Willie Mays Makes The Catch During Game One of the World Series September 29, 1954

On this day in Baseball History September 29, 1954: With Game One of the 1954 World Series underway at the Polo Grounds, the stage was set for one of the most dramatic catches in Baseball History. The Cleveland Indians were coming off of an impressive 1954 campaign where they compiled a 111-43 record. Their opponents were the New York Giants who won the National League pennant with a 97-57 record. Indians first-baseman Vic Wertz was virtually the offense for the Indians finishing the game 4-for-5, for half of the Indians hits for the day, with a double and a triple that drove in the two runs scored by the Indians.

It was the top of the eighth inning in front of 52,751 spectators when Vic Wertz made his way up to the plate with two runners on against Giants reliever Don Liddle. To get an idea of how amazing this play way, I'll let the writing of John Drebinger in his article Giants Win in 10th From Indians 5-2, On Rhodes' Home Run from the September 30, 1954 edition of the New York Times tell the tale:

Wertz connected for another tremendous drive that went down the center of the field 450 feet, only to have Willie Mays make one of his amazing catches. 

Traveling on the wings of the wind, Willie caught the ball directly in front of the green boarding facing the right-center bleachers  and with his back still to the diamond

Here is how the newspaper captured the catch in four images:

To see the play unfold in real time, check out the following video:

The Giants would hold off the Indians and win the game on a three-run walkoff home run by Pinch hitter James "Dusty" Rhodes off of twenty-three game winner Bob Lemon. The Giants would ride the momentum of this victory and sweep the Cleveland Indians 4-0 to win their last World Series in the city of New York.

Though many of today's fans will think this catch to be passé and ordinary (read the comments after the video on the YouTube page for more proof of this), this catch came at the hands of a 21-year old rookie who on the biggest sports stage of them all caught the ball with his back to the field, running full speed ahead and arcing his head back to see the ball and then fired the ball in keeping the two runs on base from scoring. I know haters are going to hate but damn.

What did Willie Mays think of this play? The interview of Willie Mays from the Academy of Achievement website has Mays telling us in his own words about this play:

I think the key to that particular play was the throw. I knew I had the ball all the time. In my mind, because I was so cocky at that particular time when I was young, whatever went in the air I felt that I could catch. That's how sure I would be about myself. When the ball went up I had no idea that I wasn't going to catch the ball. As I'm running -- I'm running backwards and I'm saying to myself, "How am I going to get this ball back into the infield?" I got halfway out. As I'm catching the ball I said, "I know how I'm going to do it." I said, "You stop..." -- I'm visualizing this as I'm running. It's hard to tell people that -- what I'm doing as I'm running. I know people say, "You can't do all that and catch a ball." I said, "Well, that's what I was doing. Okay?" I was running, I was running. I'm saying to myself, "How am I going to get this ball back in the infield? "So now as I catch the ball -- if you watch the film close -- I catch the ball, I stop immediately, I make a U-turn. Now if I catch the ball and run and turn around -- Larry Doby which is on second, Al Rosen on first -- Larry can score from second. Because Larry told me -- I didn't see this, Larry had told me many times -- "I was just about home when you caught the ball, I had to go back to second and tag up and then go to third." So he would have scored very easily. So I said, well -- as I'm running, I've got to stop and make a complete turn. You watch the film and you'll see what I'm talking about. I stopped very quickly, made a U-turn, and when I threw the ball I'm facing the wall when the ball is already in the infield. So when you talk about the catch, more things went into the play than the catch. The throw was the most important thing because only one guy advanced, and that was Larry, from second to third. Al was still on first. And that was the key. To me it was the whole World Series.

Want to see a different view of the catch to see how hard it must have been for Mays? The article Photo of Day II: An uncommon angle on 'The Catch' by Willie Mays by Dayn Perry of the CBSSports Eye on Baseball page dated January 10, 2014 shows us the following view:

Folks, this is not an ordinary catch. That's all I have to say.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:
- Click here to access the 1954 Cleveland Indians page from Baseball Reference.com
- Click here to access the 1954 New York Giants page from Baseball Reference.com

Last MLB Game Played at the Polo Grounds September 18, 1963

On this day in Baseball History September 18, 1963: The real last MLB game is played in front of 1,752 riveted fans showed up to watch the final home game of the New York Metropolitans of the 1963 season against the Philadelphia Phillies. Why do I say real?

