Unassisted

A few minutes ago, I switched away from the Giants-DBacks game to watch a few minutes of the Braves-Rockies. When I tuned in, the Braves’ Chipper Jones was at bat with no outs and runners on first and second. I figured I’d stick in there to see if the on-deck batter, Pickled Brave Andruw Jones, would get an at bat with runners on.

Nope.

On a 3-2 count, both runners took off and Chipper hit a loopy line drive to Troy Tulowitzki at short. He grabbed it, ran and stepped on second, and then tagged the runner heading to second from first.

Unassisted triple play.

It’s not something you see every day. In fact, until today there had only been a dozen in the modern era. The last was by Rafael Furcal in 2003. I learned this by checking the stats on Wikipedia. Tulowitzki was already listed as #13, and I checked it not 3 minutes after it happened.

All but two of the 13 were performed by middle infielders in exactly the same manner: line drive, step on second and tag the other runner. Two were actually completed by first basemen who caught a line drive, stepped on first and then ran to second and stepped on the bag there.

One of the thirteen occurred in game 5 of the 1920 World Series. In the fifth inning of Game 5, Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss caught Clarence Mitchell’s line drive, stepped on second to retire Pete Kilduff, and then tagged Otto Miller coming from first base. As an aside, earlier in the game Elmer Smith hit the first ever grand slam in Series play.

According to Wikipedia, there were unassisted triple plays on consecutive days on May 30 and May 31, 1927. The next unassisted triple play occurred in 1968. So you never know when you’ll see one, if ever.

It’s the second triple play Chipper Jones has hit into in his career. I imagine no one has ever hit into three.

It’s not the first unassisted triple play I’ve ever seen, by the way. I was playing left field in a company picnic softball game when exactly the same thing happened. The shortstop finished it off by tagging a seven year old running to second from first. My wife Sue, who walked into the room just as Tulowitzki did it today, said the one at the company picnic doesn’t count.

I say they all count. You never know when AND where you’ll see one.