Video: Phillies prospect Jiwan James makes unbelievable catch
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Video: Phillies prospect Jiwan James makes unbelievable catch
Philly.com Staff
Reading Phillies outfielder Jiwan James made one of the most spectacular catches you'll ever see on Saturday, robbing Bowie's Jonathan Schoop of a home run with a defensive gem that has jaws dropping all over the country.
In the third inning of the R-Phils' 4-2 loss to the Baysox at FirstEnergy Stadium, Schoop blasted a fly ball to deep center which appeared to be a sure homer. James, on a dead sprint, climbed the centerfield wall, reached up with his glove hand — and whiffed.
But James, after landing hard on his back, immediately reached up to display the ball safe and secure — amazingly — in his bare right hand. Video of the catch went viral on social media almost immediately and landed James on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 on Sunday.
It's difficult in the video to see exactly how he made the nearly unbelievable catch, and some have questioned whether he made the catch at all, but there's no denying James authored one incredible highlight.
Video of James' catch is embedded below. Give it a watch (or two) and decide for yourself - catch or no catch?
NFW ... He is a genius having a ball in his back pocket. Watch in slow motion and you can see the ball, and his glove, go over the fence. Awesome instincts.— shawnmac- It came down behind him along wall and found his bare hand. Whatever. Looks good on film! And you can't say he didn't catch it clean as you can't see it hit wall or body or anything. Nice play. (Except for him whiffing on catching it in his glove.)— Ump Al
- I've watched this several times now and I still can't see how he could have caught it. Looks like everything ends up over the wall. Ball in the pocket trick? Doubtful.— PhillySubsMac
- You can clearly see around :17 seconds in, that the ball doesn't go over the fence (you can see it in front of the red part of the fence) James misplays it and the ball bounces off the fence into his body then while coming down he secures it against his body with his right hand.— NickM
- Ball had to hit the wall therefore NO CATCH.— JBP
- i don't think he catches it but it's hard to tell. it's still amazing if it did bounce off the wall and into his hand.— palmyra21
- First rule of lazy journalism--never let the facts get in the way of a great story. Nice catch kid...LOL— Richie Allen
- Yeah, I think NickM got it right. No idea how a AA ump calls that an out unless he sees something resembling a catch. We'll take it...I've seen James several times, think he's got a shot, he's got the best tools down there and looks like a ballplayer.— PhillySubsMac
- This is what happens when you draft the best "athlete" available and not the best baseball player. They whiff on simple catches yet make seemingly unbelievable plays....and for the record, there is no conceivable way from any standpoint that he makes that catch. It simply bounced either off the grass behimnd the wall and back up into him or it hit the wall and he trapped it against his body with his hand. Now, if he could hit and actually catch a ball, we'd have ourselves a future CF.....— Mark1npt
- He miss timed his jump and got hit in the chest.. Catch was accidental..— FetchDixon
- It looks like he caught it to me. The ball went past his left gloved hand, and into his right hand which was down around his waist. It certainly is impossible to tell if it contacted the wall such that he trapped it, or if he caught it cleanly.— Bobphxville
- Why was his glove 5' away from where the ball was? Certainly looks like a Phillies 'prospect'. Personally I think it is pretty evident that the ball hit the wall behind him and bounced into his side, ending up in his non-glove hand - just hard to tell if that happened on the way to the ground or after - either way it wasn't actually a catch.— Curse of Billy Penn
- Slo-mo clearly shows he didn't catch the ball.— mariemilo
- It looks like the ball deflected off his glove and either fell into his hand or along his body where he recaptured it with his hand . the glove was then peeled off his hand by the top of the wall and fell on the other side of the wall— Eddie Spaghetti
- Looks like it was trapped on the wall and then grabbed on the way down. Wheels would still call it a "heckuva" play. I would guess that most critics of his athleticism can't even get to the warning track let alone jump— chaserris6k
