One in a Million Plays

[rog]

Hey, baseball fan.  Got a spare nine minutes?  The greatest plays you've ever seen, guaranteed.

Watch the pivot by Ozzie Smith.  I've never seen anything close.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCD9SugM-dc

[sfgdood]

It was great, but I've seen other SSs do it. I hate that they include what I call lucky fluke plays where guys flip it behind the back or no look. That's not skill, it's luck.

[rog]

No doubt luck was a huge factor in Kevin Mitchell's one-handed catch (plus he misjudged the ball to set up the play), and I understand the luck thing you're talking about. But at least a few of those plays were things I had seen those and other players do more than once.

If they WERE flukey, perhaps that's why they were called one in a million.

Some of those outfield catches were amazing. I still think Jim Edmunds' diving "Willie Mays" catch is about as good as I've seen, and some of those home run robberies should be watched only in prison.

I guess I was more impressed with Ozzie Smith's pivot than you, but I just thought the way he took the throw with his right leg on second and used it to propel him over the barrel-rolling base runner was amazing. He got way up there, which is good, since the runner went right between his legs.

They didn't show the play Ozzie is most famous for and which I think is the best play I've ever seen by an infielder. That is where he dives to his left for the ball, only to see it take a bad hop which he reached above his prone body to field bare handed. As you saw here earlier this year, that play came in Ozzie's 10th game in the majors.

Apparently there were two phases of Ozzie's defensive career -- before he hurt his arm and after. He was still great, perhaps in an Omar Vizquel way, after the arm injury, but apparently before it, he had the very strong arm to go along with his great agility and hands. I think the pre-injury Ozzie was the best infielder ever, possibly by a fair amount.

I can't remember whether it was on this video of the "One in a Million 2" video that followed, but I just LOVED the play where the pitcher made the kick save over to the first baseman on the ball hit sharply at his feet. The play itself was a bit flukey, but what impressed me was that after his goalie work, the pitcher still got over to first base to catch the put out.

[sfgdood]

The one that really bothered me being included was the one where the Dodger 2nd baseman BOOTED an easy groundball and had to chase it and flip it behind him to first without looking...he made a bad play, then a lucky throw.

[klaiggeb]

Loved the post and video, Randy, it was great!!!

What bothered ME were 2 things:

1, OTHER than Mitchel's play, not ONE Giant great play. Not even Mays' catch of Wertz' ball NOR his bare handed catch of Furillo's line drive.

2-But the biggest offense OF ALL was not ONE, NOT ONE Brandon Crawford highlight.

They chose Jeter's catch OVER Brandon's. Horse Crap! Crawford ran twice as far... but of course, he's not playing in NY.

To ignore Crawford is unforgivable, and shows, again, East Coast bias.

[rog]

The one that really bothered me being included was the one where the Dodger 2nd baseman BOOTED an easy groundball and had to chase it and flip it behind him to first without looking...he made a bad play, then a lucky throw.


Rog -- The video wasn't entitled the greatest plays ever. It was entitled one in a million plays.

It's kind of like an hour ago when I asked Barbara what the best restaurant she had eaten in was. She said she didn't know, and I told her I didn't really know mine either (at least not without thinking about it). She told me, well, you just told me the other day your favorite was in Carpinteria (a town not too far from Boly).

I told her I asked what was the BEST, not what was her favorite. There's a difference.

Kind of like the difference in the best plays and the one in a million plays. A relationship, certainly, but not a complete one.

By the way, Boly, if you ever get up to Carpinteria, at the Palms you pick out and grill your own steak, and it's even better than it sounds.




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[rog]

1, OTHER than Mitchel's play, not ONE Giant great play. Not even Mays' catch of Wertz' ball NOR his bare handed catch of Furillo's line drive.


Rog -- IIRC, the plays were all from the past 30 years or so. We see Willie's play perhaps more than any other. I don't know how many plays there we on the video, but there were, what, one or two per team on average?

As for Willie's play on Furillo's line drive, I've never seen a video of it. Remember, there is only the tiniest fraction of video available from back then. I'll bet that if we put "Willie Mays' Greatest Defensive Plays" in our browser, we wouldn't fit it.

If it's the play I'm think of though, Branch Rickey said of it, "That's the greatest play I ever saw, and the greatest play I ever hope to see."

By the way, Willie himself will tell you that "The Catch" wasn't his greatest, that it was the throw. I think that was the greatest catch ever seen at that time ("many of the fans out there must have thought it was an optical illusion"), but the video had catches that were better, and certainly more unusual.

By the way, as much as I love Willie, that catch is one of the more over-hyped catches in history. There is at least one highly important "fact" about the way that play is spoken of that is quite incorrect.

