Chavez's Catch gets first in TYIB award

Marty Noble at Mets.com, writes about the catch that was one of the best, if not the best, in playoff history:

The baseball left Scott Rolen's bat and was headed for Detroit. It passed over left field at Shea Stadium in a New York second and over the left-field wall, as well. It entered home run air space and was about to become a critical component in what would become an improbable postseason for the Cardinals.

Then Endy Chavez interfered; more to the point, he intercepted. Ultimately, the Cardinals would be denied by neither the Mets nor the Tigers in their postseason run, but on that October night, Rolen was denied. Chavez kidnapped Rolen's heroism and changed it into a New York moment, albeit a moment that lost its cache three innings later when Yadier Molina hit a ball that no one would catch.

But for a while and, to a degree even now, Chavez is a Mets hero. He caught more than Rolen's bullpen-bound fly ball in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. He caught the attention of those who participated in the voting for the fifth annual MLB.com This Year in Baseball Awards.