SportsCenter, ESPN’s highlight show, begins with a montage of the biggest stars of the day. Last week, it included cyclist Lance Armstrong, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and … Morgan State’s Edwin Baptiste.
Baptiste? That’s right — the receiver who until his most recent game never came close to being showcased on a program watched by millions.
But Baptiste became a national phenomenon with his sensational diving, one-handed catch in a 21-7 win over Winston-Salem State last weekend. Dozens of sports blogs and Web sites such as Cnnsi.com and Yahoo.com are calling it one of the greatest catches of all time. The grab was SportsCenter’s No. 1 Play of the Day — ahead of a game-winning grand slam by Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun — and was linked on the front page of Cnnsi.com for several days. It had been viewed more than 51,000 times on YouTube entering the weekend.
Although Fox has locked down the market on the replay, you can still catch it here.
“I made a couple big plays in my career playing football, but I think this has to be the biggest play ever,” Baptiste said. “Hopefully, every week I have another one like that. I am trying to make headlines every week.”
With the Bears nursing a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter and facing second-and-eight from their own three-yard line, quarterback Carlton Jackson dropped back to pass, eluded a defender and lofted a pass down the middle of the field for Baptiste.
The junior reached the 35-yard line when he looked back for the ball. Seeing it was slightly overthrown, he jumped off his back foot as he twisted his body forward to face the play. Baptiste, falling backwards, extended every inch of his 6-foot-1, 175-pound frame to snag the ball while he was in midair with the finger tips of his right hand before landing his back.
“Carlton looked directly in my eyes before the play and said ‘it’s coming to you, regardless of the coverage,’” Baptiste said. “I actually misjudged it because I jumped early. I made an adjustment in the air — squeezed it — squeezed it like it was one of my own [children] and held it tight, even with the awkward landing.”
Prior to Morgan State leaving for its game against Rutgers on Saturday afternoon, ESPN sent a crew to film a segment on Baptiste for E:60, a newsmagazine show that will air the piece on Tuesday night at 7.
“It’s a great catch and this is the sort of thing we are looking for,” Al Kahwaty, a feature producer for E:60 said, “particularly, hot sports videos we can put on and do a little short piece about.”
But the attention Morgan State already has received from the catch will be tough to top.
“The exposure to the program, monetary wise, we could never pay for,” Morgan State coach Donald Hill-Eley said. “From a recruiting and school exposure standpoint, it’s huge.”
Hill-Eley, a former receivers coach with the now-defunct Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League, has seen plenty of fantastic catches in his career. But he has no doubt where Baptiste’s ranks.
“That’s the number one catch I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It’s going to be tough to beat.”
