Top 5 Defensive Plays in World Series History, Ranked

Home runs get the highlight reels, but October is often decided by a glove. Nick put together his list of the five greatest defensive plays in World Series history, and we spent a good part of a show arguing about the order. Here is his ranking, the case for each play, and where I pushed back.

5. Brooks Robinson, 1970 World Series, Game 1

In the sixth inning, Cincinnati's Lee May ripped a hard grounder down the third-base line. Robinson, the Baltimore Orioles third baseman, gloved it on the backhand and threw May out at first without fully setting his feet. It was the first of many plays that made Robinson the Series MVP, and it is the clip people still use to show what a third baseman can do.

This one hits close to home for me. When I started playing a lot of third base, my coaches told me to go watch Brooks, and the next name they gave me was Eric Chavez. Nick put Robinson at five, and I will admit my third-base bias made it hard to move him down further.

4. Devon White, 1992 World Series, Game 3

The Toronto Blue Jays' center fielder raced back toward the wall to rob David Justice of an extra-base hit. The play then turned into chaos on the bases, and the Braves came within a whisker of a triple play. Sanders was ruled safe at second, although replays suggested he should have been out. It is a combination of range, athleticism and a little madness, and it is still one of the most replayed catches in the Series.

3. Dwight Evans, 1975 World Series, Game 6

This is the game best known for Carlton Fisk's home run, but Evans made the play that kept it going. With the score tied 6-6 in the 11th inning and Ken Griffey on first, Joe Morgan hit a drive toward right field. Evans made a leaping catch, then threw to first to double up Griffey. A great catch is one thing. A great catch followed by a throw that wipes out the runner is rare, and it showed Evans's range, concentration and arm in a single play.

2. Andy Pages, 2025 World Series, Game 7

This is the most recent play on the list, and it may have been the most important. Bottom of the ninth in Toronto, the Dodgers holding on, the bases loaded and the winning run 90 feet away. Ernie Clement lofted a high fly ball to deep left-center. Pages, who had entered as a defensive replacement, ran 121 feet and leaped at the wall, colliding with teammate Kike Hernandez on the way. He held on.

Without that catch the Toronto Blue Jays are world champions. Instead, the Dodgers won 5-4 in 11 innings. It is also, in my opinion, the best tackle in World Series history. Hernandez got absolutely rolled over, and I have rarely seen anyone so happy to be steamrolled. Nick almost put this one at number one because of what it saved.

1. Willie Mays, 1954 World Series, Game 1

Still the standard. September 29, 1954, the Polo Grounds, top of the eighth, tied 2-2, two Indians on base. Cleveland's Vic Wertz drove a ball to deep center field, roughly 420 feet from home plate. Mays turned his back, ran it down and made the over-the-shoulder catch, and then spun and fired the ball back to the infield so the runners could not take advantage. The Giants won in extra innings and swept the series.

Here is the part I always want people to remember: the throw. Everyone talks about the catch, but Mays himself said the throw was the better play, since it kept the runners from advancing. Making a catch like that and having the presence of mind not to stop and celebrate is what separates this play from every other one on the list.

Where we disagreed

Both of us agreed the list was good. The real debate was between Mays and Pages for the top spot. Pages saved a championship, since without his catch the series is over. Mays's play was in Game 1, and the Giants might have won without it. How do you weigh a play by what it saved versus the nostalgia and pure athleticism of the moment? I came down on Mays because baseball is not a game of single moments, it is a sequence of them, and Mays's play was the more complete piece of baseball. Nick wrestled with it right up to the end.

Chat added a few of its own. Kirby Puckett's 1991 catch in Game 6 almost made Nick's list in place of Robinson, and what Puckett did later that night, a walk-off home run, makes it hard to leave him out. Another viewer pointed out that Vin Scully thought Devon White's play was better than Mays's, and since Scully called more World Series games than almost anyone, that carries weight.

Your turn

Which play would you move to number one, and what did we leave out? Tell us in the Rounding Third community or on the next live show on the show page. If you like baseball history, check out the rest of the Rounding Third Media Network, and read our companion ranking, the five most dramatic home runs in World Series history.

Sources: Wikipedia on Willie Mays's catch, MLB.com on 2025 Game 7, Bleacher Report on defensive plays.