McNeil's acrobatic catch brings back memories of Jeter's dive into the stands — without the net

By Tony Mangia

Last week, in the fifth inning of the Mets’ 4-0 win against the White Sox, Jeff McNeil made the kind of wild catch that just might become pretty common in the future. The Mets rightfielder hopped a low wall into the fans' protective netting to stop his momentum after running down a foul ball, making the catch and flopping around like he was inside a kid's bounce castle.

And, in the kinder, gentler world of sports these days, nobody was harmed in the making of this play.

“That’s instincts taking over,” McNeil, who goes by the alias "The Flying Squirrel," would say later.

The catch was fantastic and deserving of all the ESPN Top Ten airplay it got that night, but the hustle and intrusion into the stands also brought back memories of another foul catch by a certain shortstop in the Bronx 15 years ago and how that scenario played out without today's safety precautions.

On July 1, 2004, Derek Jeter made one of the most memorable catches of his career, diving into the third-base stands at Yankee Stadium to catch a Trot Nixon pop-up in the 12th inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees ended up winning the game, 5-4, in 13 innings.

Not to take anything away from McNeil's highlight gem, but Jeter's dive into the hard-backed seats and fans' cold beers — not to mention against their hated division rival in a game that had playoff implications for both teams even that early in the season — was way superior.

McNeil's play came during what will probably shake out to be a meaningless regular season game where he calmly walked back to high-fives in the dugout unscathed two outs later.

Jeter, meanwhile, was slapped on the back by the stunned fans he just crashed into and dramatically escorted back onto the playing field by trainer Gene Monahan — bloodied and a bit bruised.

While McNeil's trampoline catch might become more commonplace because of fan protection becoming a priority inside baseball stadiums, it's Jeter's hard-nosed play that will live on in MLB lore forever — if not only because of the lack of those nets.

Jeter's catch wins this debate, but McNeil does have a better nickname.