Willie Mays - Catch 24

A celebration of 4 of Willie Mays' greatest catches on the 70th anniversary of his most famous one

INTRODUCTION From The Sports Time Traveler™

The Say Hey Kid made many, many magnificent catches in his career in addition to his most famous one, the one known around the baseball world as simply, “The Catch.”

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of “The Catch,” I made 4 virtual sports time travel trips to experience 4 of his greatest catches, which were made in 4 different decades.

I had to endure a whirlwind of sports time travel to put together this article.

Here are my reports:

“The Catch”

THE POLO GROUNDS - September 30, 1954

Yesterday I was at the old Polo Grounds, virtually of course, for game 1 of the 1954 World Series.

The visiting Cleveland Indians were the heavy favorites. The Indians had an astonishing record of 111 - 43. That’s the best record in baseball since the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates posted a 110 - 42 season. The Indians record was better than even the famed 1927 “Murderer’s Row” Yankees who went 110 - 44.

The Indians’ strength was stellar pitching. With 4 future hall of famers on the mound (Bob Feller, Early Wynn, Hal Newhouser and Bob Lemon) the Indians’ pitching staff had an incredible ERA of just 2.78.

Their opponent, the New York Giants won just 97 games. But they had one major advantage over Cleveland. The Giants had 23 year old Willie Mays, the National League MVP. Mays had hit 41 homers, driven in 110 runs and led the NL in batting at .345. He also played centerfield as well as anyone had ever played the position.

A Tight Game

Entering the 8th inning of the game the score was tied at 2, as two veteran pitchers, Bob Lemon of the Indians, and the Giants’ Sal “The Barber” Maglie had both been superb.

In the top of the 8th, Maglie faced the heart of the Indians’ order. He walked the first batter, Larry Doby. Then he gave up a single to Al Rosen. With 2 runners on and no outs, Giants’ manager, Leo Durocher, decided it was time to take out the righty Sal Maglie with left handed slugger Vic Wertz coming to the plate. Wertz had blasted a Maglie pitch for a 2-run triple in the 1st inning and had singles off Maglie in his other 2 trips to the plate.

Durocher brought in lefty Don Liddle. Liddle, was a strong pitcher who had thrown 3 shutouts, during the season.

Wertz teed off on Don Liddle and hit a tremendous drive to deep straightaway centerfield. The ball would have been out of the park in any other stadium. But here in the Polo Grounds, centerfield is more spacious than in any other park. The fence measures 483 feet.

From the crack of the bat, Willie Mays turned and sprinted straight towards the fence, showing off his speed. He was one of the fastest men in baseball (he led the NL in steals the next 4 straight seasons).

Dick Young of the New York Daily News was in the press box watching the play. In today’s paper he described the breathtaking action as the Say Hey Kid raced after the ball. Young resorted to comical exaggeration because what he witnessed was so fantastical, “In this park of strange dimensions… Wertz straight-away drive was catchable. Willie Mays, back to the plate, took off after it. He ran for about five minutes, slowed down slightly to turn his head for another look, then seeing he hadn’t yet reached the estimated point of arrival, threw his legs into high gear again and ran for another couple of minutes.”

Mays was nearly at the centerfield wall when Young wrote, “He shot his hands over his head, the way a football player goes for a lead pass.”

And the Say Hey Kid grabbed the ball as he was facing the fence.

However the play wasn’t over.

From this far deep into the outfield, Larry Doby could’ve possibly tagged up from second base and scored.

But Mays heroic effort was only half done.

He instantly whirled 180 degrees and fired a throw back to the infield so hard that he landed on all fours.

Mays’ throw held Doby to third base while Rosen remained at first.

The play was stunning.

It was magical.

It instantly turned Willie Mays from simply the best young player in baseball to nearly mythical status.

The Indians could have score 2, maybe 3 runs on that drive by Wertz.

Instead they went out in the 8th without a run.

You can watch the video of what we now call, “The Catch,” here:

Indians 2 Giants 2 - middle of the 8th inning

The game went into extra innings.

In the bottom of the 10th, Willie Mays was the 2nd batter. He walked. Then he stole second base. The next batter Hank Thompson was then intentionally walked. That brought up a pinch hitter, Dusty Rhodes.

Perhaps Indians’ starter Bob Lemon was now a little unhinged with Mays on second base representing the potential winning run.

Lemon threw to Rhodes.

He hit a short pop fly ball down the right field line.

But in the oddly shaped Polo Grounds, where the right field line was just 258 feet from home plate, the ball that Rhodes hit, which was just more than half the distance of Wertz’ drive in the 8th, was good enough to clear the fence for a walk-off 3-run homer.

And Willie Mays scored from second base with the winning run.

Here is the video of Dusty Rhodes game winning homer. Watch after the ball clears the fence as a jubilant Willie Mays leaps up and down before he trots home to score the winning run.

