The Catch was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

play made by New York Giants center fielder

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

on September 29, 1954, during Game 1 of the

1954 World Series The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians. The Giants swept the Series in four games to win their first championship since , defeating the heavily favored Ind ...

at the Polo Grounds in

Upper Manhattan, New York City Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...

. During the eighth inning with the score tied 2–2,

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

batter

Vic Wertz Victor Woodrow Wertz (February 9, 1925 – July 7, 1983) was an American professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He had a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career from 1947 to 1963. He played for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Brown ...

hit a deep fly ball to

center field A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

that had the runners on base poised to score. However, Mays made an over-the-shoulder catch while on the run to record the out, and his throw back to the

infield Infield is a sports term whose definition depends on the sport in whose context it is used. Baseball In baseball, the diamond, as well as the area immediately beyond it, has both grass and dirt, in contrast to the more distant, usually grass-c ...

prevented the runners from advancing. The Giants won the game 5–2 in

extra innings Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...

, and eventually the World Series. The Catch is regarded as one of the greatest plays in baseball history.

The play

In the top of the 8th inning with the score tied 2–2, Giants starting

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Sal Maglie Salvatore Anthony Maglie (April 26, 1917 – December 28, 1992) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and later, a scout and a pitching coach. He played from 1945 to 1958 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers, New Y ...

walked Indians lead off hitter

Larry Doby Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black pl ...

Al Rosen Albert Leonard Rosen (February 29, 1924 – March 13, 2015), nicknamed "Flip" and "The Hebrew Hammer", was an American baseball third baseman and right-handed slugger for the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball for ten seasons in the 194 ...

singled, putting runners on first and second. New York

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Leo Durocher Leo Ernest Durocher (French spelling Léo Ernest Durocher) (; July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip" and "Lippy", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an infie ...

summoned left-handed

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

Don Liddle Donald Eugene Liddle (May 25, 1925 – June 5, 2000) was an American left-handed pitcher in professional baseball who played four seasons in the Major Leagues for the Milwaukee Braves, New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals from 1953 through 1 ...

to pitch to Cleveland's Wertz, a left-handed batter. Wertz worked the count to two balls and one strike before hitting Liddle's fourth pitch approximately to deep center field. In many stadiums the ball would have been a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

, which would have given the Indians a 5–2 lead. However, the Polo Grounds center field was larger than average, and Mays, who was playing in shallow center field, made an on-the-run, over-the-shoulder catch at the

warning track The warning track is the part of the baseball field that is closest to the wall or fence and is made of a different material than the field. Common materials for the warning track include dirt or rubber; it should always be of a different material ...

for the out. Having caught the ball, he immediately spun and threw to second base. 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; as it was, he ran when the ball was hit, then had to scramble back to tag. Mays' throw went to second base, holding Cleveland to runners at first and third with one out. Right-hander

Marv Grissom Marvin Edward Grissom (March 31, 1918 – September 19, 2005) was an American professional baseball pitcher and pitching coach. During his active career he appeared in 356 games in Major League Baseball for the New York / San Francisco Giants ...

then relieved Liddle, who supposedly remarked to

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Freddie Fitzsimmons, "Well, I got ''my'' man." Grissom walked pinch hitter Dale Mitchell to load the bases, then struck out pinch hitter

Dave Pope David Pope (June 17, 1921 – August 28, 1999) was an American Negro league and Major League Baseball outfielder who played one inning for the Homestead Grays and for four seasons in MLB for the Cleveland Indians in 1952, and from 1954 to 1955. He ...

, and got catcher

Jim Hegan James Edward Hegan (August 3, 1920 – June 17, 1984) was an American professional baseball player, coach, and scout. He played for 17 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to and to , most notably for the Cleveland Indians w ...

to fly out, ending the inning with no runs scored.

Broadcast

Jack Brickhouse John Beasley Brickhouse (January 24, 1916 – August 6, 1998) was an American sportscaster. Known primarily for his play-by-play coverage of Chicago Cubs games on WGN-TV from 1948 to 1981, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Ha ...

, calling the game for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

television along with

Russ Hodges Russell Pleasant Hodges (June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American sportscaster who did play-by-play for several baseball teams, most notably the New York Giants / San Francisco Giants. He is perhaps best remembered for his call of Bobby ...

, described Mays' catch to viewers. The audio has been published on CD with the 2000 book ''And the Fans Roared'', and also as accompaniment to the World Series film.

Brickhouse: There's a long drive... way back at center field... way back, back, it is a... Oh my! Caught by Mays! The runner on second, Doby, is able to go to third. Willie Mays just brought this crowd to its feet with a catch which must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people! Boy! auseNotice 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? Hodges: It certainly did, and I don't see how Willie did it, but he's been doing it all year. Brickhouse: Willie Mays just made the catch of the day.

There is some question of the depth of straight-away center field. Sometimes there was a 475 sign in center field, sometimes 483 (as was the case in 1954). The ballpark was demolished in 1964, and it is unclear what was being measured when. One theory is that 475 was the distance to the front of the clubhouse overhang, and 483 was the distance to the rear wall under the overhang. Regardless, the ball was not hit to the deepest part of center field; where Mays made his catch is estimated by baseball researchers as not more than from home plate.

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. Mays himself did not believe "The Catch" to be the best defensive play he ever made. In the CD collection ''

Ernie Harwell William Earnest Harwell (January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 seasons, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the actio ...

's Audio Scrapbook'', issued in 2006, Mays talks about a running ''bare-handed'' catch he made at

Forbes Field Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

in 1951, in which the Giants' players teased the young rookie by treating him with complete indifference when he returned to the bench. Mays also cited a catch he made against the center field wall at

Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five pro ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, in which he had to scurry back so fast he did not have time to turn around. In 2007, a

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

calculated that if the temperature had been rather than , the ball would have traveled farther than it did, and The Catch might not have been completed.

Notes

References

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