I spent a good portion of last night listening to Game 7 of the NLCS on the radio last night. For those of you that missed it, the highlight of the game was Mets centerfielder Endy Chávez’ amazing grab in the sixth inning, saving the Mets from what should have been a two-run homer.
Josh Levin, my editor over at Slate, has a great piece stacking up this play to the most famous baseball catch in history, Willie Mays’ The Catch during the 1954 World Series. Josh talked with Arnold Hano, a baseball writer who captured Mays’ astonishing play.
Josh writes:
[Hano] explains that the great Mays backtracked to the 460-foot mark in the Polo Grounds. “He outran the ball, he caught it with his back to the stands, and he whirled to make the throw.” When Chávez caught the ball, Hano says, he was 360 feet from home plate. “I don’t want to downgrade this play, it was a marvelous play,” he says. “It may be that the stands are a little closer today and therefore you can make that catch.”
I’m with Hano on this one. A 460-foot catch is far more impressive than a 360-foot catch.
In other news for you to ponder this weekend, Kim Jong Il says he’s “sorry“, and Becky and I are going to visit my folks in Santa Monica. Not that those two things are related, mind you.
460 feet? I don’t think there is a park that has that distance on it. Plus Endy’s catch also includes an amazing jump and the timing to go over the wall.
The Polo Grounds measured 483 to straightaway center.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_Grounds
Here are the specifications for the Polo Grounds.
http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/pologr.htm
Note that in 1954, it was 483 Ft. to Center field. I am a rabid Met fan. Endy’s catch was spectacular and nothing should be taken away from it. I had the privilege to watch Mays throughout his career. This catch was not even the best of his career, just the most famous.
What made this catch so incredible was that, even to this day, I doubt that anyone would have caught up with it. Mays had an uncanny ability to start on the shortest route to the ball with the crack of the bat. It was done on the grandest of stages.
I think what Don Liddle, the pitcher who came in just to face Wertz and no one else in that inning, did when he reached the dugout after the play sums up how incredible a catch it was. He smiled, threw his glove on the bench, and said, “Well, I got my man.
What makes Mays’ catch even more incredible is the fact that with his back to the plate he whirled and threw the ball back to the infield 400′.