodgers 1944–1953; Detroit Tigers 1953–1954; New York Yankees 1954; Brooklyn Dodgers 1956
Percentile snapshot
1951 season — qualified pitchers
of 53 qualified 1951 pitchers (min 158 IP)
Career, era-adjusted
ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.
Season by season
Batting
| Season | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | wRC+ | OPS+ | wOBA | sWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | 21 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -128.7 | -100.0 | .000 | -1.5 |
| 1945 | 16 | 42 | 40 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | .100 | .100 | .125 | .225 | -55.9 | -37.7 | .104 | 1.8 |
| 1946 | 24 | 23 | 18 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 | .111 | .304 | .111 | .415 | 35.6 | 20.3 | .248 | 0.3 |
| 1947 | 43 | 113 | 97 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 7 | 34 | 0 | 0 | .124 | .183 | .134 | .317 | -25.7 | -15.6 | .161 | 7.2 |
| 1948 | 36 | 82 | 74 | 3 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 0 | .203 | .253 | .216 | .469 | 20.9 | 26.9 | .227 | 3.6 |
| 1949 | 34 | 79 | 62 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 26 | 0 | 0 | .081 | .197 | .097 | .294 | -21.2 | -19.7 | .165 | 1.1 |
| 1950 | 43 | 45 | 34 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | .118 | .211 | .294 | .505 | 23.5 | 30.6 | .232 | 0.7 |
| 1951 | 42 | 71 | 63 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 26 | 0 | 0 | .175 | .200 | .190 | .390 | -8.0 | 5.2 | .183 | 3.6 |
| 1952 | 16 | 20 | 19 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | .158 | .158 | .158 | .316 | -31.6 | -12.1 | .145 | 0.5 |
| 1953 | 24 | 37 | 34 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 0 | .118 | .167 | .176 | .343 | -21.9 | -7.8 | .166 | 0.2 |
| 1954 | 22 | 19 | 17 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .353 | .421 | .412 | .833 | 138.6 | 130.9 | .394 | -0.2 |
| 1956 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.1 |
Pitching
| Season | G | GS | W | L | SV | CG | SHO | H | ER | BB | SO | HR | IP | ERA | WHIP | K/9 | FIP | FIP- | ERA+ | sWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 35 | 32 | 16 | 2 | 44.7 | 7.05 | 1.746 | 3.22 | 4.88 | 134.7 | 51.4 | -1.5 |
| 1945 | 16 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 73 | 37 | 79 | 69 | 4 | 109.7 | 3.04 | 1.386 | 5.66 | 4.01 | 105.4 | 125.4 | 1.8 |
| 1946 | 24 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 62 | 29 | 41 | 42 | 4 | 67.3 | 3.88 | 1.530 | 5.61 | 3.67 | 107.5 | 88.1 | 0.3 |
| 1947 | 43 | 36 | 21 | 12 | 1 | 15 | 4 | 251 | 83 | 98 | 148 | 22 | 280.0 | 2.67 | 1.246 | 4.76 | 3.65 | 87.7 | 155.8 | 7.2 |
| 1948 | 36 | 28 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 189 | 84 | 80 | 122 | 24 | 215.7 | 3.51 | 1.247 | 5.09 | 4.05 | 100.5 | 114.9 | 3.6 |
| 1949 | 34 | 27 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 181 | 91 | 91 | 109 | 21 | 186.7 | 4.39 | 1.457 | 5.26 | 4.32 | 104.5 | 94.2 | 1.1 |
| 1950 | 43 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 152 | 74 | 55 | 100 | 24 | 142.0 | 4.69 | 1.458 | 6.34 | 4.41 | 105.5 | 89.1 | 0.7 |
| 1951 | 42 | 27 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 13 | 3 | 180 | 74 | 85 | 118 | 19 | 204.0 | 3.26 | 1.299 | 5.21 | 3.73 | 93.5 | 122.2 | 3.6 |
| 1952 | 16 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 52 | 26 | 21 | 26 | 8 | 61.0 | 3.84 | 1.197 | 3.84 | 4.50 | 120.8 | 97.1 | 0.5 |
| 1953 | 24 | 14 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 113 | 59 | 36 | 55 | 11 | 113.0 | 4.70 | 1.319 | 4.38 | 3.93 | 95.8 | 86.6 | 0.2 |
| 1954 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72 | 33 | 43 | 22 | 10 | 58.0 | 5.12 | 1.983 | 3.41 | 6.24 | 169.7 | 71.6 | -0.2 |
| 1956 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.0 | 0.00 | 1.500 | 9.00 | 3.23 | 81.9 | — | 0.1 |
sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.
Career totals
Batting
Pitching
A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.
Best games
Batting
| Date | Game | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953-07-25 | NYY @ DET Gameday | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 1950-07-22 | LAD @ PIT Gameday | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 1950-06-08 | LAD @ PIT Gameday | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 1951-08-11 | ATL @ LAD Gameday | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 1947-04-30 | CHC @ LAD Gameday | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Pitching
| Date | Game | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945-08-09 | CIN @ LAD Gameday | 12.0 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 0 |
| 1947-05-27 | LAD @ SF Gameday | 9.0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 2 |
| 1947-07-02 | SF @ LAD Gameday | 9.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 2 |
| 1950-06-19 | SF @ LAD Gameday | 9.0 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
| 1951-08-11 | ATL @ LAD Gameday | 9.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 1 |
Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.
Honors
Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.