Some things in baseball can't be taught. You can't really teach Aroldis Chapman's 102-plus mile per hour fastballs. You can't teach Ken Griffey Jr.'s unbelievably smooth swing and calm, cool presence at the plate. You can't teach the resilience, determination and courage — along with the undeniable natural talent — that powered players like Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron through their legendary careers.
And you can't teach ridiculous, impromptu barehanded catches while ranging back on a slicing fly ball. But in one very specific incident, this was exactly the case that created an all-time memorable grab in the outfield (via MLB Film Room).
No one can teach that. I don't care if you're Ozzie Smith, the all-time great defensive shortstop who was responsible for hitting the fly ball to then-Giants outfielder Kevin Mitchell. I don't care if you're the aforementioned Griffey, flying all over the place with his incredible athleticism and range. I don't even care if you're Willie Mays, who may be the greatest outfielder the game has ever seen and is responsible for our national pastime's most mind-blowing fielding play ever.
And Mays himself knows that he can't teach that. In an interview with former MLB star Bret Boone on his self-titled podcast, Mitchell revealed that Mays gave him a call after the unbelievable catch. To Mitchell himself, the grab wasn't anything special, but Mays, his teammates and fans sure thought otherwise. From Mitchell:
The ultimate thing was, when I got in the dugout, came up to me... he said, 'Man, do you realize what you've just done?' I said, 'It's an out, man, let's go! I wanna hit, that's all I wanna do is hit.' I'm facing John Tudor... so I just couldn't wait to get up to the plate, but they were like, 'Mitch, do you realize what you've just done?'
And then Willie Mays called me, he says, 'I didn't teach you that!' I said, 'Willie, it just happened, man.' I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't even know how to react when I did it. I was just walking back and the people in St. Louis [were] giving me a standing ovation, clapping, and I was like, 'Man!' You know, that year, everything was just going too well.
That year was a pretty good one for Mitchell, who led the 1989 San Francisco Giants to a first-place 92-70 finish and the NL Pennant, though they lost in the World Series to the Oakland Athletics. Mitchell sure did his part, leading baseball with 47 home runs, 125 RBI and a whopping 1.023 OPS en route to the MVP Award. Though he had other strong years, never again would he reach such lofty totals all over the board.
And never again would he record such an amazing catch that even had the Say Hey Kid calling to say, hey, that was pretty darn special.
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