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NEW YORK -- The catch seemed like an omen of a pennant to come. Endy Chavez tracked the baseball tightly and when he jumped against the left field wall, his elbow hitting the top of it, his glove dangling a foot and a half beyond it, the ball seemed to just stick to that glove, failing to budge an inch.
The eyes of Chavez opened wide, almost in disbelief. Did I snag that? Did I catch it? That was me? It was, without question, perhaps the greatest catch ever made in postseason history, an athletic feat Willie Mays, Michael Jordan and Joe Montana would all be proud of.
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| The Mets' Endy Chavez hauls in what seems like Scott Rolen's sixth-inning home run. (AP) |
Very few people thought it would end this way. In New York, many in the media were talking about who would be favored in a Mets-Detroit World Series. The catch only reinforced the notion that this was the Mets’ to lose. Endy was supposed to be The Ender. The catch was supposed to seal it for New York.
Shea Stadium was rocking, travel plans were being made, and World Series dreams were starting to be stitched. Fans called for not one but two curtain calls for Chavez.
That catch was almost going to do for the Mets what Bill Buckner’s boot did for them two decades ago.
Then reality hit. After the final pitch, Mets fans were stunned and silent. A few dozen tossed their white towels towards the field in frustration, the towels they had been waving frantically in support of the Mets just a few minutes earlier. A few losers threw water bottles as far as they could.
The Mets had a tremendous regular season. They are an up-and-coming franchise with a talented young manager in Willie Randolph. Yet this was still a gargantuan stumble.
A team that finished with 97 wins lost to a team that had just 83. Not only were the Mets supposed to win, they were supposed to smoke St. Louis. This series should have been done in five games. Six tops. It went seven and the Mets are lucky they were not beat worse in the final game. Chavez’s miracle catch kept this from being a complete embarrassment instead of a partial one.
"All of a sudden, best-of-7, the club that wins 83 can beat a club that wins 97," said Tony La Russa, St. Louis manager. "Tough club to compete but very exciting."
This was not the best Game 7 but it was one of them, ranking alongside Dodgers-Twins in 1965 with Sandy Koufax pitching on two days’ rest or Red Sox-Yankees in 2003 or Braves-Twins in 1991. There are others.
La Russa managed well and over the next week there will be stories and books written about his genius. By the time the World Series is over, some in the media will be talking about La Russa like he created the periodic table or flew a spaceship into a black hole with Stephen Hawking as his co-pilot. Genius this, genius that.
La Russa and the Cardinals deserve credit for winning a Game 7 on the road, and La Russa credit for getting an 83-win team into the World Series, but this was as much about the Mets perhaps believing their press clippings that they were better than the Cardinals and a win was a foregone conclusion, than anything La Russa did.
