A culture is defined by what it chooses to remember and what it chooses to forget. Ideally, a culture would remember everything, because knowing the past, as Santayana famously observed, was insurance against repeating its mistakes. But time is a huge eraser, as Shelley told us:
Unfortunately, Chamberlain is an exception. Once a life, a deed, a remarkable moment is forgotten, it is usually gone. That is a tragedy for the culture. The duty to remember, which I have discussed here before, is the duty to protect the culture and its riches. It is also based on the Golden Rule. We all would like our lives to be remembered as long as possible, especially when we accomplished something that future generations could and would appreciate or benefit from recalling.
This brings us to Al Luplow.
Two nights ago, in an outrageously antic and entertaining game between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox, Indians outfielder Austin Jackson robbed Hanley Ramirez of a home run by leaping in the air at the right centerfield bullpen fence reaching over it mid-air to catch the ball, and tumbling over it. He still held on to the ball—he could have easily broken his neck—and the home run became an out.
Although outfielders have fallen over that fence from time to time, notably in the 2013 play-offs…
nobody could recall one going over and catching the ball. Some broadcasters and sportswriters—even some ex-players—weren’t sure it wasn’t still a home run, though it was not. (As long as a player has both feet on the right side of the fence, it’s a fair catch.) People have been talking about Jackson’s catch as the best of the season, and maybe of any season.
Yet as soon as I saw the catch, I said, out loud, “AL LUPLOW!” For that exact catch had not only been made before, but had been made before by another Cleveland Indians outfielder. His name was ( and is) Al Luplow, and he made the catch in 1963, during a Fenway Park day game. I heard it on my transistor radio, and cursed it too, because Luplow’s catch prevented a game-tying three-run homer for my desperate Boston Red Sox.
Surely, I thought, surely, with all the data, and all the internet access, with Google and with, surely, some sportswriters at least as old as me, someone would recall Al’s catch. Someone had to remember.
Nope.
Luplow was the epitome of an MLB fringe player, a defensive specialist who played for bad teams and whose batting was reliably inadequate. For one, shining, unexpected moment in a game that meant nothing, however, Al Luplow did something incredible. How could that catch not be mentioned now, as someone was winning accolades for duplicating it ?
Not one account of Jackson’s catch mentioned it. Why had Luplow’s moment been forgotten?
To begin with, only 6,497 fans were at the game. In 1963, the Red Sox hadn’t had a winning team in more than a decade, and the city was disgusted with them. The game wasn’t televised, and no film of the catch from one of the TV stations survived. All we have is descriptions. From a 30-year-old Sports Illustrated article:
On June 27 the Red Sox were trying to complete a five-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland relief pitcher Ted Abernathy went into the eighth inning protecting a 6-3 lead. With one out, Lu Clinton and Dick Stuart singled, bringing the tying run to the plate in the person of righthanded hitter Dick Williams.
Abernathy was a tall righthander whose submarine delivery was particularly hard on righthanded batters. On this occasion, however, he got a pitch up high to Williams, and the Red Sox utility man, now the Padres’ manager, nailed it, sending a drive into deepest right center. “It was a high, outside fastball,” recalls Abernathy. “I was a sinker ball pitcher, and most of the time I had good luck with righthanded hitters. But that day I made a mistake to Williams and got the pitch up above the waist, and he hit it good.”
Luplow, who had been put in right-field for Cleveland as a late-innings defensive replacement, is a bit more emphatic about the blast: “I don’t think Dick Williams ever hit one better.”
Luplow, a former high school All-America and Michigan State varsity football player, was then in the second year of an undistinguished major league career, which included portions of seven seasons. He had a reputation for being a hard-nosed player, a guy who went all out. “Al used to play hell-bent for election,” says Williams. “He was a hustler. He’d run through a brick wall to make a play.” As it turned out, Luplow didn’t have to go through a wall—just over one.
“It was in between a line drive and a fly ball,” recalls Luplow. “I kept getting closer and closer to it, and I said to myself, ‘I gotta catch this ball.’ ” On the dead run, about 380 feet from home plate, Luplow leapt high and speared the ball backhanded as he went sailing over the five-foot-high fence that fronts the Boston bullpen. “I felt the warning track,” he says, “so I was definitely aware of the wall. But I guess I’d just made up my mind to catch the ball. It was actually over the fence when I caught it, and I just barely touched the fence with my right knee going over.”
In midair, with the ball nestled securely in his glove, Luplow realized he was in trouble—it was likely to be a rough landing. “After I caught the ball, I said, ‘Uh oh!’ If I’d kept going face first, I would have really hurt myself. I think my football background helped me because I tucked my left shoulder and rolled, and fortunately all I did was spike myself on the right knee.”
After clearing the fence, Luplow disappeared from sight. Several moments later, he reappeared, waving his glove with the ball still in it, his head barely visible above the wall. “I held up the ball, and the centerfielder, Willie Kirkland, reached over the fence and grabbed it from me to see if we could double somebody off.”…
“I sure wouldn’t ever do it again,” says Luplow today. “I could have easily broken my neck. I must have put those guys in the bullpen in shock.”
Reliever Chet Nichols was also in the Boston bullpen. “We all grabbed our gloves because we figured we were going to get the ball,” he says. “We were standing there waiting for it. It never occurred to us that Luplow was going to make the play. It was a fantastic catch, and seeing it from the bullpen end made it even greater.”
The article says that the catch didn’t receive much attention, but that’s wrong. I remember that fans talked about it for weeks, and for years after, any time a player make a great catch at the Fenway bullpen fence, someone would bring up Al Luplow.
