BOSTON — Ralph Branca has thrown out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park 65 years after his former teammate, Jackie Robinson, broke baseball’s color barrier.

The 86-year-old Branca threw the pitch on one bounce from the front edge of the mound to his son-in-law, Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, standing just in front of the left batter’s box.

All major-league players are wearing Robinson’s No. 42 on Sunday. Branca is the only surviving member of the Brooklyn Dodgers 1947 team on which Robinson made his major-league debut April 15.

Branca was 21-12 with a 2.67 ERA that season.

He recalled “just what a great guy (Robinson) was, and I was happy to be his friend.”

Branca is most remembered for allowing Bobby Thomson’s winning homer in a 1951 playoff game that gave the New York Giants the NL pennant.