The Catch Revisited

Thanks to a regular reader for sharing the news that The Catch by Andrew Hall '05 against Harvard in 2003 has been chosen by The Best Damn Sports Show as No. 31 among the top-50 catches in sports history. It probably doesn't hurt that The Catch happened during a nationally televised game on the YES Network (so there was good video available) and that late sports information director Kathy Slattery Phillips' was zoomed in on the play and got the best photo of her career on the grab. (Click here for a look at Kathy's photo, with an inset of Andrew Hall, courtesy of the Ivy League.)

Here's the kicker on the whole Top Catches thing, which caught me by surprise since I've never seen the show. Not one, but two of the top-50 catches on the list were made by Dartmouth grads. The Eagle Tribune down in Massachusetts explains:

Who would have thought two of "The Best Damn Sports Show's" all-time top-50 catches would be by alums of prestigious Dartmouth College, hardly a sports factory. But No. 31 was wide receiver Andrew Hall's miracle one-handed grab in 2004 vs. Harvard and No. 29 was catcher Brad Ausmus' diving grab of a foul ball in treacherous winds against the Yankees.

For video of The Catch by Andrew Hall, click here. For a story from the Ivy League website about The Catch, click here.

Speaking of things YES Network, the Yale web page features this note (italics are mine):

The 2008 Yale Football Team will have three straight Ivy League contests broadcast live on the YES Network as part of a package called Yale on YES.

The YES games are Oct. 25 (Penn at Yale), Nov. 1 (Columbia at Yale) and Nov. 8 (Yale at Brown). All three telecasts begin at 12:30 p.m.

Now, the YES web page is such that finding the college football broadcast schedule for the fall is just about impossible (or perhaps impossible) but the suspicion lurks that there isn't a package called Columbia on YES or Dartmouth on YES. If that is indeed the case, I'm left with mixed feelings. It's great that the Ivies are getting coverage, of course, but I can't help but feel that it's a little like that NBC-Notre Dame deal that shuts everybody else out.

The Harvard media guide is out and available for download here. ... An early run of the Dartmouth guide has been delivered for media day and the front cover features action photos of captains Milan Williams, Andrew Dete and Alex Rapp topped by a nice shot of crowded stands in front of the Floren Varsity House. The back has action shots of quarterback Alex Jenny, linebacker Joe Battaglia, receiver Eric Paul, safety Pete Pidermann, defensive lineman Rehan Muttalib and safety Ian Wilson.

The Daily Dartmouth has a story about the new Astroturf pitch under construction for field hockey at Chase Field. Have I told you how much I dislike the term "pitch," unless it has to do with what Mike Mussina or Josh Beckett does on the mound? Maybe it's me, but it just seems so affected.

Old friend Walter Palmer '90 is featured in a local Massachusetts paper's story about the onetime Dartmouth star and former Utah Jazz/Dallas Maverick forward playing for the legendary (that's a joke) Rockport House of Pizza team in a YMCA basketball league. Too bad the story doesn't really go into Walt's pioneering work in European basketball. Oh, and he's not really 7-foot-6, although it may appear that way to those of us who stand 5-10. He's more like 7-1 ish.

And finally, those two certain Hanover High student-athletes are kicking it into gear as they look ahead to the coming season. The freshman-to-be went to Kimball Union Academy last night for the first day of the football camp recommended by the Hanover High coach. That camp happens to be run by an old friend named John Lyons. Yup, that John Lyons. The junior-to-be, a starter and letterwinner in field hockey as a freshman and sophomore, has been running all along but she now has officially declared for cross country and hit the trails with a future XC teammate yesterday for the first time this summer.