Luplow is 78 now, living in Michigan. His Wikipedia page mentions the catch, but who knows to look up Al Luplow? When he was interviewed by Sports Illustrated in 1985, he told them,
“Every once in a while. I’ll get a card, and someone will mention it—kids, you know, who’ve heard their dads talk about it. It’s nice to know they remember.”
You deserve to be remembered for that catch, Al. It is your corner of immortality, and no one should be able to take it away from you.
Ethics Alarms 
Baseball being what it is, my memory of Luplow is of him narrowly missing a catch down the right field line at Forbes Field, then arguing the umpire’s fair call instead of chasing the ball as Bud Harrelson circled the bases for a home run. So he took one away, then gave one back.
Al’s distant cousin, Jordan Luplow, made his major league debut with the Pirates last weekend.
His cousin! I did not know that!
Yeah, he got sent right back down, but unlike his predecessor it looks like he can hit a little and will be back.
I know this isn’t the subject of this post, but my heart stopped when I saw this footage. I bet his mother still is having nightmares. He really could have broken his neck — to catch a ball! I know sports fanatics don’t see it this way, but I bet his mom does!
Oh, I agree. It’s very dangerous..One feature of baseball that is more dangerous than anything in football. I think only marginal players, fighting for a roster slot, would chance it. It a bad risk-reward choice for a star.
Baseball should make that a home run so that outfielders are not tempted to try to make that catch.
It will happen as soon as a star outfielder is killed or badly injured. Never before.
It’s rare, but I think there are a few players whose genes lead them to go to the ball no matter what. Guys like Pete Reiser and Fred Lynn had great careers badly disrupted because they couldn’t stay away from walls.
Reiser was the worst–he literally crippled himself. Bobby Valentine was another.
Another interesting fact about Colonel Joshua Chamberlain is that as General Joshua Chamberlain he was chosen by General U. S. Grant to accept the surrender of arms by the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia. This I found in Jeff Shaara’s book “The Last Full Measure” which is the finial book in the trilogy begun in “The Killer Angels.” Events don’t change but history sure does!
Thanks for baseball card image. Now that’s what a major league ball player is supposed to look like. Nice uni too. Interesting how even marginal big leaguers were all phenoms in many sports in high school and college.
I could use some clarity on whether it was a home run or an out. Can a fielder fall, or jump, out of the playing field and make a catch and it’s an out? Doesn’t the fielder have to stay in the field of play, on his feet, or come down in the field of play? I guess not? A player could run up the aisle and catch a pop up and it would be an out rather than a foul ball? Thanks.
From the post: “Some broadcasters and sportswriters—even some ex-players—weren’t sure it wasn’t still a home run, though it was not. (As long as a player has both feet on the right side of the fence, it’s a fair catch.)”
That means that an outfielder can sit on the fence, stand on the fence, or leap and lean over the fence, and it’s still an out as long as his feet aren’t out of play when he catches the ball. If the catch carries him over the fence, it’s still an out so long as the outfielder doesn’t drop the ball.
Thank you. Squares with my recollection of seeing infielders tumbling into the stands and holding onto the ball (out) or having it jarred out (just a foul ball). Minor question: Did the umps go to replay in NY to determine whether or not he’d maintained possession through impact? Is that even reviewable via video under the replay rules?
“Interesting how even marginal big leaguers were all phenoms in many sports in high school and college.”
Johnny Manziel (Johnny Lohan, as we called him in reference to Lindsey Lohan’s inability to follow laws)
Just not good enough for the NFL, but a legit phenom in High School and College. And a perfect example of how an enabling parent can ruin a child. His daddy was rich and never had to work, and bought Johnny out of trouble routinily in Kerrville. True story: my local team was headed to state and had to play Kerrville Friday night. Johnny got caught shoplifting at the Kerville Walmart that day, but was allowed to play that night. (‘What will we do without him’ plus a rich man paying off politicians are the rumors) He scored all their touchdowns himself, and the locals here still spit when his name is brought up.
I think what amazes me most about Jackson’s catch of Ramirez’ drive is that Jackson had the presence of mind-body, while leaping to make the catch, to use his right arm to hook the top of the wall or fence and break his fall.
Thanks for the Luplow history. Thanks too for explaining the “fair catch” to Other Bill. I don’t like that rule that permits the catch to be called an out, even though both fielder and ball are both essentially “out of the park” after a catch. I tend to favor hitters, since I was a good hitter but a lousy pitcher. Jack, I vaguely recall arguing with you in a post about this same rule, maybe a couple of years ago…? Maybe I’m field-of-dreams-ing.
So if I was the Maker Of The Rules, I would say, of home runs (but not of foul balls):
“If a fielder’s momentum is such that when pursuing a batted fly ball, a sufficient amount of the fielder’s body is outside the field of play after catching that batted ball on-the-fly in what is considered fair territory for a home run, then that batted (caught) ball shall be a home run, not an out.”
I think the “sufficient amount” qualifier should be left to the discretion of the umpire. I do not think that an outfielder who comes down with both feet in fair territory for a home run (that is, “outside the park, beyond home run distance” and beyond the playing field surface), like Jackson did, should be given credit for catching an out. Ramirez should have been credited a dinger.
But, I’m weird about baseball rules, I guess. I think that anyone who, having possession of a ball that has once exited the field of play, throws the ball back onto the field, should be removed from attendance immediately. Throwing into the Allegheny River would not be similarly punished (but the thrower would remain liable for littering).