So no one else remembers the McRae catch?

isnt that exactly what this video is being "praised" for also?

the vertical leap involving catching an even smaller ball traveling at a faster and higher rate and using "1 hand" and getting the ball and the glove back inside the field of play for the out?

Same concept.

Lol not even close. Catching and controlling a circle baseball with one GLOVE is infinitely easier than catching and controlling an oblong football.

Then why in Athletic testing do they test ones ability to vertical jump and not the ability to dive? Also, why do you see more dives in highlight reels then vertical catches such as this one? Because the dive is more common due to it being a little bit easier as someone mentioned.

Not disagreeing that catching a football with one hand is very difficult..and Im not saying its harder or easier...

But, in this case, do you see the ball almost come out and him hold onto it while he is hitting the wall at mid torso level and landing on one foot from a very high jump? IN baseball, thats very hard to do. And I find it funny that a bunch of people here are like"meh" about this catch and how perdestrian it is when Professional baseball players and the MLB itself is praising it. I think the players understand the difficulty of this paticular type of catch, over a "see it every single day" diving catch.

This is better

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...314123&c_id=kc

Diving is not more common. People jump vertically every single day. I cant remember the last time I dove.

And they don't test dive because for the most part, again, its not common. An athlete will jump vertically 100 times before they dive once.

And my definition of a dive is both feet have to be off the ground when the ball is caught. The majority of "dives" you see in baseball highlight are just players extending to the ball. They never really dive.

Now the true diving catches, now those are beautiful pieces of athleticism.
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Not disagreeing that a true diving catch is awesome, but we see diving catches on Sportscenter everyday during baseball season, and catches like Trouts are very uncommon. Again, why is the entire baseball profession praising it? Cuz they know how incredibly difficult and how much athelticism a catch like that one takes.

And Ilike how you are comparing everyday people to athletes when it comes to jumping or diving. Of course you dont dive for anything and yes we jump more often, but come on. They test for the vertical jump and not the dive in athletics because how high you can jump is a skill. Diving is a skill as well but not quite as highly regarded when it comes to athletics.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...3538691666-996

Wow

That may be the best baseball play I've ever seen. Wow.

This is the best play I've ever seen.

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I was at that game. There was a loud ovation from the royals fans. David Howard had a nice throw in from the outfield as well.

Best catch of the year for sure. How tall are the walls at Rogers Centre? Has to be 10-12 feet.

I don't know the height, but I specifically watched to see how high the guy went to get it, and he was up with a nice vertical. Pretty darn athletic for a baseball player.

Yeah, You could see Davis knew exactly what he was going to do when he slowed up and got his timing right, then dug those spikes (I guess. Turf shoes?) into the wall to get up over it. That looks like a 12' fence, easily.

I'm kind of wondering why more guys don't do that. Obviously, though, the circumstances have to be right, and you don't want to Griffey your ankle by hitting the wall too fast or at an angle.