It Is True Glove at 1st, 2nd Sight

ANAHEIM —  Everybody you ask--including Tony Gwynn, who has witnessed a whole lot of baseballs being hit and caught in his 37 years--says it’s the best catch they’ve ever seen.

Jim Edmonds shrugs and says it’s not even the best he has ever made. His sprinting, diving, flat-out, over-the-tip-of-his-cap catch of David Howard’s drive in Kansas City Tuesday is only tied for first.

“I made the exact same catch in Venezuela, playing winter ball in 1992, but nobody saw it so it was no big deal,” he said.

So now we’re faced with that age-old question: If a center fielder falls on his face making a catch near the rain forest, and nobody sees it, does it make an uproar?

And, if it is the best catch anyone’s ever seen, what are the odds of Jim Edmonds doing it twice?

“This isn’t the sort of thing the guys work on in spring training with coaches hitting line drives over their heads,” veteran third baseman Jack Howell says, smiling. “It’s not something you teach, it’s something you just have. And you know Jimmy, he’s definitely got that flair.”

Howell points out that you have to first attempt to make such a catch before you can actually succeed and many outfielders just aren’t willing to risk their health to snag a fly ball.

But a baseball and Edmonds have the same relationship as a Frisbee and a springer spaniel: all flights of the former must end in the latter’s clutches. There is no other imaginable conclusion.

So Edmonds runs. He jumps. He sacrifices his safety. He belly-flops on the turf. He vise-grips his trophy. And then wags, er, smiles.

And he wasn’t the only one smiling this time.

“I never show emotion on the field, but I couldn’t stop laughing,” said Darin Erstad, a center fielder who is playing first base this season. “I mean it’s so amazing that you can’t really say anything to describe it, you just shake your head.

“You have to understand everything that goes into it, the jump he got, the read on the ball, the route he took to get there and his ability to hold it when he came down.

“Nobody else has made that catch because very few people have what it takes to put themselves in the position to make that catch.”

Right fielder Tim Salmon, who had an up-close-and-personal view of The Catch, says he has never witnessed a better one, although he has seen Edmonds go spectacular any number of times.

“I’ve seen him make a lot of great catches against the wall,” Salmon said, “but from the standpoint that it looked like he never had any chance at this ball, this was the all-time best.”

After skidding to a stop on the warning track with the ball still lodged in the webbing of his glove, Edmonds apparently stifled a yawn.

“At the time, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Edmonds said. “Then I saw it on TV a couple of times and, yeah, I’m pretty happy with the outcome. And it’s gotten me some notoriety. But I’m sure I won’t get to Jay Leno or anything.”

Maybe Letterman. After all, this could easily qualify as a Stupid Human Trick.

“If he took one more stride before he dove, he’s on the track and hitting the wall headfirst,” Manager Terry Collins said. “But he never thinks about anything like that. Never.”

So what was he thinking when he saw the ball come off Howard’s bat?

“I was in trouble, I was beat,” Edmonds said. “The ball was going to be over my head and they were going to score the go-ahead runs, so I went after it. I just ran as hard as I could and when I turned and saw it, I figured my only chance was to lay out for it.”

Was he aware of how close he was to the wall?

“No and I didn’t care . . . well, I was pretty sure I’d hit the ground before I hit the wall, so I knew I’d be OK.”

Collins believes The Catch is made even greater by a number of extenuating circumstances: the proximity of the wall, the rubberized warning track at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium which is much less forgiving than dirt, and the fact that Edmonds is playing with torn knee cartilage.

“I think the conditions surrounding it and the guy’s fearless approach, have to make it one of the greatest, if not the greatest, catch ever made,” Collins said. “But that’s why Jim is what he is. When he’s out there, he only thinks of one thing: ‘Catch the baseball.”’

And now Edmonds has bragging rights to Best Catch Ever, in both Americas.

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Great Catch!

Tuesday, Angel center fielder Jim Edmonds made a catch some say ranks with Willie Mays’ play in the 1954 World Series as the most spectacular in baseball history. What was Edmonds thinking when Kansas City’s David Howard drove the ball to deep center? “I just ran as hard as I could and when I turned and saw it, I figured my only chance was to lay out for it.”