Capital Christian senior Brett Graber saves the day with grab reminiscent of one of MLB's most famous World Series moments.
Video: Top 5 Plays of the Week #3
A pair of spectacular catches highlight this week's top plays.
But when the ball disappeared into the glove of fleet senior center fielder
Brett Graber, the 62-year-old coach immediately thought of a baseball God.
"Willie Mays," Randolph said recalling the 1954 World Series grab by the New York Giants outfielder, simply known as "
The Catch." "I have to admit, I think Brett's catch was even better. He had to sprint direct to the fence and catch it over his head. Willie caught it more over the shoulder.
"No matter what, that's a catch I've never seen live in my life."
Capital Christian's Brett Graber's game-saving catch next to a video image of Willie Mays' famous World Series moment known as "The Catch."
Photo by Anthony Brunsman
Neither had any of his coaches. And, considering their experience, that's saying something.
Randolph, himself, starred at Luther Burbank and Sac City as a young man, and adult leagues into his 50s. He's been the coach at Capital Christian for 15 seasons.
That pales in comparison to two 85-year-old assistants, Guy Anderson — the state's No. 3 winningest coach at
Cordova (Rancho Cordova) — and Ralph Rago, the legendary coach at
Davis. Both are American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductees.
Another assistant, Bill Benevides, turns 71 in June.
"They'd never seen anything like it either," Randolph said.
Not live at a high school game anyway. They've seen the black and white footage from the Polo Grounds hundreds of times, and heard the call of Jack Brickhouse and Russ Hodges on the mic.
"It took us all back to that catch," Benevides said. "(Graber) was just out there sprinting in the deepest part of the park. Just like Willie's catch, the game was on the line. When (Dutra) hit it, I thought we were in deep trouble."
Instead, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound Graber helped preserve a two-run lead and Capital Christian went on to a 6-4 Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 quarterfinal victory. The All-League outfielder made another outstanding catch in the left-center field gap to end the game as well. On the offensive end, he contributed a key triple late that led to two key runs.
Though only 17 — 70 years younger than Mays — Graber said he's watched "The Catch," dozens of times.
"It's one of the best catches ever, so to be compared to that is sort of crazy" he said. "Honestly, I thought off the bat it was either against the wall or over it. I was just running as fast as I could and I threw my glove up at the last minute. I was really surprised when it landed in my glove."
As good as the catch was, the reaction was even better.
"When he hit it, I could hear their fans going crazy," Graber said. "But then when I caught it, our fans went nuts. When I got back to the dugout it was sort of surreal. I've never received that much love from all our fans and all my teammates. I got so many hugs and people said that I saved our season. It was really an awesome feeling."
The Cougars, winners of five straight D5 titles, play Woodland on Thursday with the winner advancing to the championship against El Dorado, which knocked Capital Christian into the loser's bracket with a 12-11 win on Saturday.
Randolph said Graber is the only player on a very fast team who could have made either catch.
"Above being such a good athlete, he wants to be great," Randolph said. "He's a serious competitor. When the team is down, he pulls the team up and sometimes gives emotional speeches."
Or spectacular, season-saving catches.
The three-photo series shows Capital Christian center fielder Brett Graber making his game-saving snag in the Cougars' Sac-Joaquin Division IV playoff win.
Photos by Anthony Brunsman
For some additional visual context, here's video via Jay Cortese on Twitter:
