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For nearly half a century since Bobby Thomson hit the home run that won the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants, Ralph Branca, the Brooklyn Dodgers right-hander who threw that fastball, has known that the Giants were using a high-powered telescope and a buzzer system late that season at the Polo Grounds to alert their batters to the next pitch. ''I've known it since 1954, but I never said anything,'' Branca said last night. ''I didn't want to cry over spilled milk. I became friendly with Bobby and I didn't want to demean his home run. I didn't want to cheapen a legendary moment in baseball.'' Yesterday in The Wall Street Journal, which reported the sign stealing, several '51 Giants acknowledged the presence of a telescope that was perched behind a window in Manager Leo Durocher's office in the center-field clubhouse and the buzzer system connected to the Giants' dugout and right-field bullpen.When Thomson was asked if he knew that Branca would throw a fastball that he drilled into the lower left-field stands for a three-run homer and a 5-4 victory in the decisive third game of the N.L. playoff, he hedged, but finally said: ''My answer is no. I was always proud of that swing.
Sign stealing is one of baseball's oldest dirty tricks, but it seldom surfaces.
Yvars has told how he sat at the end of the bullpen bench next to the buzzer. In the system installed by the Polo Grounds electrician, one buzz meant that the spotter, perched behind the telescope (that Coach Herman Franks had suggested to Durocher) had stolen the sign for a breaking ball. No buzz meant a fastball.
''Watch me in the bullpen,'' Yvars told his teammates. ''I'll have a baseball in my hand. If I hold onto the ball, it's a fastball. If I toss the ball in the air, it's a breaking ball.''
''I threw him another good fastball, up and in, and he hit it,'' Branca recalled. ''I don't know if he knew it was coming, but even if he did, you can't always hit it. At home run-hitting contests, they know what's coming and they'll still pop it up.'
''I wasn't going to bring it up to Bobby,'' Branca said. ''To me, it was a forbidden subject. Dressen lost the pennant for us, not that game. He wore out our pitching staff trying to outsmart Durocher. Sal told me they stole signs on the road too. Everywhere but Brooklyn. Sal told me they didn't dare try to steal 'em in Ebbets Field, because if they ever got discovered there, the fans would've killed 'em.''