The New York Giants played the first last MLB game at the Polo Grounds on September 29, 1957. They marked the occasion with a 9-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The arrival to the New York Metropolitans for the 1962 season meant that the Polo Grounds would be given a second lease on baseball life while the Mets waited for Flushing Meadows Park Municipal Stadium later rechristened Shea Stadium (in honor of William A. Shea) was finished being built in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.

The Mets were set to play at the shiny new ballpark to begin the 1962 but delays pushed that back. Then the Mets were supposed to begin playing at the new stadium for the 1963 season. The second final MLB game was played at the Polo Grounds during the record setting 40-120 season by the 1962 Mets. The Mets defeated the Chicago Cubs on September 23, 1962 by a score of 2-1 to bring the history of the old Ballpark in Harlem to an end on a winning note. But alas, it was not to be so.

Photo Courtesy of Peter Putnam/New York Times

The book Shea Stadium by Jason D. Antos describes what was happening at Shea Stadium in terms of construction delays:

On April 28, 1960, the green light was given to contractors P.J. Carlin and Thomas Crimmons to begin construction. On January 18, 1961, Wagner now announced that the new Flushing Meadows Municipal Stadium, now budgeted at $16 million, would be ready for the Mets' inaugural season of 1962. City Controller Lawrence E. Gerosa responded negatively, "Even if construction started last fall, they would still have to work overtime to finish it in time for the 1962 season." One week later construction was delayed.

Three months later on March 15, the assembly in Albany vetoed the measure that authorized the city to finance and build the new ballpark. Wagner pleaded in front of the assembly and won. The lease for the new ballpark was approved on October 6, 1961. Under the terms of the lease, the ballpark would pay $450,000 in rentals the first year with it decreasing to $300,000 in seven years. The Mets were able to lease the stadium for 30 years with an option for renewal of 10 additional years. Finally, on October 28, 1961, Wagner along with Robert Moses and the New York Parks Department president Newbold Morris attended the official groundbreaking ceremony.

Construction was further delayed because of loose girders and broken beams that needed to be repaired, and opening was moved to April 1964...As the construction progressed, the cost of stadium was rising faster than the ballpark itself. An extra $1.7 million was needed, causing the grand total to become $26 million. Finally, the official dedication ceremony took place on April 16, 1964.

Based on that and the bad weather in the winter of 1962-1963, the Metropolitans would play their 1963 home games at the Polo Grounds. Fast forward to the last home game of the season where the Mets fell in lackluster defeat to the Phillies 5-1. That must have been the fastest clean-up by the grounds crew at the Polo Grounds. How much of a mess could 1,752 fans really make.

Here is the boxscore from the last MLB game at the Polo Grounds from the September 19, 1963 edition of the New York Times:

The Polo Grounds would meet the same fate as Ebbets Field six days before Shea Stadium was dedicated. On April 10, 1964, the same wrecking ball that was used to demolish Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, was used to bring down the Polo Grounds. As with Ebbets Field, a housing development was built on the site of the old ballpark in Harlem.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:

- Click here to access the article Polo Grounds, and Its Former Tenants, Emerge From the Shadows by Richard Sandomir from the New York Times dated January 19, 2011
- Click here to access the article Memories of Polo Grounds on Anniversary of Final Opener by Ken Belson from the New York Times dated April 8, 2013
- Click here to access the article Did They Ever Play Polo at the Polo Grounds? by Toby von Meistersinger from the Gothamist dated July 21, 2008 
- Click here to access the PDF of the report THE POLO GROUNDS CASE (part II) by John Hogrogian from THE COFFIN CORNER: Vol. 12, No. 1 (1990)  
- Click here to access the article The Last of the Polo Grounds: New York City Will Repair a Forgotten Staircase by Chris Epting from the National Trust of Historical Preservation website dated  March 6, 2009
- Click here to access the article Polo Grounds (New York) by Stew Thornley from the SABR Biography Research Project.

