This article is about the famous baseball catch. For other uses see The Catch (disambiguation).

The Catch: Willie Mays hauls in Vic Wertz's drive at the warning track in the 1954 World Series. The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians.

Mays and Polo Grounds center field distance marker

The Catch refers to a memorable defensive baseball play by Willie Mays on September 29, 1954, during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians at the Polo Grounds in New York. Baseball is a Bat-and-ball Sport played between two teams of nine players each Willie Howard Mays Jr (born May 6 1931 is a retired American Baseball player who played the majority of his career with the New York and San Francisco Giants Events 522 BC - Darius I of Persia kills the Magian usurper Gaumâta securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire. Champions Major League Baseball World Series: New York Giants over Cleveland Indians (4-0 All-Star Game The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians. The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in, that currently play in the National League West Division. The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different Stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City used by Baseball 's New York Giants The score was tied 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Starting pitcher Sal Maglie walked Larry Doby and gave up a single to Al Rosen. In Baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the Pitcher's mound toward the Catcher to begin each play with the goal of Salvatore Anthony Maglie ( April 26, 1917 - December 28, 1992) was a Major League Baseball player for the New York Giants A base on balls ( BB) is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in Baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire Lawrence Eugene "Larry" Doby ( December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional Baseball player In Baseball, a single is the most common type of base hit, accomplished through the act of a batter safely reaching First base by hitting Albert Leonard Rosen (born February 29, 1924, in Spartanburg South Carolina) nicknamed " Al " " Flip " and the With runners on first and second, Giants manager Leo Durocher summoned left-handed relief pitcher Don Liddle to replace Maglie and pitch to Cleveland's Vic Wertz, also a left-hander. In Baseball, baserunning is the act of running around the bases performed by members of the team at bat In Baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager (or more formally the field manager) this individual controls matters Leo Ernest Durocher ( July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991) nicknamed Leo the Lip, was an American Infielder and A relief pitcher or reliever is a Baseball or Softball Pitcher who enters the game after the Starting pitcher is removed due to injury Donald Eugene Liddle ( May 25 1925 - June 5 2000) was an American left-handed Pitcher in Major League Baseball Victor Woodrow Wertz ( February 9 1925 – July 7 1983) was a Major League Baseball First baseman and Outfielder

Wertz worked the count to two balls and a strike before crushing Liddle's fourth pitch to deep center field. Some reports say the ball traveled 450 feet, which is an exaggeration, but in many stadiums the shot would have been a home run and given the Indians a 5-2 lead. However, this was the spacious Polo Grounds, and Giants center fielder Willie Mays, who was playing in shallow center field, made an on-the-run over-the-shoulder catch (looking like a wide receiver) to make the out. Willie Howard Mays Jr (born May 6 1931 is a retired American Baseball player who played the majority of his career with the New York and San Francisco Giants A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football Having caught the ball, he immediately spun and threw the ball, losing his hat in characteristic style. Doby, the runner on second, might have been able to score the go-ahead run had he tagged at the moment the ball was caught; but as it was, he ran when the ball was hit, and then had to scramble back to retag and only got as far as third base. Liddle was then relieved by Marv Grissom, to whom he supposedly remarked "Well, I got my man!"

Broadcast

Jack Brickhouse was calling the game along with Russ Hodges on NBC Television. Marvin Edward Grissom ( March 31 1918 - September 18 2005) was an American Pitcher in Major League Baseball for John Beasley "Jack" Brickhouse ( January 24, 1916 &ndash August 6, 1998) was an American sports broadcast announcer Russell Patrick Hodges ( June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American broadcaster who did The audio has appeared on CD in the book And the Fans Roared and also as accompaniment to the World Series film, as with a Youtube item. [1]

• "There's a long drive waaay back in center field. . . waaay baaack, baaack, it is. . . caaaaaught by Wil-lie Mays! [garbled - some say it sounds like "Say-Hey Mays"] [pause for crowd noise] The runner on second, Doby, is able to tag and go to third; Wille Mays just brought this crowd to its feet. . . with a catch. . . which must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people. Boy! [pause] See where that 483 foot mark is in center field? The ball itself. . . Russ, you know this ballpark better than anyone else I know. . . had to go about 460, didn't it?"
• "It certainly did, and I don't know how Willie did it, but he's been doing it all year. "

Diagram of the Polo Grounds from 1951

There is some question of the deep center field distance. The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different Stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City used by Baseball 's New York Giants Sometimes there was a 475 sign in center field, sometimes 483. The ballpark was demolished in 1964, and it is unclear what was being measured when. One theory (as posed in Mysteries within Green Cathedrals, a SABR article by Phil Lowry) is that the 475 was the distance to the monument and the 483 was to the clubhouse overhang. The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown New York, in August 1971 Either way, the center field corners were well under 460.

