Did Minor Leaguer Really Make This Amazing Catch Or is Everything Beautiful a Lie?

First things first: this is an incredible feat of athleticism. Billings Mustangs center-fielder Zach Shields made an unbelievable play to track this ball to the wall, time his jump, and hang on as he slammed into the wall and bobbled the ball off his glove into his free hand on the way down. It robbed Marcus Wilson of a grand slam and may be the greatest play you see all year. But did the ball hit the wall behind his glove?

It looks really close! This being a minor league game, we don't have the clearest video, but it kind of looks like the ball momentarily disappears from view and then reappears from behind Shields's glove. Since the ball is white and the glove is black, you'd think you would see the full ball pop out in front of the black, but it looks like the ball incrementally appears from behind the glove. The glove is also webbed and you can see some of the yellow line through it.

It's hard to say and it's totally possible the glove was bent in a weird way that obscures our view of the baseball. Look, we're just asking questions, here! The only thing that matters is the call on the field, and it was called a catch and will forever be remembered as an incredible play to save four runs because it was, and it did.