The Better Catch

It was better than his catch in the 1954 World Series and the greatest catch I have ever seen. And I saw it before I was a baseball fan.

It was August 15, 1951. We had been outside playing ball in the street. There was Roy, Jeff, Tommy, my cousin Allan and me. I forget what game we were playing, but it probably was punch ball. Sometimes we just would have a catch, using a tennis ball or, if we were brave, a hard ball. That doesn’t matter. Our game was over and I went upstairs to get soda.

We played ball all day, in the street, by ourselves, until it became dark. We were kids and that is what kids did. Our only breaks were for lunch and supper or to go in the house to get money for ice cream when Ben, the Good Humor man, drove onto our block.

The area of Flushing where we lived was not fully “built up,” and we could play for ten or fifteen minutes in the middle of the street without being interrupted by a car. There were lots of lots, as we called them, where there were trees and underbrush. The playground was too far away for us, so we played in the street.

When I got upstairs, I turned on the television and put on channel eleven, which carried the kids' shows I liked. It was hit or miss because channel eleven carried the Yankees and the Giants games, so my shows didn’t start until five o’clock or later. The Giants were on.

I took a drink of Mission grape soda and watched. The Giants were playing the Dodgers in what many consider a pivotal game in the Giants overcoming a thirteen and one half game Dodgers lead. Giants’ announcer Russ Hodges told me that the score was 1-1 in the top of the eighth inning. I had some idea about what he said, but I really didn’t understand all that was happening.

All I remember is that a Dodger hit a deep fly that looked as if it were going to be a hit---even to me. Then Russ Hodges began yelling and I saw New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays running with all speed from the left side of my television set to the right side. The three-inch image on the seven-inch screen extended its left hand as far as possible and caught the ball that couldn’t be caught.

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