Bill Conlin: Say Aloha to Phillies' best-ever defensive centerfielder: Victorino

CENTERFIELDERS ARE baseball's high-wire act and last week Shane Victorino played the position like Karl Wallenda swaying on a sagging wire while walking from foul pole to foul pole in Veterans Stadium.

It took the series against the Braves in spacious Turner Field to remind us again of the defensive brilliance of the Flyin' Hawaiian. After all, playing center in the Bank is the baseball equivalent of tennis in a phone booth. Had Indians slugger Vic Wertz hit the 1954 World Series bomb made famous by Willie Mays in the Phillies' cozy yard, it would have landed in Ashburn Alley. But Mays, his number to the infield, ran a half-marathon in a Polo Grounds centerfield rated at an unmarked 505 feet. He made that over-the-head basket catch a stride from the warning track. The catch itself was unremarkable once Mays got to the spot. Getting to the spot was what makes it history's most replayed catch.

And that's what Victorino does. He gets to the spot. And the bigger the ballpark the more of his virtuosity is on display. At home, unless he has to flee into the narrow crease in deepest left-center where it reads 415, Shane could play the position with his ankles tied together.

In Atlanta last week, Shane bounced off more walls than a jai alai pelota. The dynamo who is this man's Phillies MVP so far this season had a big stage and gave a performance to match. If anybody out there is still trashing Victorino and the Phillies for running a better campaign than John McCain in fan voting for the final National League All-Star Game spot, tell me he didn't belong in St. Louis.

Starting with Rich Ashburn, the Phillies have been blessed with three exceptional centerfielders in the modern era. Garry Maddox deserved the Secretary of Defense nickname I gave him. Now Victorino. Before you e-mail me, "What about Lenny Dykstra?" the man who finally has read all the way to Chapter 11 outhustled his mistakes and couldn't throw out Peg Leg Bates.

This is going to ruffle some feathers . . . Rich Ashburn averaged more outfield put-outs per season than any CF in big-league history. Mays, who played in the Polo Grounds and spacious Candlestick Park, never had a 500-total-chance season. Ashburn, playing in Shibe Park with its deep (447 feet) centerfield, had more than 500 total chances in 11 seasons.