How about that Endy Chavez catch? That was one of the best catches I’ve ever seen. Certainly the best I’ve ever seen in the playoffs. All-time, I’d rank it just behind the Aaron Rowand nose-breaking catch and the Brian Giles scaling the wall in Pittsburgh catch, and just in front of the Kevin Mitchell barehanded catch.
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May 20, 2008 - 12:43 pm
“She uses an odd, side-armed delivery, and puts both speed and curve on the ball. Her greatest asset, however, is control. She can place the ball where she pleases, and her knack at guessing the weakness of a batter is uncanny.” - The Chattanooga News
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April 27, 2008 - 8:33 am
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April 9, 2008 - 2:08 pm
Bill Buckner was the surprise mystery guest who threw out the first pitch yesterday at Fenway’s Home Opener. As I’ve previously admitted, I greeted the late-breaking announcement with cynicism. Can’t we just get on with the pennants and the rings and the parades and leave all that crap behind us?
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March 7, 2008 - 12:43 pm
The baseball uniform is something of a curiosity. I think we can all agree that baseball did the world a favor by bringing us the baseball cap. But in what other sport are players required to wear a thick belt, tapered white stretch pants, a glorified pajama top, and stirrups?!
Nonetheless, some baseball [...]
October 20th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Too bad they LOST THE FUCKING GAME!!!
Why didn’t Randolph didn’t bunt the runners over in the 9th?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
CLIFF FLOYD IS NO GIBSON!
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October 21st, 2006 at 4:02 am
This is one of those catches that would have entered baseball lore forever as a “game saving catch” if the Mets had won, but as it is now it will just be a footnote. Which is too bad, because it was a wonderful catch, even more so because it was in a pretty big spot.
But I can’t say it was really up there with the great catches of all time. Just this season alone I can think of several catches that were better - Gary Matthews Jr.’s catch to rob a homer, Jim Edmonds diving onto the hill in center at Minute Maid, Carlos Beltran diving full out in right center, and Ryan Freel crashing into the chain link fence at Minute Maid - and those are just off the top of my head.
I suppose it depends on how you define what a great catch is. If you give lots of extra credit for playoff situations or something, then perhaps Endy’s catch jumps up a bit, but to me a great catch involves a combination of a player maximizing his range to the utmost and then finishing off with dazzling athleticism, perfect timing, and perhaps some sacrificing of the body. Chavez’s catch had some good timing and athleticism, but he was kind of jogging as he approached the wall, and he landed on two feet, for goodness sakes. Not that there was anything he could have done better on that particular play, and like I said, it was a wonderful catch, but I wasn’t completely wowed out of my chair or anything.
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October 24th, 2006 at 12:04 am
BUT, Nick, if Chavez had fallen down, he might not have been able to turn the catch into a DP. I like a diving, tumbling, stumbling catch as much as the next girl, but the truth of the matter is that a play sometimes looks hard because the player is making it look hard. Example: an amazing diving catch that makes up for the fact that the centerfielder misread the ball off the bat. A talented and smart player instead makes the game look easy.
Not that this catch looked easy—just that you don’t necessarily get extra points, in my book, for falling down at the end. (Of course, you do end up on the highlight reel.)
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October 24th, 2006 at 12:53 am
Coley, you tease! Give us the other nine!
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October 24th, 2006 at 8:22 am
The other nine weren’t very funny.
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October 24th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Look, I’m certainly aware that certain players I won’t name get on the highlight reel all the time for making diving catches that a better player would have made easily without a dive.
Okay, I’ll name one, just as an example: Eric Byrnes.
But sometimes a player reads the ball perfectly, gets the best possible jump, and still has to dive or leap to make the catch. Those are the truly great catches - the ones where you say, WOW, 99 percent of players couldn’t and wouldn’t have made that catch!
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October 25th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Nick’s right: the Gary Matthews catch from earlier this season was a better catch than Chavez’s catch.
But I stand by my love of the Brian Giles catch from 2003, when he took a full stride up the left field wall and caught the ball over his shoulder, taking away a sure home run. I mean, it was just amazing.
Oh, and Aaron Rowand’s nose breaker. Seriously, what a badass.
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