Sports Curtain Calls
According to baseball historian Peter Morris, in May 1881 Detroit fans cheered a home run by Charlie Bennett until he bowed to them.
On October 3, 1951, after Bobby Thomson hit the pennant-winning home run for the New York Giants in the ninth inning of the third game of the National League playoff, jubliant Giant fans swarmed the playing field of the Polo Grounds, running after the triumphant Giant players, who raced towards the clubhouse which was located in center field. Author Joshua Prager, in his definitive volume of Thomson's homer The Echoing Green, wrote, "(T)housands of fans hungry for a curtain call stood now outside a green clubhouse chanting 'We want Thomson!' We want Thomson!'" Several minutes later (about 15 minutes after the actual home run), "word reached Thomson that he was wanted outside, that only a curtain call might dissipate the stubborn throng (...) And so out Thomson went, wading through the packed clubhouse to its top outdoor step." New York Times sportswriter John Drebinger called the crowd's response "the most frenzied 'curtain calls' ever afforded a ballplayer."
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