Coverage of “The Catch”

Today in the New York Daily News a banner headline on the back page celebrated Mays’ game saving catch:

This is the caption under the back page picture of the catch:

Jim McCulley wrote in the New York Daily News that Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall was at the game sitting next to the recently retired Joe DiMaggio. Piersall told McCulley that DiMaggio said, “Mays’ catch was better than the one Gionfrido made against him (in the 1947 World Series).”

In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Gordon Cobbledick wrote, “This was a ball game that went strictly according to the scenario. The Indians had excellent pitching. The Giants had Willie Mays. Mays won.”

POSTSCRIPT

The momentum from “The Catch,” not only led the Giants to win game 1, but to pull off one of the most unlikely World Series sweeps in baseball history.

Willie Mays, playing in his first full season, officially became a World Champion and a legend.

Now we jump ahead 10 years in the sports time travel machine to the spring of 1964.

“The Catch II”

SHEA STADIUM - May 30 1964

I’m here at brand new Shea Stadium. Yesterday was the first game 33 year old Willie Mays played in this colorful new multi tiered structure. Its a grandiose time here as the World’s Fair is taking place just walking distance from the ballpark.

With Mays and the Giants in town for the first time this season, and in a brand new modern looking stadium, the Mets drew 55,062 fans. That broke the record for the largest single game crowd in National League history.

Amazin’!

Even more amazing is the season Willie Mays is having.

Coming into last night’s game here is Willie Mays stat line through just 38 games:

18 Home Runs

42 RBIs

.387 Batting Average

It’s no surprise that the Giants were in 1st place coming into the game.

New York fans here in 1964, still have vivid memories of Willie roaming the Polo Grounds just 7 years ago in 1957, the last season the Giants played in New York.

Dick Young, the sports columnist with the New York Daily News wrote about Mays’ first impression of Shea Stadium, “Willie Mays wide eyes scanned the many-colored decks of the Big Shea as the lights came on Friday night. ‘It sure is a nice park he said.’ ‘Better than the Polo Grounds?’ someone asked. ‘Nothing is better than the Polo Grounds,’ he said, and his eyes smiled, ‘That’s where I broke in.’”

Willie Mays roamed centerfield in the Polo Grounds from the beginning of his career in 1951 until the Giants moved to San Francisco before the 1958 season.

8pm First Pitch

Mets’ starter Tracy Stallard threw the first pitch at 8pm. He got Jim Ray Hart to fly out to left and then he walked Chuck Hiller. That brought the Say Hey Kid to the plate for the first time in Shea Stadium.

Mays hit a long fly ball to deep center field thrilling the crowd with the prospect of his 19th home run of the young season. But the ball was caught by Jim Hickman.

Today, the back page of the Daily News featured a photo of number 24 watching the flight of that near homer in a classic finishing pose to his famously fluid swing.

In the 4th inning, Mays walked, stole second base, and scored the game’s 1st run when Orland Cepada singled for the game’s 1st hit.

A photo of Mays swiping second base appeared on the front page of the sports section of today’s San Francisco Examiner. It seems like everything Willie does is big news.

GIANT 1 METS 0 - Middle of the 4th inning

In the top of the 7th, the Giants added another run.

When the Mets came up in the bottom of the 7th, they still had no hits off Giants’ starter Jack Sanford.

With one out Mets slugger Frank Thomas came to the plate. Thomas is the Mets all-time leading home run hitter since the Mets franchise started 2 years ago in 1962. Thomas has hit 51 homers for the Mets in a little over 2 seasons.

Thomas hit a blast over Willie Mays’ head towards the left centerfield wall. Mays was determined to keep Sanford’s no-hitter going. Dick Young described the play, “Back streaked Mays, giving that mischievous little peek of his over the shoulder, the peek that invariably means: ‘I got you, you rascal.’”

Mays reached the crushed-brick warning track and the ball was still over his head.

Joseph Sheehan in the New York Times picked up the action, “(Mays) made a mighty leap, and with his back to the plate, got his glove on the ball. But Willie’s momentum carried him into the wall and the shock of his mid-air impact jarred the ball loose from his grasp.”

The Berkeley Gazette had this description, “Willie Mays went all out to catch the ball high off the center field wall.”

Mays said, “I was trying to make it (the catch) and avoid the fence.”

Dick Young bluntly wrote, “He didn’t… he hit the fence and down they went. Willie Mays and the ball. Willie Mays tried to get up and he couldn’t. He was trapped. He couldn’t move his leg.”

Sheehan reported, “He fell flat, his spikes caught under the fence.”

Young continued to describe the action, “At that strange and frightening moment the trigger-sharp natural reflexes of Willie Mays went to work. He reached out, picked up the ball, and lying there, flipped the ball over his shoulder to Jesus Alou.”

