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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

To decide which catch in Baseball is considered to be really great, one has to take into account
the situation when it occurred. I'm old enough to have seen the 1954 World Series (WS) catch by
Willie Mays. It was great; but, what was even greater about that moment was Willie's tremendous
throw to the cut-off man to quell a Cleveland rally.

In my opinion Mickey Mantle's catch in the 5th game of the 1956 WS, Don Larsen's perfect game,
was even greater than Willie's catch.
I saw Larsen's game in it's entirety (I played hooky from school that day). When Gil Hodges hit a
tremendous drive to left-center field heading for the old monuments (450 feet from homeplate),
I was sure that the no-hitter was broken. Mantle ran a "country-mile" and caught it by those mon-
uments (just in front of the 461 foot marker on the outfield wall). Absolutely, the greatest catch.

I haven't seen many other great catches in BB to match these two. And, I'm sure there are many
more that were executed just as well as Mickey's and Willie's.....but, when you see great catches
like these made in these very critical situations, you never, ever forget them.

TED Z