Sunday, August 23, 2009

Meanwhile, Back at the Ol' Ball Game . . .

An unassisted triple play. In the ninth inning, to end the game.






(I'm putting this up without delay, because MLB will probably force it off YouTube, even though it's just 53 seconds long -- and the play itself is the first 15 seconds. Watch it while you can. [UPDATE 08/24/2009 (noon): Well, as you can see, MLB has once again interfered with the dissemination of what makes baseball great, and demonstrated that it puts its royalties ahead of your ability to view even a few seconds of baseball history. The video can no longer be embedded; to watch it at the MLB site, click here.])

It's happened only once before in the ninth inning -- in 1927. And only 17 times in all of baseball's 130-year history. Andy McCarthy was there with his seven-year-old son, and explains how it was so special this time.

(H/T: Steven Hayward, No Left Turns.)

2 comments:

  1. It almost happened in 1950. Granny Hamner, Whiz Kids Shortstop, went to his left, speared a line shot hit by Ted Kluszewski, stepped on second and . . . .
    missed tagging Grady Hatton as he turned to run back to first. Hamner to Eddie Waitkus to complete the triple play.

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  2. There have been, I think, only two unassisted triple plays that ended games. Even though our son is a Mets fan, I'm impressed.

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