Alou threw to third base and prevented Thomas from getting an inside-the-park homer.

Willie Mays had made one of the most spectacular catches of his career, but the ball had popped out with his crash into the fence, and the earth gave out under his feet.

Harry Jupiter, reporting for the San Francisco Examiner wrote, “Mays slammed into the fence, got his glove on the ball and caught his foot in the soft ground at the foot of the timber. He couldn’t hold the ball.”

Mays’ foot was literally stuck under the fence after the play. Jupiter wrote, “The Giants ran out of their bullpen to extricate Mays’ foot from beneath the fence.”

If not for the poor field surface near the fence Mays might have retained the ball for the 2nd out of the inning.

Dick Young described the situation, “The earth, a combination of powdery clay and crushed brick, had given way… and like a small landslide had created a gap through which Willie’s foot was pushed.

Young was incensed by what happened, “Willie Mays could have broken a leg or at least an ankle… The center-field fence at Shea is a sham, a cheap facade. It isn’t sunk into the ground… In some spots, it doesn’t quite reach bottom and there are spaces here and there through which a ball might squeeze - or a foot. That’s what happened to Willie Mays… the ground at the base of the fence gave way…

Young also questioned why the umpires didn’t call a ground rule double, “Frank Thomas got a triple on that hit and you wonder why he wasn’t sent back to second base, because the ground rules… clearly state that a ball disappearing under the fence shall be two bases. So why not if a player disappears under the fence?”

The sight of Mays sprawled on the ground at the warning track, “drew an alarmed gasp from the throng,” according to the Allentown Morning Call.

But once they got Willie unhinged from the fence he was okay. He had a scrape on his leg and he dusted himself off and he stayed in the game.

With just 1 out and a runner on third base, the Mets punched home 4 runs in that fateful 7th inning and won the game 4 - 2.

But Willie Mays’ had won the hearts of New Yorkers again with his spirited play.

Sadly there are no pictures of “The Catch II,” that I can find. All the descriptions indicate this one was a gem, even if Willie didn’t retain the ball.

NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler

Now join me as we once again jump into the sports time travel machine and dial ahead 9 more years to 1973. 42 year old Willie Mays is in the final season of his career.

“The Catch III”

ATLANTA STADIUM - July 17, 1973

Last night the Mets arrived in Atlanta for a night game that few people saw. The game was not broadcast on television, not in Atlanta, not in New York, not anywhere.

Here in 1973, the nationally televised NBC Monday Night Game of the Week takes precedence on TV, and that game featured St. Louis vs. San Francisco.

And there were hardly any people in the stadium either. It was a sparse crowd in Atlanta Stadium of just 7,688 fans.

The Last Games for Aaron and Mays on the Same Field

It was a shame that almost no one saw this game, because it was the 1st of a 3 game series that will almost certainly mark the last time that Hank Aaron and Willie Mays play a game where they both start in the outfield.

39 year old Hank Aaron was in left field for the Braves. And 42 year old Willie Mays was in center field for the Mets.

Here were the 2 men who stand at 1st and 2nd place in career home runs in the National League.

Only Babe Ruth, who played in the American league, is ahead of them on the all-time home run list.

Coming into Monday’s game the all-time home run list looked like this:

1. Babe Ruth 714

2. Hank Aaron 697

3. Willie Mays 658

4. Harmon Killibrew 544

5T. Mickey Mantle 536

5T. Frank Robinson 536

7. Jimmie Foxx 534

8. Ted Williams 521

9. Ernie Banks 512

9T. Eddie Mathews 512

11. Met Ott 511

12. Lou Gehrig 493

It is interesting to note that a 3rd player on the above list was in uniform in the stadium. Eddie Mathews is the current manager of the Braves.

Willie Mays Summer Resurgence

Willie Mays is in the middle of what certainly appears to be the final season of his career. But after a poor and injury riddled start to the year he has hit the ball well for over a month now. And coming into this game he has raised his batting average over 100 points from it’s horrific early season depths.

Monday’s game proved that Mays can still play ball and that he is giving it 100%.

Dialing Back to 1954

In the 3rd inning Mays made a play in center field that was nearly as great as any in his storied career.

With 2 outs, Mets starter Jerry Koosman was facing Braves shortstop Marty Perez. Possessing little power, it is likely that Mays was playing shallow in center.

Perez hit a deep fly to straightaway center field.

Willie Mays turned and ran at full speed towards the center field fence.

Red Foley of the New York Daily News wrote, “he tried to emulate the famed going away, over-the-head catch he made against Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series.”

Wayne Minshew of the Atlanta Constitution wrote similarly that Mays sprint to reach the ball was, “reminiscent of Willie’s back-to-the-infield grab of Vic Wertz’ drive in the 1954 World Series.”

