The Glory Days of New York baseball were studded with great moments: Al Gionfriddo’s stumbling catch of a would-be Joe DiMaggio home run in the 1947 World Series; DiMaggio’s extraordinary comeback from crippling injury to demolish the Red Sox in a crucial midseason matchup in 1949; Bobby Thomson’s "shot heard ‘round the world" in 1951, the most famous swing in all of baseball lore; Willie Mays’ implausible over-the-head catch that kept the Giants alive in Game One of the 1954 World Series; Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956, marking the only such event in World Series history; and so many others, by no means confined to October.

Was the baseball better then? Probably not. But the media captured the moments and sent them around the world, and the super-charged rivalries of the era kept fans talking about the drama of the plays for days, weeks, even years after.