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. 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. 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.
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. 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!"
Jack Brickhouse was calling the game along with Russ Hodges on NBC Television. 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."There is some question of the deep center field distance. 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. Either way, the center field corners were well under 460.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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.The CatchThe Catch may refer to:
In sport: The Catch (baseball), a defensive play by Willie Mays in the 1954 World SeriesThe Catch (American football), the winning touchdown reception the 1982 NFC Championship
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1954 World Series
Team / Wins Manager Season
New York Giants (4) Leo Durocher 97-57, .630
GA: 5
Cleveland Indians (0) Al Lopez 111-43, .
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Baseball
A view of the playing field at Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
First played June 4, 1838 in Beachville, Ontario, Canada (first time ever recorded)
Characteristics
Team Members 9 at a time
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Willie Mays
Center fielder
Born: May 6, 1931 (1931-05-06)
Westfield, Alabama
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
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September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 93 days remaining until the end of the year.
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The following are the baseball events of the year 1954 throughout the world. This year in baseball
2000s
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1954 World Series
Team / Wins Manager Season
New York Giants (4) Leo Durocher 97-57, .630
GA: 5
Cleveland Indians (0) Al Lopez 111-43, .
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San Francisco Giants
Established 1883
Based in San Francisco since 1958
Team Logo
Cap Insignia
Major league affiliations
National League (1883–present)
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Cleveland Indians
Established 1901
Team Logo
Cap Insignia
Major league affiliations
American League (1901–present)
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Polo Grounds
Location West 155th Street and Eighth Avenue
New York, New York (now demolished)
Broke ground 1890
Opened April 22, 1891
Renovated June 28, 1911
Expanded 1923
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In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws 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 it or draw a walk.
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Sal Maglie
Pitcher
Born: April 26, 1917
Niagara Falls, New York
Died: December 28, 1992 (aged 75)
Niagara Falls, New York
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 9, 1945
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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 calls balls. It is better known as a walk.
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Larry Doby
Outfielder
Born: December 13, 1923
Camden, South Carolina
Died: June 18, 2003 (aged 79)
Montclair, New Jersey
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
July 5, 1947
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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 a fair ball (thus becoming a runner) and getting to first base before a fielder puts him out.
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Al Rosen
Third Baseman
Born: February 29, 1924 (1924-02-29)
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
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In baseball, baserunning is the act of running around the bases performed by members of the team at bat.
In general, baserunning is a tactical part of the game with the goal of eventually reaching home to score a run.
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In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager (or more formally, the field manager); this individual controls matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership.
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Leo Durocher
Shortstop/Manager
Born: July 27, 1905
Died: October 7, 1991 (aged 86)
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
October 2, 1925
for the New York Yankees
Final game
April 18, 1945
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A relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, ejection from the game or fatigue.
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Donald Eugene Liddle (May 25, 1925 - June 5, 2000) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants from 1954 to 1956.
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Vic Wertz
Right Fielder/First Baseman
Born: February 9, 1925
Died: July 7, 1983 (aged 58)
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1947
for the Detroit Tigers
Final game
September 19, 1963
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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 all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring runs for himself and each runner who was already on base, with no
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Willie Mays
Center fielder
Born: May 6, 1931 (1931-05-06)
Westfield, Alabama
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
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For the funk song by Michael Henderson, see Wide Receiver (song)
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football. Only players in certain positions are eligible to catch a forward pass.
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Marvin Edward Grissom (March 31, 1918 - September 18, 2005) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball for the New York & San Francisco Giants (1946 and 1953-58), Detroit Tigers (1949), Chicago White Sox (1952), Boston Red Sox
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John Beasley "Jack" Brickhouse (January 24, 1916 – August 6, 1998) was an American sports broadcast announcer.
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Russell Patrick Hodges (June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American broadcaster who did play-by-play for several baseball teams, most notably the New York and San Francisco Giants.
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Polo Grounds
Location West 155th Street and Eighth Avenue
New York, New York (now demolished)
Broke ground 1890
Opened April 22, 1891
Renovated June 28, 1911
Expanded 1923
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The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August of 1971.
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