Lloyd and Paul Waner First Brother Duo To Go Back-to-Back on September 15, 1938

On this day in Baseball History September 15, 1938: Brother duo and future Hall of Famers Lloyd and Paul Waner are the first brother duo to hit back-to-back home runs in Baseball History. They did so while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates against Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. The brothers known as known as Little Poison (Lloyd) and Big Poison (Paul) hit their back-to-back shots in the top of the fifth inning at the Polo Grounds with two outs. The New York Times article Pirates Rout Giants With Five Homers, Lead Idle Cubs by 3 Games by John Drebinger from September 16, 1938 doesn't make much mention of the event aside from five homers being hit in the game with two by Paul and one by Lloyd.

Here is the boxscore to the Pittsburgh Pirates vs New York Giants game on September 15, 1938 from the September 16, 1938 edition of the New York Times:

It would be seventy-five year later that a brother duo would hit back-to-back homers. B.J. and Justin Upton went back-to-back against Colorado Rockies pitcher Jon Garland on April 23, 2013.

Will we go another 75 years before we see another brother duo go back-to-back?

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

- Click here to access Lloyd Waner's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click here to access Paul Waner's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click here to access the article Waner Brothers by Max Nichols from the Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
- Click here to access the article Pittsburgh Poison: An appreciation of the Waner brothers by Lawrence Richards from the National Pastime Museum website

Mel Ott Joins the 500 Home Run Club

On this day in Baseball History August 1, 1945: In a game against the Boston Braves at The Polo Grounds, Mel Ott hit his 500th career home run against Johnny Hutchings, becoming only the third player after Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx to reach the 500 home run plateau. In doing so, Ott became the first National League player to hit 500 homeruns and would be the only NL player on the list until Willie Mays joined him on September 13, 1965.

An interesting anecdote on that day's achievement and the after party can be found on page 152 of the book Mel Ott: The Little Giant of Baseball by Fred Stein, Published in 1999. Here is how Stein describes it:

After missing a few weeks with injury, Ott returned to the lineup and continued to thump the ball at a .340 clip. In a night game at the Polo Grounds on August 1, the little manager clouted his 500th career home run. It was a typical Ott home run, a sharply pulled smash into the upper right field stands. Belted off mountainous righthander Johnny Hutchings of the Braves, the ball bounced back onto the field where it was retrieved by Giants trainer Willie Schaefer. At the time, the only players with more career home runs were Babe Ruth with 714 and Jimmie Foxx with 527.

Later that night there was a big party at Toots Shor's restaurant in midtown Manhattan to celebrate Ott's milestone. Before Mel arrived at the restaurant that night, Shor sat at a table with Sir Alexander Fleming, the Scottish bacteriologist who had been awarded the Nobel prize for his discovery of penicillin. When Mel walked in the door, Shor jumped to his feet and gave Sir Alexander an inadvertant putdown. "Excuse me, Alex" he said, "I've got to greet someone who just came in who is really important."

As was alluded to in the passage above was that what made Ott's achievement remarkable was that unlike the other two players ahead of him on the home run list, Ott was small in comparison. We all know what kind of shadow Ruth cast as he stood 6'2" and weighed 215 pounds. Foxx, who's nickname was The Beast stood at an even 6'0" and weighed a muscular 195 pounds. Ott stood at a 5'9" and a slim 170 pounds. He more than made up for it by utilizing a leg kick and powerful swing of the bat.

Many historians and baseball people believed that Ott's home ballpark: The Polo Grounds gave him a major advantage due to the park's dimensions. While the park had a cavernous center field, due to its bathtub shape, the park had short fences in right field (257ft.) and in left field (277ft.) If the park caused an unfair advantage, then why weren't all the Giants hitting home runs like Ott was. In the end he still had to hit the ball to take advantage of the porch. If he did, then so be it.

When Ott retired as a player in 1947, he had 511 career home runs, over 200 more than any other National Leaguer, and a total exceeded only by the aforementioned Babe Ruth (714) and Jimmie Foxx (534). Ott held National League career records in runs batted in (1,860), runs scored (1,859) and bases on balls (1,708). His records would all be broken in later years. For his career, Ott was named an All-Star 12 times, led the league in home runs six times, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .304.

Ott would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1951 with 197 out of 226 votes for 87.17% of the vote.

Regardless of his physical size, Ott was truly a Giant.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:

- Click Here to access Mel Ott's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here to access the boxscore for the August 1, 1945 game between the Boston Braves and the New York Giants from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for an interesting article on Jimmie Foxx entitled Baseball, 1929 Jimmie Foxx by The Pop History Dig website