Greatest catch of all time?

Sorry, from a baseball GAME context, the Mays catch wins hands down. Not only did he catch it like a wide receiver, he managed to turn, throw the ball and hold the runner on second--from about 450 feet away.

And as far as the Devon White catch goes, that beats the Chavez catch as well.

 

Also forgotten in this was pitcher Liddle's remark to the guy who relieved him: "Well, I got my man"

 

The official account from MLB.com of Mays' catch:

With a 2-2 tie, no outs and runners on first and second for the Indians in the top of the eighth, Mays caught a piece of history.

After Giants starter Sal Maglie walked Larry Doby and then allowed an infield single to Al Rosen, manager Leo Durocher called upon left-handed reliever Don Liddle to face Wertz, a powerful left-handed hitter who'd already tripled among his three hits in the game. On a 2-and-1 pitch from Liddle, Wertz crushed the ball to center, just to the right of the indentation that extended 483 feet to dead center at the Polo Grounds.

After sprinting to the corner of the bleachers and making an over-the-shoulder catch of Wertz's drive about 450 feet from home plate, Mays quickly turned and threw to the infield, making sure the go-ahead run didn't score. Doby, who had rounded third and headed for home, still got back in time to tag and advance to third; Rosen, who had hoped to score from first if the ball got over Mays' head, had to go back to first base and stay there.

The Giants got out of that jam without allowing a run and wound up winning the game on a three-run pinch-hit homer from Dusty Rhodes in the 10th.

 

Steve Bartman. [/whitesoxfans]

 

Top post-season catches in New York:
1. Mays '54 WS
2. Gionfriddo on DiMag, '47 WS
3. Sandy Amoros on Yogi, Game 7 '55 WS (ball probaby was going foul, though)
4. 2 Tommie Agee catches in Game 3 on '69 WS (saved 5 runs)
5. Endy Chavez

And that's just post-season in NY

 

Jason Sehorn somehow getting Angie Harmon is my all-time favorite catch,... way over his pay grade, as the saying goes...

 

Did not hold the runner on second... unless my brain is totally cooked.

And... you are stoned.

 

wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

 

With any luck ... and with the benefit of the doubt being a) it happened in the ESPN era, and b) it happened in New York ... the Chavez catch might go down in history with:

- Hal Smith's eighth-inning home run in Game 7 of the 1960 WS
- Bernie Carbo's eighth-inning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 WS
- Dwight Evans's 11th-inning game-saving catch in Game 6 of the 1975 WS
(the most apt comparison to the Chavez catch, really)
- Dave Henderson's 10th-inning homer in Game 6 of the 1986 WS
- Alfonso Soriano's eighth-inning homer in Game 7 of the 2001 WS

What do all these have in common? They're complete afterthoughts.

And notice these are all WS plays. Great plays in the LCS rarely get remembered anyway. Great plays by the losing team in the LCS? Fuhgeddaboutit.

 

I wouldn't say afterthoughts, Mr. weaver, although I know what you mean. Those are pretty famous moments in baseball history, just not AS famous as Mays' catch.
Columbo, the thing you are leaving out of the Mays equation is that he caught Wertz's ball over his shoulder at the dead run after quite a long run. Four-hundred eighty-three feet is a considerable distance from home plate.
I will now proceed to trash myself. I was an idiot for enterting the debate. Why rank Chavez's catch at all? Isn't "Holy shit, what a great catch!" the appropriate response? Of all of ESPN's pernicious influences on sports culture, listism and the instant history it represents is worse than Chris Berman doing play by play. We all fall into its trap.

 

Yes, you understood my point, MG. They're afterthoughts in regards to other moments, even just in those specific games, and that's what Chavez's catch will be to this game: an afterthought to the Mets losing. Suppan's pitching and, especially, Molina's home run will be the more vivid memories from this game.

Those are famous moments, which is why they trigger such strong memories at the drop of a hat. I doubt we will all remember Chavez's catch so clearly in five years, let alone 25.

 

Disagree. What do you remember more from last year's NLCS? Oswalt's pitching in Game 6 or Pujols killing Brad Lidge's career with that home run in Game 5? Pujols.