Last Updated: June 17th, 2026 by Michael Schatz
Everything is magnified during the World Series. Every pitch. Every at bat. Every play. It’s immediately put under the microscope and could be why a team wins or loses not just the game, but the entire series. The first World Series was played in 1903. By my math – and I was a communications major so bear with me – the next World Series to be played will be the 121st. That’s a lot of games and a lot of plays. Of them all, there might be one that people still talk about as if it happened yesterday.
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The Catch.
I know what that’s referring to. You know what that’s referring to. The Say Hey Kid, Willie Mays, and his ridiculous over-the-shoulder catch during Game One of the 1954 World Series.
Most everyone remembers The Catch, the image of Willie sprinting back and catching the ball like a receiver catching a touchdown pass is etched in the brains of baseball fans everywhere. But let’s take a closer look at everything surrounding The Catch so that we can all appreciate it even more.
The ’54 Series pitted the New York Giants against the Cleveland Indians. The Indians were heavily favored after having won 111 games – and this was during a 154-game season. Game One was at the Polo Grounds – which had a ridiculously big centerfield. Sometimes it was 470. Other times it was 483. But the point is that it was huge.
The game was tied 2-2 going to the 8th inning when the Indians started to make some noise. Giants pitcher Sal Maglie walked Larry Doby before surrendering a single to Al Rosen. Suddenly the Indians had first and second with no one out.
Maglie was pulled and replaced with Don Liddle, a left-hander brought on to face the left-handed hitting Vic Wertz. Wertz blasted a 2-1 pitch to deep center. And when I say deep I mean deep. Some estimates say Wertz hit the ball north of 420 feet. It was a no-doubt home run in most parks. But not the Polo Grounds.
Mays, who was playing shallow, took off in a dead sprint. What happened next is baseball history.
Mays looked up, extended his arms, and made one of the – if not the – best defensive plays in World Series history. And if making the catch wasn’t enough, Mays twirled and unloaded a perfect strike to second, holding the runners where they were. That’s what most people don’t realize. The Throw was just as good as The Catch. He kept the runners from advancing. If Doby gets to third with less than two outs he could score in a variety of ways. Heck, if Mays doesn’t even catch the ball the Indians score at least one run, possibly two. But they didn’t.
The Giants would go on to win the game 5-2 in extra innings on a Dusty Rhodes pinch-hit three-run home run. But if Mays doesn’t make that play in the 8th there’s a good chance the game doesn’t even go extra innings. And who knows what happens from there? Maybe it’s the Indians who ride a Game One win to a sweep of their own. We’ll never know.
Mays’ catch was no doubt the play of the series. Jack Brickhouse, who was calling the game for NBC, said, “Willie Mays just made the catch of the day.” Well, said Jack. Well said.
The Catch has been studied so much that even the scientific community got involved. In 2007, a physicist calculated that if the temperature that day was 77 degrees instead of 76 degrees, the ball would’ve likely traveled 2 more inches, and The Catch might never have happened. But it did.
As for Mays himself, he wasn’t that impressed. He didn’t even think it was his best catch. If the 12-time Gold Glover says The Catch was just routine, then who are we to disagree?
One thing we can agree on is that The Catch will live on forever.