Not quite as legendary as it's been made out to be...but still very good.

TIED IN THE BEST BLACK PLAYERS

amazing catch!

Is this baseball's most memorable moment? I'm not sure about that, but it's gotta be on the list.

the gold standard for outfield plays. I've seen edmonds, andruw jones, and even aaron rowand make some unlikely plays in center field, but willie's is just a work of art.

Pretty darn cool

I know that timing is everything and Mays pulled off this catch at a big moment, but don't we see catches like this just about every night from guys like Torii Hunter?

This is the catch that defines baseball for me. No juice for Wertz. Just pure power and hitting in the clutch. And nothing for Mays except sheer speed, talent, daring, and instinct.

Best catch ever? There are too many to judge. Best World Series catch ever? Maybe Tommie Agee's snow cone against the wall in '69. Or Ron Swoboda the same year.

But for baseball this is like Mazeroski in '60, and Kirk Gibson in '88.

Goosebumps man. Goosebumps. Classic.

Willie was the best to ever put on a uniform. That being said, catches like that one are made every day.

Willie Mays may be the best outfeilder to play the sport of baseball. That was the greatest catch ever is what my opion is. 5 out of 5!

I wish I could go 4 1/2 on this one. It's place in hearts & history is a five. It opened the door to a Series sweep, but Mays, by all accounts, made many better catches over his stellar career.

He had his back to the ball when he caught it.

He didn't dive for it. He didn't leap for it. What was so thrilling about it?

One of the greatest defensive plays of all-time.

It's not just the fact that Mays caught up with Vic Wertz's tremendous drive -- which would have been a home run in any of today's parks -- but the circumstances around the play that made the catch so memorable. Cleveland had won a major league record 111 games that year -- when teams played 154-game schedule. Most analysts picked the Indians to win the series in four or five games. Mays made the catch in the 8th inning of game one, which was tied 2-2. Cleveland had runners on first and second, nobody out. Power-hitting first baseman Vic Wertz hit the ball so far out to center field that Mays, whose speed and quickness allowed him to play shallow in the cavernous Polo Fields, had to run almost all the way to the center field fence 480 feet from home plate. Flying full-tilt, he willed the ball into his glove, reversed momentum, spun around and somehow propelled a strike back to second base 100 yards away. Had Wertz hit to ball to any other outfielder, the lead runner would have tagged and scored from second. Because the game remained tied until the Giants scored in extra innings, the outcome of game and possibly the series would have been very different. Instead, the Giants swept their heavily favored opponents in four games.

Best catch ever.

there have been many a catches, jeters diving face first, bo jackson walking the wall, tori hunter night after night, but that just showed the true willie mays and that catch you can say was 90% skill 1% luck and 9% desire/determination.

There have been far better in more clutch situations than this- nothing moire than New York center of the world nonsense

This catch could probably still sell as the ultimate baseball postcard about the player who seemed to have the ultimate good time playing it.

Its not so much the catch itself but where Mays starts from and the trajectory of the ball. Mays seems to run forever, and the ball is not a sky scraping long pop fly, but a high liner. It is Mays judgement and his getting to the ball at all that make it special

I remember this game and this catch, although I didn't see the film until later. I have seen a lot of baseball and a lot of great catches, but this was the greatest, not just for the athleticism, but for the game circumstance and the fact that it probably was the turning point in the defeat of one of the greatest teams -- the 1954 Cleveland Indians -- in baseball history.

I hate the Dodgers. With that in mind let me get to my point. With my hatred of the Dodgers having nothing to do with this super catch for it was against a different team. And this Bob Feller fellow had no respect for the game if he could say this wasn't the best catch. Until i see another play of Mays status run 100 feet with his back to the feild and make the catch while spinning around to get the runner out in midair I say this is the best catch in baseball history.

Very, very good catch. . .but it has been overblown. Bob Feller (who was there) said it was far from the best catch he'd ever seen. New York media has given the catch a life it probably doesn't deserve. But- I still think Willie Mays is the best ballplayer ever.

Best catch ever in my mind.