What Inspired Don DeLillo to Write Underworld?

            At 3:58pm EST on October 3, 1951, Bobby Thompson of the New York Giants hit a home run off of Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers to beat the Dodgers 2 games to 1 in a pennant playoff series.  The Giants trailed by double digits in the standings to even get into that series and then they came from behind to win the series.  There was a massive public celebration at the game and in the surrounding neighborhoods.  Russ Hodges’ call of the game, repeating, “The Giants win the pennant!  The Giants win the pennant!” has become an iconic moment in baseball history and in the history of America.      

Yet, for all that celebration, on the front page of the New York Times the next day, there was a striking asymmetry content wise, though laid out in a formally symmetrical way.  It was a juxtaposition that struck DeLillo with a force of revelation.  He went on to tell NPR’s Terry Gross (in the video below):

            On the front page of the times, there was a headline on the left about what is now a legendary ball game … On the right side of the page, symmetrically matched, three columns, a three line headline, same typeface, ‘Soviets explode atomic bomb.’  Something about the juxtaposition of these two events made me think there is something here I wanted to explore."