You can see the catch here.
In the top of the ninth, Dewayne Wise, a defensive 9th inning CF replacement, made a fantastic play to rob Gabe Kapler of a HR and preserving Buehrle's perfect game. On ESPN, the BBTN crew said this catch was one of, if not THE, best catches. EVER.'
Now it was obvious this catch was way out of Wise's range and he got a poor start when the ball was hit off of the bat. This made it it LOOK extremely impressive that Wise had to run so far to make that amazing grab. But if a better defender was underneath that ball in time and then timed it perfectly, would people still be clamoring about THAT play?
Now I'm not taking anything away from Wise because in the end he DID end up robbing a HR to save a perfect game (maybe Juan Uribe should learn a thing or two about saving perfect games from Wise), but how good really was that catch?
It was amazing. What more do you want? He also had to one hand the ball as it trickled out of his glove.
ReplyDeleteWanna podcast on it
Hey, I'm not saying the catch wasn't amazing. I'm just saying, if Wise was a better DEFENDER, would that catch still be THAT good? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteBecause, let's be honest here, the vast majority of outfield catches that are considered "Web Gems" because the outfielder himself isn't really that good. The ball is played out of the defenders range so when the defender does all he can to catch the ball, it LOOKS amazing, when in reality the defender has to do something amazing to make up for his lack of defensive skills.
So if you say it was one of, if not THE best, catches ever, then I won't disagree with you. But let's take Wise's poor defensive play into account here.