Willie Mays: Catch

“I'm just a ballplayer, not a sports writer. I don't compare 'em; I just catch 'em.”

Willie Mays

Context: Mays said he thought maybe the Skinner catch was a bit better than yesterday's, as well as a catch he made on a ball hit this season by Gus Bell of the Cincinnati Reds. "But I don't want to compare 'em," said Willie. "I'm just a ballplayer, not a sports writer. I don't compare 'em; I just catch 'em."

Reluctantly comparing his famous catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series to a pair of catches made during that season on May 26 https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0akpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Gk4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1599%2C3418911&dq=willie-mays-made-star-tling-catch-bob-skinner and June 6 http://www.mediafire.com/view/m5bmpfxdu5ciu3m/%20.png, respectively (the latter "circus catch" made not against Bell, as per Mays' recollection, but rather Chuck Harmon, who directly preceded Bell in the lineup that day); as paraphrased and quoted in "Willie Modestly Scoffs at Raves Over Big Catch" by UPI, in Newsday (September 30, 1954), p. 95

Sport

“People talk about that catch and, I've said this many times, that I've made better catches than that many times in regular season. But of course in my time, you didn't have a lot of television during the regular season. A lot of people didn't see me do a lot of things.”

Willie Mays

Academy of Achievement Interview (1996)

People , Time , Season

“I think the key to that particular play was the throw. I knew I had the ball all the time. In my mind, because I was so cocky at that particular time when I was young, whatever went in the air I felt that I could catch. That's how sure I would be about myself. When the ball went up I had no idea that I wasn't going to catch the ball. As I'm running -- I'm running backwards and I'm saying to myself, "How am I going to get this ball back into the infield?"”

Willie Mays

Academy of Achievement Interview (1996)

Idea , Thinking , Time

“Gee, I've been asked hundreds of questions about that catch in the first game of the World Series. The one that Vic Wertz hit for Cleveland. Was it my best catch? How did I play it? Honestly, I don't rate 'em—I just try to catch 'em. When he hit the ball, I just started toward the place it was heading. And I got there.”

Willie Mays

In "Willie 'Just Knows' His Job" by Mays, in The Daily Mail (March 25, 1955), p. 16

World , Game , Question

“Any time I'm not playing, I watch the game at home on television. That way I can relax and if I decide to make a catch off my playroom wall, nobody is the wiser.”

Willie Mays

Regarding his decision not to attend Game 1 of the 1960 World Series, despite having been in Pittsburgh the previous day for a TV appearance; as quoted in "Change of Pace" by Bill Nunn, Jr., in The Pittsburgh Courier (October 15, 1960), p. 25

Home , Time , Game , Way