It came to be known simply as “The Catch,” and is, perhaps, the most recognized defensive play in baseball’s long and storied history, the play that made rising star Willie Mays famous.
It was the first game of the 1954 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants in New York’s old Polo Grounds.
The Polo Grounds, the Giants’ home field, was an old stadium reminiscent of a gigantic bathtub. The foul-line distances were short, 277 feet in left field, 258 in right, but the center-field fence, the far rim of the tub, was 455 feet from home plate.