Perseverance pays for San Francisco's Ishikawa

Travis Ishikawa, mired in a slump in the minors, nearly gave up his Major League Baseball career this summer before adding his name to Giants' lore with a home run that put his club in the World Series.

Ishikawa's three-run homer last Thursday in the bottom of the ninth gave San Francisco a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League pennant and his euphoric trip around the bases recalled one of baseball's most famed playoff moments.

In 1951, Scotland-born Bobby Thomson slugged a homer for the New York Giants that beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in a playoff for a World Series berth that came to be known as baseball's "Shot Heard 'Round the World".