September 26, 1954......The Catch.

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Willie Mays, THE MAN!

 

Negro League star and MLB star.

 

Interesting info (Wikipedia):

While playing in the Negro Leagues, a number of Major League baseball franchises sent scouts to watch him play. The first was the Boston Braves. The scout who discovered him, Bud Maughn, had been following him for over a year and referred him to the Braves, who then packaged a deal which called for $7,500 down and $7,500 in 30 days. They also planned to give Mays $6,000. The obstacle in the deal was that Tom Hayes, owner of the Birmingham Black Barons, wanted to keep Mays for the balance of the season. Had the team been able to act more quickly, the Braves franchise might have had both Mays and Hank Aaron in their outfield from 1954 to 1973.

The situation made the play memorable. Fairly ho-hum catch these days, though a tough one to make.

The situation made the play memorable. Fairly ho-hum catch these days, though a tough one to make.

 

I don't know, Man. The amount of ground that he had to cover to get to it is just as impressive as the catch, so not close to Ho-Hum. However, you are correct in that the situation took it from what would be a SportsCenter Top 10, forgotten next week catch to legendary.

I'd like to add, that b/c he made this catch, more kids started doing it. That lessens the "WOW" of it. Sort of like dribbling behind your back was big when Cousy was stealing it from the playground players in the 50s, but 4th graders do it now.

I'd be curious to know how far he ran since the CF wall was 483 feet away from the plate. That's 80 feet more than most of today's parks.

I'd be curious to know how far he ran since the CF wall was 483 feet away from the plate. That's 80 feet more than most of today's parks.

 

That would have been a monster 3-run shot in every other ballpark in MLB history, except Yankee Stadium, (ca. 1954) where it would have landed somewhere around row 10.

 

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