Behind the glass case it sits, mocking my meager imagination. It’s old. It’s impossibly small, shriveled with age, all the while mesmerizing me with its worn and well-earned wisdom. This is The Glove. Yes, that glove. The glove that made grainy, black and white history. The glove that made The Catch.
Common sense and the “eye test” say that by the time Mays turned his back on home plate, everyone at the Polo Grounds that day had Vic Wertz standing at least on third base. History farts on all that.
There are a handful of astonishing things to contemplate about The Catch, not the least of which is Willie’s answer, delivered to the cutoff man, a retort that kept the runner from advancing all the way home, some 420 feet from where Mays secured Wertz’s rocketed volley.