"I got to my knees and backhanded it. I came up to throw to second to start a double play. But Groat had come in behind the pitcher's mound in preparation to take a throw from right field; he was on the grass instead of at second. He'd figured the ball had gone by me. So there's no one covering second. I cranked my arm twice, I was told, and then turned and stepped on the bag for a force out on Berra. But Mantle dove back into the bag and beat my tag at him. Yogi said I robbed him of a double. Mantle said he saw me catch the ball, and thought I caught it on the fly. Mantle might have been the goat if Skowron had followed with a single. Because if Mantle had gone to second he would have gotten there safely, and he would have scored on a single. Mantle wasn't more than an arm's length off the bag. Stuart said I should've gotten Mantle at first base. He told me if he'd have been at first base, the ballgame would've been over, and Maz wouldn't even have had to bat. That's the way Stuart was. He could give it and he could take it. But Murtaugh said I was the only one who could have caught the ball. I took one step off the bag with Yogi up; I couldn't take two steps off. The ball went over the bag and was in foul territory when I grabbed it. It was just one of the sequences in that game that stand out. It was probably the greatest game ever played in the seventh game of a World Series. It went back and forth. You couldn't ask for better drama."