Greatest baseball catch ever

Maddux is a good one. Forgot about him.

 

Mark Buehrle.

 

Rolen was good, but I still take Brosius.

 

he said as he laid down next to a jeter blow-up and made sweet, sweet love the rest of the night.

 

One of the best parts about that pic is the "Made Easy" sign right behind him. Awesome sequence of pics.

 

C: Bench-prior to the surgery he was incredible. Allowed 24 steals in '72 and threw out 31 plus 8 pickoffs. Also I have gone through the game by game for him for a few years and really a lot of attempts against him were by top basestealers (Morgan and Brock). There was also a stretch of games where the opposition just stopped running at all. I believe he allowed just 2-11 in steal attempts in one postseason.

1B: Keith Hernandez was magnificent with the glove and held his peak for longer than anyone in history. Look at this line:

Code:

Yr	EqG	Wins	PCA-BA
1974	7	0.08	0.282
1975	52	0.72	0.296
1976	100	1.52	0.304
1977	151	3.22	0.343
1978	150	2.55	0.315
1979	155	3.57	0.353
1980	155	4.10	0.375
1981	95	2.28	0.360
1982	151	2.94	0.331
1983	149	1.29	0.262
1984	151	2.61	0.317
1985	151	3.66	0.361
1986	141	1.10	0.257
1987	147	1.20	0.260
1988	89	0.27	0.228
1989	53	0.51	0.269
1990	38	0.47	0.286

2B: Bill Maseroski: The best infielder of the greatest period of fielding history, Maseroski managed this frighteningly good peak:
7 out of 9 years, he produced at least 5 wins, including two six-win seasons - a feat rarely accomplished. There's a reason he's in the hall of fame and it's not his tremendous hitting talent nor his famous home run.

3B: Brooks Robinson: Need I say more.

SS: Ozzie Smith(who's the best defensive shortstop of all-time). The distance between Smith and Belanger/Wagner is ENORMOUS. Smith generated an astounding 191 points by the GI method for defense alone...Wagner and Belanger are in a virtual tie at 157 points. That is uncommon...that the top guy is that far ahead.

LF: Rickey Henderson - This one no one seems to like. There's a lot of verbal descriptions of him dogging it in the outfield...playing only when he felt like it...etc. But IMHO, it stands to reason that the fastest man in the history of major league baseball would be able to dog it and still make all the plays. Which is I think what actually happened. I think he made left field look so insanely easy that people thought he was just out there jogging. His PCA card:

Code:

Ps	Yr	EqG	Wins	PCA-BA
LF	1979	89	0.80	0.250
LF	1980	152	5.18	0.383 GG
LF	1981	107	3.45	0.373 GG
LF	1982	137	2.01	0.283
LF	1983	128	1.70	0.276
LF	1984	131	0.83	0.241
CF	1985	135	5.18	0.349 GG
CF	1986	138	4.83	0.337 GG
CF	1987	76	1.45	0.290
LF	1988	125	0.84	0.243
LF	1989	142	3.05	0.315
LF	1990	116	2.56	0.321
LF	1991	105	2.03	0.307
LF	1992	97	2.29	0.329
LF	1993	38	0.58	0.286
LF	1993	111	1.98	0.299
LF	1994	60	1.17	0.308
LF	1995	72	0.74	0.261
LF	1996	100	1.97	0.309
LF	1997	57	0.35	0.240
LF	1998	123	1.44	0.268
LF	1999	99	0.22	0.220
LF	2000	83	0.85	0.261
LF	2001	89	0.76	0.252
LF	2002	46	0.35	0.247

CF: Curt Flood: Andruw Jones had Flood beat through 2005, but Jones has been rather bad with the glove since 2005 and Flood is getting bonus points with me for not getting to play after 1969 due to his lack of popularity after the famous Flood vs. MLB conflict. Here's Flood's PCA card, to show why I'm giving him bonus points:

Code:

Yr	EqG	Wins	PCA-BA
1958	124	4.12	0.330
1959	83	0.03	0.209
1960	120	2.95	0.299
1961	106	3.07	0.315
1962	159	6.04	0.348 GG
1963	160	5.54	0.335 GG
1964	159	5.60	0.338 GG
1965	152	3.21	0.286
1966	156	6.08	0.351 GG
1967	126	4.90	0.351 GG
1968	149	6.18	0.361 GG
1969	151	7.20	0.383 GG

RF: Roberto Clemente - Arriving at the top thanks to death credits (kind of crude way of saying that Clemente died before his career was over). Take a look at what I mean:

Code:

Yr	EqG	Wins	PCA-BA
1955	110	1.62	0.276
1956	119	2.35	0.300
1957	103	3.00	0.339
1958	136	4.66	0.362 GG
1959	109	2.85	0.326
1960	139	1.77	0.268
1961	139	2.75	0.298
1962	153	2.93	0.295
1963	144	0.78	0.235 (what happened here?)
1964	158	1.36	0.249
1965	141	3.96	0.335 GG
1966	150	4.84	0.353 GG
1967	141	1.91	0.271
1968	132	3.87	0.340 GG
1969	131	0.47	0.227 (nagging injuries)
1970	108	1.58	0.276
1971	124	3.70	0.342 GG
1972	96	3.20	0.358

P: Greg Maddux

 

Greatest Catch of All-Time:

For Royals fans.....when Darryl Motley caught the flyball hit by Andy Van Slyke some October Sunday evening in Kansas City way back in 1985.

 

Mays had to run to a spot 420 feet from home plate to track down that shot. It has to be in the conversation for greatest catch ever.

Did anyone mention Sandy Amorós' catch in the 1955 Series? Running full speed into that corner with all those variables, for me, places that catch in the conversation of greatest ever.