Willie Mays the Catch

I still remember swoboda's catch in '69.Much more difficult than this and kinda redefined what outfield defense is all about.

of course it would be a homerun in every ball park today the deppest ball park to center fieled is probly no more than 430 500 is crazy

there's no doubt that this is a great catch, but the greatest?...i've seen some amazing catches over the last 20 years...

it seems to me that what makes this so special is that filming and video was just starting to come into it's own and so it was the first great play that lived on through posterity...

People have to remember this park was roughly 500 ft to dead center..(to actually hit one out the ball would have to travel 505 ft. because of an overhang) that's the reason this catch is special..Wille was roughly 450 ft.from home plate when he caught this..the ballpark was rectangular in shape..(polo grounds) this would have been a Home Run in most of if not all the ball parks today.

i thought he dove? if not i did that in school for kickball a couple months ago

Umm, Horace Stoneham owned the Giants. Walter O'Malley owned the Dodgers.

upperdeck4-

You're right, my error,
I flipped the names....... It was the quote really I was trying to get across and one of the best baseball quotes about a player with great skills.

mind...I have no idea..I remember Mays
liked the idea of playing a bit shallow to
get the short stuff and knew he had the
speed to catch up to a lot. The Polo
Grounds weren't the norm size wise..it
was an absolute barn..about 495 to the
nitch in center. Like I said to someone
else Willie was light years ahead of most
of the fielders of that day. He could flat
fly and had a great arm.

Both Joe Dimaggio and Mickey Mantle say that Willie Mays was the best baseball player ever, and thats good enough for me.... Case Closed.

Wistoncap....agree fully.