Unassisted triple play by Furcal a rare feat
Did anyone else see this game? I was half-watching and half-playing pool, but did happen to glance up and catch this play. How cool! I’ve been saying for years that I hoped one day to see an unassisted triple play, and now I have!
Cecil wrote a column a while back about the unassisted triple play, but I’m having trouble getting the archive search to work.
My six year old son made an unassisted triple play earlier this summer in his baseball league. The bases were loaded with no outs and the batter popped up. He caught the pop-up, tagged the kid who was at second running to third because he failed to tag up, and then ran to third and tagged the base because that runner also failed to tag up and was standing at home plate.
Funniest thing I ever saw.
I was watching the game, and I nearly soiled myself. I was trying to explain how rare this was to the woman. I think she was not as impressed as I was.
mouthbreather, I got a similar reaction.
“Omigosh, did you see that?”
“Yeah. It’s a baseball game.”
With the playoffs around the corner, I think it’s great that Braves fans got one last thing to cheer about.
I sat giddy (braves are my TEAM) for hours. They kept on replaying it and I kept being amazed and astonished.
Second in Braves history (first was as the Boston Braves). Considering there’ve only been 11 in regular-season play, that’s quite a feat:D
fizzestothetop ruined my buzz by not caring either (as in, joining the other non-caring women already mentioned). WOMEN!
I found the column:
How is an unassisted triple play accomplished in baseball?
I’m going to see our local AAA team, the Memphis Redbirds, play the Las Vegas 51s tonight (the really good seats are $15.50; I love the minors), but I doubt I’ll see anything that spectacular. I did see us win with a walk-off homer on the Fourth of July; that was pretty cool.
Er…if things go as they have since 1991 (strike season exempted), most other teams will be either watching them, playing golf or otherwise engaging in something other than playoff baseball.
I was watching the end of this game, but didn’t catch this part. I caught the beginning of SportsCenter and they mentioned an unassisted triple play, so I kept watching till they showed it. I was surprised to find it was the game I had been watching earlier, and disappointed because I am a Cardinals fan.
Anyway, I always tried to get my head around how this could be acheived and I always had trouble. Here’s how it happened this time.
Runners on 1st and 2d. Batter hits a ball that looks like it will go over the Shortstop’s head and drop into the outfield. The runners both go. SS makes a great leaping catch (Out 1). Steps on 2d base before the runner can return to tag up (Out 2). Tags the runner from 1st base just as he is turning around to return to 1st (Out 3). Pretty cool.
According to the trivia snippets broadcast before every Rangers game by announcer Eric Nadel, there has been exactly one unassisted triple play by an outfielder in the history of professional baseball (in the minor leagues, as it happened).
I’ll let everyone just chew on the likelihood of that for a while …
The runners were moving on the pitch, Frankd6, not the hit ball. It was a hit and run, which was part of what made it even more unlikely, because if Furcal had not stayed at his position (Giles covered the bag for the possible throw), then probably 2 runs score on that play.
Hey! I’m female and what’s worse, a GIANTS fan, and even Furcal’s amazing play thrilled the hell out of me.
But wait 'til you Braves have to face the rather mundane and all too common Durham-Aurillia-Snow double in the playoffs. 
Oh, I’m well aware that the Braves have made the playoffs twelve years straight. Living near Philly (forty minutes away, living in South Jersey…but I’m a Yankee fan, go figure) means that I keep up pretty well on the standings as far as the NL East goes. However, let’s remember that with the exception of '95, when the Braves actually won it all, they’ve done nothing but sputter and die in the playoffs.
Hence, it’s a good thing Braves fans have one last thing to cheer about.
…um…ignore the quoting in the post above, please.
Don’t despair, gentleman – I’m a girl, and my only thought was, jolly super, but pity it wasn’t a guy on a team I support! (and, nope, not a Cardinals supporter, either – I listen to the Sunday night matches to listen to Jon Miller – the nicest thing about the triple play was Joe Morgan couldn’t work in some comment about the 1975 World Series.)
By the way, my (male) partner was less than impressed, though…
Thanks Iampunha, that makes more sense. As I say, I only saw the highlight, which removed some of the context.
If Furcal’s up, we won’t have to. Man’s only hit into one double-play all season, and even that one was dubious (IMNSHO:D).
Simmons, here’s my guess:
Center Fielder is playing shallow against a weak-hitting batter (or even fifth infielder, behind second). Hit and run, so batters are off with the pitch. CF catches ball with diving stab, which stab takes him to close to second base. Pokes other runner.
If it was back in the day when a ball caught on one hop was ruled an out, this makes everything much easier…
Simmons, I assume that in your example the shortstop is not considered an outfielder? He plays pretty much in the infield, but in the official scorekeeping system he’s listed between left and center fielders.
I’ll go with iampunha’s guess on this. Either that or maybe rightfielder runs toward infield, makes running catch, tags first, and then beans another runner directly with the ball or something crazy like that.
Let’s not remember it and say we didn’t, because it’s not true:
1991:
1992:
1993:
Went on to lose in the NLCS.
1995 already mentioned.
1996:
1997:
1998:
1999:
2000:
2002:
Sputtering and dying? Me no sink so.
For a team that’s done so well in the regular season for those twelve years, I would think that not winning a World Series title more than once in twelve years would be pretty akin to sputtering and dying, especially when you look over the Yankees’ success in the last seven or eight years they’ve made the playoffs.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be hostile/start a flame war, here. I respect the Braves, because I get to watch them whomp the Phillies every single year (and there’s nothing I like more than watching the Phils get it handed to 'em). They’re a great team, but they never seem to follow through when it comes down to the final few series.