Beautiful though, wasn't it? And that type of catch became known forever more as a "Willie Mays Catch." I have "The Catch" on the wall in my den.





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[rog]

But the biggest offense OF ALL was not ONE, NOT ONE Brandon Crawford highlight.

They chose Jeter's catch OVER Brandon's. Horse Crap! Crawford ran twice as far... but of course, he's not playing in NY.

To ignore Crawford is unforgivable, and shows, again, East Coast bias.


Rog -- First of all, let's call it what it is -- not an East Coast BIAS, but a Pacific Time Zone circumstance.

Second, I didn't expect to see a Brandon Crawford highlight. There were plays there made by fielders not nearly as good as Brandon -- including Jeter. But much of the beauty of Brandon's plays is that he makes them so smoothly.

As for the Jeter play, it wasn't the catch itself; it was the way he dived into the stands.

As for Jeter's most famous play -- the flip to home on the throw from right field -- it certainly was a difficult and especially heads-up play, but I still wonder if the throw wouldn't have gotten the runner more easily if he hadn't cut it off. I'm not sure either way.

One shortstop play that was on the video is the play from deeper in the hole than any other play I've seen. And as I mentioned, what I consider Ozzie Smith's best play wasn't on it even though his great pivot was.

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[sfgdood]

I was shocked to see not one play by Omar Vizquel. I can remember a handful of plays he made just with the Giants that were far more memorable than some of the lucky flips on this video

[klaiggeb]

Yeah. Good point, Randy. Leaving off Vizquel is even worse than leaving off Crawford.

Then again, MOST of the highlights were be outfielders, or stupid, dumb, lucky plays like the one by Utley and Colon.

[rog]

Again, guys, let's keep this in context. The video wasn't entitled the 100 Greatest Defensive Plays -- although it certainly included a lot of great ones. It was entitled one in a million plays. As great as Crawford and Vizquel have been defensively, I don't think they've made a lot of plays we haven't seen before.

We have had complaints about Kevin Mitchell's play being the only one performed by a Giant. That wasn't even a particularly good play. It was simply a different-looking one.

I'm sure they would have chosen the Mays one-handed catch over it, but I doubt very much there is any video of it. I've read about it, but I've never seen a video. On Mays' play, by the way, he sprinted to the spot as he often did, looked up, and had time only to reach up with his bare hand. Mays' play was the greatest Branch Rickey ever saw; Mitchell's play was a smooth-looking catch when he overran the ball.

Mitchell's play wasn't anywhere close to the best defensive play by a Giant. Crawford alone has made at least a hundred that were better -- probably 500. But Mitchell's play was different.

I probably threw you guys off when I posted that you've never seen greater plays. On some of them, that was true. On others, such as Mitchell's, they were mostly just different. They were one in a million.

[sfgdood]

I saw a video a few months back on youtube of the greatest walkoff HRs in postseason history. Niether Bobby Thomson nor Bill Mazeroski were on the list. Travis Ishikawa was number one. That blew my mind. Some people are just lazy.

[Islandboagie]

Those youtube videos are merely one person's opinion. The one you saw was probably made by a youngster that didn't know any better. However, Travis' story that season made that homerun more meaningful on a personal level than the others. But, it wasn't a do or die situation, he didn't need to hit a homerun there, something in the gap would have done the trick too. Because of that, it shouldn't be number 1, but I could see it being somewhere in the top 10.

[klaiggeb]

I saw a video a few months back on youtube of the greatest walkoff HRs in postseason history. Niether Bobby Thomson nor Bill Mazeroski were on the list. Travis Ishikawa was number one. That blew my mind. Some people are just lazy.

***boly says***

You said a mouth full, Randy!

Ishi's HR was huge... but it did NOT have the impact of the one Bobby Thompson hit. Not even close!

Same with Mazeroski's blast, which, I might add WAS in the World Series.

I love Ishi... but his comes in 3rd in this race, for me.

[rog]

I saw a video a few months back on youtube of the greatest walkoff HRs in postseason history. Niether Bobby Thomson nor Bill Mazeroski were on the list. Travis Ishikawa was number one. That blew my mind. Some people are just lazy.


Rog -- Or perhaps simply ignorant. When baseball's greatest plays are highlighted, Thomson's homer is usually at or near the top, and Willie's catch usually gets a lot of play as well.




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[rog]

You said a mouth full, Randy!

Ishi's HR was huge... but it did NOT have the impact of the one Bobby Thompson hit. Not even close!

Same with Mazeroski's blast, which, I might add WAS in the World Series.

I love Ishi... but his comes in 3rd in this race, for me.


Rog -- You are right on, Boly. A very DISTANT third.




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