Playing parts of seven big-league seasons with four teams, DeWayne Wise is the classic baseball journeyman. The Chicago White Sox outfielder has never appeared in more than 77 games in a season, never hit more than six home runs and never driven in more than 18. He's 31, so it seems unlikely he is going to become a star.
But Wise will be remembered in baseball lore. Thanks to his leaping, juggling catch on Gabe Kapler's bid for a home run last Thursday to preserve Mark Buehrle's perfect game against the Rays.
Today we salute players like Wise, those remembered for one shining moment in the field. Here's our list (complete with one notable non-player) best known for making a great defensive play.
-- Endy Chavez
Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series. The Mets and Cardinals were tied 1-1 in the top of the sixth. St. Louis' Scott Rolen crushed a pitch to deep left. Chavez went into full sprint, jumped the 8-foot wall and barely snagged the ball with the tip of his glove. He then wheeled and threw back to complete a double play. If the Mets had gone on and won, it might be considered the greatest catch in baseball history. Instead, St. Louis won, and Chavez's catch is merely a note. But it is the headline on Chavez's nine seasons in the bigs.
-- Sandy Amoros
Amoros kicked around the majors mostly during the 1950s, playing sparingly and hitting .255 for his career. But one play made him a Dodgers legend. Brooklyn held a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the 1955 World Series when the Yankees' Yogi Berra lifted a ball into the leftfield corner with two on and no outs. Amoros raced to the ball and caught it with an extended left hand at the wall's 301-foot marker. He stopped short of crashing into the wall and fired back for a double play. The Dodgers went on to win their first world championship, the only one while playing in Brooklyn.
-- Rick Monday
Monday spent 19 seasons in the majors, hit 241 homers, made two All-Star teams and even hit a homer to win the 1981 National League Championship Series for the Dodgers. But he is most known for a defensive "save" that goes down as the most patriotic play in baseball history. In a 1976 game at Dodger Stadium, a father and son ran onto the field and attempted to set an American flag on fire. Monday, playing for the Cubs, raced over and plucked the flag away before it could be lit. He received a standing ovation later when he came to bat.
-- Al Gionfriddo
Gionfriddo played only four seasons in the majors, hitting .266 with two career homers. But he made one of the World Series' greatest catches while playing for the Dodgers in Yankee Stadium. In 1947, Joe DiMaggio crushed a pitch to deep left. Gionfriddo hurried back to make a spectacular grab just shy of the 415-foot mark in front of the bullpen. Even DiMaggio couldn't believe it, kicking DiMaggio the dirt in disgust in a rare display of emotion.
-- Steve Bartman
The forlorn Cubs fan leaned from the stands and tried to catch a foul ball in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS vs. the Marlins at Wrigley Field. Five outs from going to its first World Series since 1945, Bartman may have interfered with Moises Alou making the catch. The hitter, Luis Castillo, eventually walked, and the Marlins went on to score eight runs in the inning to win. They won Game 7, too, the Cubs' curse continued, and Bartman remains infamous.
-- Brooks Robinson
This is a tough call. Robinson played 23 seasons, made 15 All-Star teams and is in the Hall of Fame. The 1964 American League MVP had more than 2,800 hits, won 16 Gold Gloves and popped 268 homers. But if we say "Brooks Robinson,'' the first words out of most mouths is "1970 World Series.'' The Orioles third baseman made a spectacular defensive play in Game 1: After gloving a grounder by the Reds' Lee May, momentum carried him well into foul territory, but he still threw out May. Robinson turned in several more spectacular plays en route to Series MVP honors in the signature moment of his stellar career.
-- Ron Swoboda
Swoboda was decent, spending nine years in the majors, averaging 13 homers and 60 RBIs. Again, one play made his legacy. In Game 4 of the 1969 World Series, Swoboda made a diving catch in right field on a liner hit by Baltimore's Brooks Robinson to kill an Orioles rally and send the game to extra innings where the Mets won and then clinched their amazin' season the next day. The Mets' new Citi Field ballpark features a metal silhouette of a player making a diving catch just like the one Swoboda made in '69.
-- Gary Matthews Jr.
The son of a former major-leaguer, Matthews has played for eight teams since 1999. He has had a few decent seasons, but when you think of him, you think of what some consider the finest catch in the history of the game. While in a full sprint, Matthews climbed the wall at the Rangers' park in Arlington, Texas, and made a twisting, turning, over-the-head catch to rob Houston's Mike Lamb of a home run. It wasn't a postseason affair, just a run-of-the-mill game in July 2006. But it just goes to show how spectacular the catch was that it happened in just another game but is considered legendary.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
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