Jackie Bradley Jr. widely is heralded as one of the best outfielders in all of baseball.
The Boston Red Sox center fielder reeled in an American League Gold Glove last year for his defensive prowess, roaming the vast space of Fenway Park’s outfield with flare and vicious effectiveness.
Red Sox fans routinely have had their jaws drop watching Bradley Jr. make incredible play after incredible play in the outfield, but according to the center fielder, his best catch came Saturday during the Red Sox’s spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Pirates first baseman Josh Bell lined a ball to center which Bradley Jr. misread off the bat, then slipped as he changed directions. In vintage form, he still made the catch.
(You can watch the catch here)
“It’s probably the most amazing play I’ve ever made,” Bradley said after the game via The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
“I just uprooted earth with these strong tree-trunk legs,” Bradley quipped. “A lot of people thought I was just going to go ahead and go to the fence. … I envisioned where I thought it could possibly be, but after I went down, I didn’t even turn around to look at it,” said Bradley. “I just put my head down and tried to get my bearings back under me.
“I literally threw my glove where I thought it would be, and voila,” Bradley added. “That’s the first time I’ve ever caught a ball without seeing it I think.”
While Bradley Jr. probably has made prettier catches in his day, but we’d agree that catching a frozen rope without seeing it is a pretty spectacular feat.
