The Catch (baseball)

The Catch refers to a defensive baseball play made by New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays on a ball hit by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series between the Giants and the Indians at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, New York City on September 29, 1954. The score was tied 2–2 in the top of the 8th inning. Giants starting pitcher Sal Maglie walked Indians batter Larry Doby and then gave up a single to Al Rosen, which put runners on first and second. New York manager Leo Durocher summoned left-handed relief pitcher Don Liddle to replace Maglie and pitch to Cleveland's Wertz, also a left-handed batter.

Wertz worked the count to two balls and one strike before hitting Liddle's fourth pitch approximately 420 feet to deep center field. In many stadiums the ball would have landed out of play home run and would have given the Indians a 5–2 lead. However, the Polo Grounds was larger than average, and Mays, who was playing in shallow center field, made an on-the-run, over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track to make the out. Having caught the ball, he immediately spun and threw the ball. Doby, the runner on second, might have been able to score the go-ahead run had he tagged at the moment the ball was caught; as it was, he ran when the ball was hit, then had to scramble back to retag and only got as far as third base. (Rosen stayed at first on this play.) Liddle was then relieved by Marv Grissom, to whom he supposedly remarked "Well, I got my man!" (The next batter walked to load the bases, but the next two batters struck out to end the inning with no runs scored.)

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