Someone once said that in baseball, in almost any game you see something you never saw before. Every once in a while you see something really unexpected that sticks in your head.
One of those things, for me, is a memory of seeing Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile, both playing for the Mets, executing a double steal. These men were not fleet of foot. In fact I think the catcher dropped or bobbled the ball, partly in surprise at the attempt.
They only played together on the Mets for two years or so… Yet I can’t find any mention or record of this event. And I’m starting to think I imagined or dreamed it at some point and have talked about it so much that I can picture it happening. Any ideas on where or how to look?
Similarly, I also seem to remember Mike Piazza hitting into a triple play, where he came up with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out and Bobby Valentine put the runners in motion with the pitch. I didn’t see it happen because I went to get a drink or something, but when I came back about 30 seconds later there was a commercial break already, and I was puzzled. Apparently, Piazza hit a bullet line drive caught by the second baseman, who stepped on second and threw to first. D’OH!
Did that really happen too? A less happy memory for me, of course, but just as an exercise, if I Google “Mike Piazza triple play”, I just get hits about him endorsing the EA Sports video game “Triple Play”.
Here is a comprehensive list of every triple play that has happened: Triple Plays, 2000-21
The triple play you’re referring to happened on May 15, 1999.
Retrosheet is a very good site to find the score of just about every game your team has ever played.
The where to look is the Baseball Reference Play Index (http://www.baseball-reference.com). Full access requires payment, but you can access for 24 hours for $1.35.
Looks like the game you remember might be April 10, 2000, at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia. But the other player involved was Robin Ventura, not Todd Zeile (Zeile was in the lineup, but was on deck at the time). Piazza stole 3rd, Ventura stole 2nd; Piazza advanced/scored on an error on Scott Rolen. Ventura later scored on Todd Zeile’s double.
Retrosheet has the data (Retrosheet Boxscore: Philadelphia Phillies 9, New York Mets 7 for your game) but it’s a little harder to search for something as specific as your question – on the B-R PI site, I was able to search for any game from 1999-2004 (the entire set of years when both Zeile and Piazza played for the Mets) where Piazza had 1 or more steals. I could have accomplished the same thing manually on Retrosheet by hitting Piazza’s page for each year and scanning the steals column.
I see Ponch8 has already given you the 411 on the triple play. It was apparently SS Alex Arias who caught the liner, then flipped it to Kevin Jordan playing second who recorded the final two outs.
Wow. I knew the data must be out there somewhere… Thanks!
Aha, so the trailing runner was Ventura not Zeile… Ventura was another slow-footed infielder, every bit as unlikely as Zeile as a basestealer. I did remember Zeile was involved in the play somehow, I guess because he drove them both in later in the inning.