brooklyndodgermemories

Today is the 55th anniversary of Willie Mays great catch off Vic Wertz in the 1954 world series.

the great backstory to the catch was about Don Liddle, the lefty, who had been brought in by Durocher to face Wertz. after Wertz hit one almost to the Harlem River, Durocher came charging out of the dugout in a rush to get Liddle out of the game. as the Lip got to the mound, Liddle flipped him the ball and said, "I got my man, Skip."

That is a great story. Mays doesn't think that was the best catch of his career, either.

Willie and others claim his catch off Bobby Morgan's line drive at Ebbets Field was his best catch........................

........and, of course, after making that catch off Morgan, Charlie Dressen (the genius) said: "I'd like to see him do that again".................

Charlie Dressen never knew when to keep his mouth shut.

I remember the Morgan catch, but there was one even better that I saw on TV.

In August, 1951 in a game at the Polo Grounds, the score was tied 1-1 in the eighth with one out when Carl Furillo came to bat with the lead run on third in the person of Billy Cox. Carl slammed one of Hearn’s pitches into the gap in right center for what looked like a sure base hit that would easily score Cox. Mays was shading the righthanded Furillo to left field and was off with the crack of the bat.

On this drive by Furillo Willie turned on the jets and lunged for the catch. What happened then was not only unexpected, but impossible. Cox tagged up and headed home with a sure run. Mays, running full speed into right center, spun 270 degrees, throwing across his body with all the force he had. The ball flew over Whitey Lockman, the cutoff man, and nestled into catcher Wes Westrum’s glove to cut down Cox at the plate.

The Dodgers were out. The only negative comment came from Furillo who said, “He’ll never make another throw like that one, the lucky slob.”

I never saw a better outfield play.

Welcome aboard steveL happy to have you here. You have to admit it is better to be lucky then good well Mays was good but there was some luck in this play also that's all Furillo was trying to say.

Had Mays played more in Ebbets Field, his legend would have been even greater. He had the ability like Snider, of climbing the Ebbets Field walls to make catches. Mays had no fear of the wall.

He probably was the best player of his time, the Giants needed him to cover that large centerfield they had at the Polo Grounds, I saw the Wertz catch it was unbelievable but the throw back in was one of the greatest I've seen.

Willie never thought that was one of his best catches. It was of course, but Willie never felt that way.

Willie was the best I've ever seen.

Can you imagine, if he had been able to stay in New York for his entire career? Willie was never received warmly in San Francisco.

He would have even hit more home runs plus NY has the best fans they know baseball California fans can't tie our shoes, they loved McCovey because he made the majors with them.

Thats the point, the San Francisco fans embraced, Cepeda, Davenport, Marichal allthe players who never played in New York. Willie was never shown the love out there.