Triple Play

I was watching part of a baseball game on TV. I bet I have watched ten minutes worth of baseball in this first month of the season. Not a whole lot. I just happened to have it on and there was a triple play. Amazing. I'm so glad I saw that. I always thought it would be cool to see a triple play and an inside-the-park home run. Now I've seen both.

The triple play was weird. I guess any triple play is a little weird. There were guys on first and second and the batter hit a ball into shallow left field. The base runners didn't move because they thought the infield fly rule was called. It's OK that they don't understand the infield fly rule. Only about 20 people on the planet do. If it was called, it would mean the batter would have been out regardless whether the ball was caught or not and the base runners stay where they were. Play over.

Because they thought that, they didn't run the bases. The ball is thrown to second base, then to first. Triple play. How cool.

My understanding is they have such a rule because of this scenario - Any easy pop fly, so runners have to stay on their base when it is caught. So the fielder drops it on purpose and easily throws out the two base runners. The umpire signals if that is the case. But for this play, the umpire didn't signal it. Even the announcer, Bob Costas, was confused for awhile by it. I'm just glad I got to see it.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/watch-orioles-turn-triple-play-after-umpire-decides-not-to-call-infield-fly-rule/

I coached a Special Olympics softball team. The powers that be instructed the umpires to call the infield fly rule when applicable to make it as much like a regular game as possible. While I applaud the intent, it was always my opinion that understanding the infield fly rule was a sure sign you don't belong in Special Olympics. A player decides while a ball is in the air to drop it on purpose, pick it up and throw it to his teammates that had figured what his plan was and alertly decided to cover their bases. Not Special Olympics material, I'm sorry. As a coach I would spend a certain amount of time during the season going over what order to run the bases in.

I'm sure I've already blogged about the inside-the-park home run I saw. That was live. Yasiel Puig in the bottom of the ninth getting a hit to bring in a tying run and then he just keeps going and rounds the bases to score the winning run. The most exciting baseball play I've ever seen. It technically was probably ruled a double with an error, but I'm counting it as a HR baby.

My baseball life is now complete.