Yesterday, we saw Ichiro Suzuki pull up on a fly that carried to deep right field, only to have it bounce at the base of the wall.
Today, in just about the same spot, Suzuki made one of the best catches I’ve ever seen.
Angels catcher Jeff Mathis crushed a fly to straight-away right and well over Suzuki’s head. He turned and sprinted full speed toward the wall and, with his back toward the infield, made not just an over-the-shoulder catch but an over-his head-Willie-Maysish catch. All while en route to a collison with the wall.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Suzuki actually caught the ball because his body shielded it from the grandstand. He went down and crashed into the base of the wall — masterfully in front of the Oakley logo, a brand he endorses — then rolled over to produce the baseball out of his glove.
Here’s video of the catch from MLB.com.
In the press box, we leafed through our fading memories to come up with a better catch, especially by a Mariner.
There’s Ken Griffey Jr.’s leap against the Yankee Stadium wall to rob Jesse Barfield, Jay Buhner’s tumble over the short right-field wall at Fenway Park, Mike Cameron’s leap to pull back a homer from Derek Jeter at Safeco Field, and Stan Javier’s catch at Safeco when he reached over the right-field wall to get his glove on the ball, bobbled it and then caught it as he tumbled to the warning track.
There also was Ichiro’s climb to the top of the right-field wall at Safeco a few years ago to pull back a home run.
Today’s catch? It was an all-out crash into the base of the wall and warning track in what you’d expect more of Eric Byrnes than Suzuki, especially at spring training and particularly by a guy who rarely leaves his feet to make a catch.
We see Ichiro do this in batting practice all the time, and yesterday morning he caught a ball over his shoulder while running away from the infield. But that wasn’t at the all-out speed or with the right-field wall only a few feet away.
Manager Don Wakamatsu aluded to Ichiro’s leadership this year, not only in the play he made today but in the way he’s playing the game. This was the third of four straight games he’ll play, but he was in it all nine innings.
And in addition to the max-effort catch, he also stole his fifth base of spring training. It leaves him two short of his spring training high of seven steals in 2001.
And now, there’s the catch. It’s only spring training, but this one was a treat to see.
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