Jim Edmonds announced his retirement from MLB yesterday after 18 seasons with six teams. I'll always think of him as being the man who made the second out in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 World Series, when Keith Foulke struck him out.
Edmonds retires with 393 home runs, and 1199 RBI. I can understand why he wanted to give it one more go, to reach the 400/1200 plateau. But his legs gave out on him, and he comes up short of a couple of worthy offensive milestones. I'm sure he will merit some serious Hall of Fame consideration in 2016.
Edmonds was simply one of the greatest center fielders in baseball history, as he won eight Gold Gloves (and I'm sure he deserved every one). In my opinion, he made the single greatest single catch in history, in Kansas City off the Royals' David Howard in June 1997. I think it's better than the famous Willie Mays catch in the 1954 World Series: full extension away from the plate on the dead run, bearing in on the center field wall, and he grabs it.
Here is the catch, included in MLB Network's "Prime 9" of the greatest catches. They agree with me it's number one. (It pops up at about 1:45 of the clip.)
Enjoy your retirement Jim.
2 comments:
Shades of the Yaz catch at Yankee Stadium in '78. He ran full tilt right toward the wall and at the last second, divid and made the catch. Ken Coleman (I loved him and Ned) did the call and at the end, it went like this, verbatim..."And he dives and makes a TREEEEMENDOUS CATCH."
I'm sure you've seen the footage. Pure magic on the turf.
That was 1967, Peter. Opening Day and it temporarily saved Billy Rohr's no-hit bid. Great footage and a wonderful call by the late, great Mr. Coleman.
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