Mays gets to the ball and catches it

Michael Strauss wrote in the New York Times, “Mays and the ball arrived at the barrier simultaneously. The outfielder courageously reached for the ball.”

The batter, Marty Perez, told Wayne Minshew of the Atlanta Constitution, “He caught it for a second.”

Minshew himself wrote in his article, “Mays had the ball for an instant.”

And then Willie crashed full speed into the wire screen outfield fence.

Red Foley of the New York Daily News described how Mays then hit the fence, “Just as the 42 year old center-fielder appeared to snare the ball, he ricocheted off the screen and fell heavily to the ground. Mays whack… (was) incurred by ramming the screen with his forehead.”

And the ball pops out of his glove

Michael Strauss wrote in the New York Times, “Mays… succeeded in gloving it, only to have it pop out as he started falling.

Minshew wrote, “(Mays) hit the fence, and had it fall out of his glove.”

The Braves Marty Perez told Minshew, “I almost stopped running. I thought he had it.”

Mays was knocked onto his back by the force of his crash into the fence. But he still managed to try and throw the ball while he was lying on the ground.

Strauss described it this way, “Mays picked up the ball and threw it backward over his head toward the plate.”

Minshew wrote, “He gamely flipped the ball over his shoulder, but Perez was in to score by then.”

Marty Perez had an inside-the-park home run. His 3rd home run of the year and 8th of his entire career.

But for one instant, Mays had nearly a completed carbon copy of his greatest catch.

Minshew wrote, “Perez blast was almost turned into a sensational play by Mets’ center fielder Willie Mays.”

Mays is Down But Not Out

After the play Willie Mays lay motionless on his back in deep centerfield.

Strauss described it, “With Mays lying on the grass, out rushed Berra, trainer Tom McKenna, most of the Mets players and all of the tenants of the nearby Braves bullpen. Mays moved his legs about slowly and then his arms to make sure there were no injuries. Then he announced he was ready to continue.”

Mays stayed in the game.

When play resumed Darrell Evans grounded out to end the 3rd inning with the Braves ahead 2 - 0.

Back in Action

And then Willie Mays was right back in action, leading off the top of the 4th inning with a double to deep left and then scored the Mets 1st run of the game, racing from 2nd to home, when Cleon Jones hit a single. The Mets scored another run later in the inning and tied the game at 2.

Mays played the entire game and got another hit in the 9th when he hit a single to center. He finished the game 2 for 4.

Willie Mays however could not help the hapless Mets defeat the Braves. The Braves scored 5 times in the 7th and the Mets lost the game 8 - 6.

It was their 50th loss of the year to go with just 38 wins. And the Mets in last place.

Pictures of the Catch and Crash

The pictures of the catch and crash incredibly did NOT appear in any Atlanta or New York area newspapers.

But it was picked up via wire service by the Tampa Times. I was so excited when I found these pictures.

Below is a dramatic 4 picture sequence.

1 - Mays is about to make the sensational back-to-the-infield catch

2 - Mays has smashed into the fence and is thrown backwards. The ball appears to be in his glove.

3 - Mays grabs the ball on the ground and then tries to fling it backwards, as Mets left fielder Cleon Jones nears Mays

4 - Mays lies motionless on his back after the play

1954 vs. 1973

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the catch from the 1954 World Series (left) and the catch last night in 1973 (right):

NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler

Let’s make one more trip in the sports time travel machine. I’m going forward another 8 years to see 51 year old Willie Mays back at Shea Stadium for an old-timers game.

“The Catch IV”

SHEA STADIUM - October 4, 1981

It’s been nearly 8 years since Willie Mays last played in a major league baseball in game 3 of the 1973 World Series.

Yesterday he was back at Shea for old-timers game.

51 year old Willie Mays was playing in centerfield when 37 year old Ron Swoboda crushed a long fly ball.

Jack Lang covered the game for the New York Daily News and described the action, “No. 24 proved that he can still go get ‘em. Mays ran far into left center and, with his back to the plate and his glove outstretched, robbed Ron Swoboda of an extra-base hit at the warning track… he held onto the ball as he fell to the track.”

It was a truly mind boggling catch.

Most of the fans in the stands were too young to remember Mays making plays like this routinely in the Polo Grounds a quarter-century ago.

Jack Lang commented, “For anyone who did not believe the things that were written about Willie’s greatness in the field, yesterday’s catch should erase all lingering doubts. It was a play many modern major leaguers half his age would not make.”

Fortunately there is actually video available of this catch:

FINAL NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler™

This has been one of my most memorable sports time travel experiences.

I’ve been a Willie Mays fan ever since he came to the Mets in 1973. So to experience Willie Mays in four different decades, doing virtually the same thing in the outfield, including 2 times wearing a Mets uniform, was really something special.

And now that Willie has finally left us, more than a half-century after he retired, this article is my way of paying tribute to the Say Hey Kid.