The Catch

Reading about Willie Mays after his passing, I came across this account of what Vin Scully called Willie's greatest catch, and it is not what is now called The Catch - Willie's catch of Vic Wertz's 400+ foot rocket in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.  Indeed, it is what Willie also thought was his greatest catch and it happened in Ebbets Field in a game against the Dodgers.

It took place at the Dodger's home opener on April 18, 1952.  Willie was beginning his sophomore season, and a month later he was scheduled to report for military service, missing the rest of that season and all of the '53 campaign.

The Giants jumped on starter Clem Labine, scoring five runs in the top of the 1st inning, but the Dodgers slowly chipped away and entered the bottom of the 7th trailing 6-4.  The first two batters were easy, Roy Campanella popped out and Duke Snider hit a one-hopper back to pitcher Dave Koslo.  Then things fell apart; Andy Pafko homered to deep left field on a 0-2 pitch, Gil Hodges singled, and Koslo issued a 4 pitch walk to Carl Furillo.

Bobby Morgan came to the plate, pinch hitting for Carl Erskine.  On the first pitch, the light hitting Morgan hit a long line drive to left center that looked certain to be at least a double, more likely a triple, giving the Dodgers the lead.  Here's Scully's description:

In those days the Ebbets Field warning track was gravel, and the wall concrete.  It was a sinking liner, and in my mind, it would score two runs.  But Willie runs as fast as he could and dives for it with his body parallel to the ground, fully stretched out.  He catches the ball and literally bounces off the gravel and into the base of the wall, rolling over on his back with both hands on his chest.  I'll never forget Henry Thompson, the left fielder for the Giants, walking over, bending down, and taking the ball out of Willie's glove and showing everyone he made the catch.  It was incredible.

This is the AP account of the catch, saying Mays bounced twice on the gravel.

A Society for American Baseball Research article on the catch describes other contemporaneous reactions:

Morgan ripped a liner into left-center-field and Mays began his sprint toward the wall. According to a reporter from Baltimore’s Afro-American, “[I]t was doubtful that anyone in the park, even the most optimistic of the Giant rooters, entertained a hope that (Mays) would catch it.”5

Mays “grabbed Morgan’s blast with a desperation lunge.”6 Dick Young wrote that Mays made “another one of his description-defying catches.” The second-year player “left his feet. He actually bounced, crashed into the wall on the first hop, and rolled over on his back. But he held the ball.”7 Young’s colleague at the New York Daily News, Dana Mozley, insisted “Willie Mays just had no right” to catch Morgan’s liner.8

After the game, the talk turned more to Mays’ catch than Pafko’s heroics. “The greatest catch I ever saw in my life,” [Dodger Pee Wee] Reese said. “He came with it. I know that. There’s no argument. It was in his glove when he turned over, and Thomson went over and picked it out.”10

Brooklyn Eagle sportwriter Harold Burr, in an article titled "Mays’ Catch Greatest, Dodgers, Giants Agree”, wrote “It looked as if the best Willie could do with the drive was to hold it to the double.”

Unfortunately, we have no film of the catch.  Based on Mays' later recollection and accounts of others it seems like Willie momentarily lost consciousness when he bounced into the wall.  Accounts have players of both sides running out to center field after the catch.  Willie remembered waking up and seeing Jackie Robinson and Leo Durocher (Giants' manager) standing over him, Jackie to see if he really caught the ball and Leo to make sure he was okay.

Mays stayed in the game, but struck out in his next two at bats.  In the bottom of the 8th, Jackie Robinson hit a home run to tie the game, and the Dodgers won in the 12th when Pafko hit his second round tripper.

Late in life, Willie said: “That (the catch off Morgan) was a good catch, better than the World Series catch. I believe my best catch.”

Bobby Morgan died in his hometown, Oklahoma City, on June 1, 2023, a month short of his 97th birthday.  At the time, he was one of only two surviving members of the Boys of Summer, the Dodgers' pennant winning teams of 1952 and 1953.  With his passing, and that of Carl Erskine in April of this year, they are all gone.  

During his time with the Dodgers, Bobby was a utility infielder known for his fielding, not hitting, though he had a good eye at the plate, drawing a lot of walks.  You can read about Bobby and some of the stories of his time in baseball here, here, and here.  

Willie Mays was the last living player from the Giants' pennant winning 1951 squad.