Aftermath and response

The play prevented the Indians from taking the lead and, in the bottom of the 10th, the Giants won the game on their way to sweeping the Series. The Catch is often considered to be one of the best and most memorable plays in the history of baseball because of the difficulty of the play and the importance of the game itself. Some have argued that The Catch is remembered so well in part because it was made in New York City, by a player for a New York team, and on television in a World Series game, whereas other catches (including many made by Mays) were less celebrated because they came in regular season games or in other cities. The City of New York Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Mays himself did not believe "The Catch" to be the best defensive play he ever made. ^[1] In the CD collection Ernie Harwell's Audio Scrapbook, issued in 2007, Mays talks about a running bare-hand catch he made at Forbes Field in 1951, in which the Giants' players teased the young rookie by treating him with complete indifference when he returned to the bench. William Earnest "Ernie" Harwell (born January 25, 1918 in Washington Georgia) is a former American Sportscaster, known Forbes Field was a Baseball park in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania from 1909 to 1971 Mays used to cite a catch he made against the center field wall at Ebbets Field, in which he had to scurry back so fast he did not have time to turn around. Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball park located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, USA. Other observers have noted that Mays' quick relay throw from deep center field was the most important part of the 1954 play, the catch itself being merely a matter of Mays outrunning the ball.

In 2006, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign physicist Dr. This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning Alan Nathan found that if the weather had been one degree warmer on the day of The Catch, it would not have happened. If the temperature had been 77 degrees Fahrenheit rather than 76, the ball would have traveled two more inches, just enough to bounce off the edge of Mays' glove. Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736 a German Physicist who proposed it in 1724 Nathan said, "This is the ultimate proof of the old adage that 'baseball is a game of inches. '"^[2]

However, the actual film footage shows that Mays "watched" the ball into his glove, thus the U of I physicist's basic assumption, that Mays just barely caught up to the ball, is undermined. Mays is seen running and also watching the flight of the ball over his left shoulder (a fact also described in the Arnold Hano book, A Day in the Bleachers). As the ball is coming down, Mays veers just a little bit to his right, then reaches towards his left at the last second to catch the ball, which may be why viewers of only the still photos think that he just barely caught up to it. Immediately after catching the ball, as he turns he works to get a grip on the ball, then throws as hard as he can, using an underarmed motion to release the ball as quickly as possible from the way he caught it, then spins around and falls from his own momentum.

See also

• Immaculate Reception
• The Catch (American football)
• Hand of God goal
• The Drive
• The Flip
• The Shot
• The Fumble
• Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)
• The Play
• The Tackle
• Ball of the Century

References

Further sources

• Shortly after the 1954 Series, Arnold Hano wrote a book called A Day in the Bleachers, describing the game from his vantage point in the Polo Grounds cheap seats. He devoted an entire chapter to The Catch (and The Throw that followed it), describing everything that was going on in his head and in the stadium as the ball traversed its high arc from far away at home plate to near where the writer sat. At first, it looked like an easy catch; then, as Mays continued his full-tilt sprint, the writer became certain it was going to be over his head; then he became equally certain that Mays would outrun it: "For the second time, I knew Mays would make the catch. " That fascinating and unique chapter was reproduced in one entry in The Fireside Book of Baseball series, along with an abridged collection of that series called The Baseball Reader. Hano would also go on to write a biography of Willie Mays along with his other books on sports figures and events. The 1954 book was reissued in a 50th anniversary edition in 2004.
• A book called The Fans Roared, published in 2000, contains an audio capture of this play as described by World Series TV announcer Jack Brickhouse along with regular Giants announcer Russ Hodges. John Beasley "Jack" Brickhouse ( January 24, 1916 &ndash August 6, 1998) was an American sports broadcast announcer Russell Patrick Hodges ( June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American broadcaster who did Brick is a little hard to hear over the screams of the crowd at the moment of the catch, but shortly afterward as the crowd settled down he said, "Willie Mays just brought this crowd to its feet with a catch that must have looked like an optical illusion to a lot of people!" He would go on to use that expression in the World Series film of this classic sports moment.

External links

• TIME's World Series Memorable Moment #7: The Catch
• The Sporting News's 25 Greatest Moments in Baseball #9: The Catch
• The catch on youtube