CHICAGO -- Kyle Schwarber played football in high school. He wasn't going to let a brick wall get in his way during the Cubs' 5-4 loss to the Yankees in 18 innings on Sunday night.
The Cubs left fielder made an amazing catch of Chase Headley's fly ball for the second out in the 12th inning, diving headfirst over the wall and into the seats. Somehow, Schwarber held onto the ball. He had to run 116 feet to get to it.
"I'm going to play hard and try to make every catch," Schwarber said. "I guess I just stuck the glove out and it went in there."
Remember, he's coming back from having surgery in April 2016 after tearing two ligaments in his left knee. Schwarber is wearing a supportive brace, but it hasn't slowed him down.
"If you're going to be aggressive, there's never going to be a question," Schwarber said. "You're never going to get questioned about the effort or something of that nature. If you're going 100 percent, you never know what can happen. Good things can happen. And a good thing happened."
After he dived into the crowd, the fans signaled he had the ball, and third-base umpire Alan Porter concurred.
"I was trying to check for the wall and I thought I was going to stop in time but I just fell over," Schwarber said. "Luckily, I landed on the flat ground and it was all good."
Schwarber was bear-hugged by his teammates in the dugout when the inning ended.
"How about that play? It was very Derek-esque [Jeter]," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "I'm just worried about him hitting the wall. That's all I was worried about. Of course, you'd like to see the guy make the play, but you also want to see him walk back to his position. Tremendous play."