Baseball fans, I need your help

The Game Room
1

I was at a family event and I met up with a cousin I hadn’t seen in years. I also met her husband, who seems a fairly ordinary dude, mid-30s, shaggy-haired white guy named Eric. Later, after they left, someone told me that he was a well-known baseball player who had made that amazing play for the Philadelphia Phillies at the World Series a few years ago.

I don’t follow baseball so I’m not exactly sure who this guy is, but since we’re related, I wanted to look him up, but I can’t remember his last name. Anyone familiar enough with the sport to tell from these clues who he is?

Eric
Phillies
played at some point for the Astros
made a great play in the World Series
lives in Santa Rosa with my cousin Eden and their 2 little girls

2

Eric Bruntlett? He did have an unassisted triple play, the rarest of plays in baseball. He also had a great Wrold Series in 2008.

3

Look familiar? He went to school at Stanford, so Santa Rosa doesn’t seem like an unlikely place for him to retire.

4

While this is a question with a factual answer, it’s a better fit for The Game Room than GQ. Moved.

5

He’s almost undoubtedly Eric Bruntlett (Eric Bruntlett Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com). He was a reserve infielder for the Phillies in 2008 and 2009 (they won the World Series both years), and previously played for the Astros in 2003-2007. He made a game-ending unassisted triple play (the only person ever to do so in National League history) in a game in 2009.

6

Bruntlett spent most of his career with the Astros. He last played in the majors in 2009, and his unassisted triple play (while not in the Series) was the 15th in MLB history, and the first in National League history to end a game. Details here.

7

No they didn’t. [/Yankee Fan]

8

Good job guys, that’s him! I even googled his name with my cousin’s and confirmed that he is married to a woman named Eden, so it’s confirmed.

So if I meet a baseball fan, and I brag that my cousin is married to Eric Bruntlett, would I get boos or cheers?

9

See Jackknifed Juggernaut’s post just above yours. :wink:

Phillies fans will think it’s cool. Casual baseball fans might not even recognize his name (he wasn’t a regular starter for either the Astros or the Phillies), unless they know the trivia about the triple play.

10

Any real baseball fan should think it’s cool. Heck, I’m a Mets season ticket holder and one of the great lowlights of the 2009 season (filled with Mets lowlights) was being at the ballpark in person to see that unassisted triple play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th inning end a 9-7 game. The ultimate in rally killing (it could only have been worse if it had been a ONE run game).

I’d still shake his hand and congratulate him on that play if I met him in person.

[Now if I met Jimmy Rollins in person, that’s another story… ;)]

11

I live in the part of the Tippecanoe School Corporation district served by his alma mater, Harrison High. So people around this part of Indiana would definitely think it’s cool that you met Eric, who’s the subject of periodic update articles in the local paper.

12

Or unless they were there (as I was). It all happened so quickly that I essentially missed it. I was looking into center field where I thought the ball had gone. Pretty good on the replay though.

13

Were you at the game with robardin? :wink: Humorous that two people in this thread were at that particular game.

14

Three- I was there, too

15

Same thing happened to me at the only Red Sox game I ever attended at Fenway. Looked away for a second, with no outs, runners on first and second, next thing I know, everybody’s trotting into the dugout after John Valentin completed an unassisted triple play.

16

Totally- check the list for unassisted triple plays. You cousin-in-law’s name is on a one of the shortest lists in baseball- fewer unassisted triple plays than perfect games even.

17

Oh I was so glad this link has video - thank you! (Though I admit I had to watch it a couple times to get what happened.) A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

This is why Johnny Bench said (in his “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Baseball” - Fantastic book BTW if you’re a fan) “Never, ever, EVER leave a game early.” :wink: