Wednesday's Frosty Mug

The runners go, the first baseman catches a line drive, tags the runner off first, and the other runner gives up on the play, knowing he could be thrown out, and is just standing there when the fielder tags him or the base.

9/14/1923:

Frank Brower (CLE) is the batter with a ?-? count. He hits a line drive right to the 1B (George Burns) who speared the ball while moving to his right. (OUT 1)

1B then reached out and tagged the runner from first, Rube Lutzke (OUT 2)

1B dashed to second and slid into it a few feet ahead of the runner from second, Riggs Stephenson, who was trying to return to the base (OUT 3)

5/31/1927:

Homer Summa (CLE) is the batter with a ?-? count. He hits a hard liner right at the 1B, Johnny Neun (OUT 1)

1B then ran the base paths toward second and tagged the runner from first, Charlie Jamieson (OUT 2)

1B continued to second base, landing there before the runner from second, Glenn Myatt, could return (OUT 3)

5/8/1878 NL Providence Grays vs NL Boston Red Caps Messer Street Grounds

Bot 8 INN Score V-H 1 – 3 PLAY SEQUENCE: 8*-8*-4* Source: Total Baseball, 7th Edition 2001

  Event: 8(B)8(3)84(2)/FTP Men On: 2 [ 1-3 ] PRO vs BSN

  Batter: Jack Burdock First Second Ezra Sutton Third Jack Manning

  Batter: 1 G 78 Runner 1: 0 Runner 2: 3 D 46 Runner 3: 2 D 5

              Out# Type Loc: Out# Type Loc: Out# Type Loc: Out# Type Loc:

    {Out Type: D=Doubled-Off F=Forced G=Gloved T=Tagged X=Strike-Out; Out Loc: Retrosheet Field Location}

Jack Burdock (BSN) is the batter. He hit a looping fly ball to short left-center field. Both runners took off, but the CF (Paul Hines) caught the ball

(OUT 1) and continued running towards third.

CF stepped on third, doubling off the runner from that station, Jack Manning, who had reached home (OUT 2) and presumably also the runner

from second, Ezra Sutton. However, Sutton had not reached third base when the CF made the catch.

Therefore, stepping on third could not put out Sutton. CF Hines threw the ball to the 2B (Charlie Sweasy) who touched the middle sack putting

out the runner from second, Ezra Sutton (OUT 3)

NOTE: (Un)assisted Triple Play by Hines? – FIRST TRIPLE PLAY AT MESSER STREET GROUNDS

Although if Sutton was right around 3rd base, why not just reach over and tag him rather than throw to second?

* Paul Hines, May 8, 1878, Providence Grays (vs. Boston Red Caps)
          o With runners on second and third, center fielder Hines caught a line drive from Jack Burdock that the runners thought was uncatchable. When he caught it, both runners had already passed third. Hines stepped on third, which by the rules of the day meant both runners were out. To make sure, he threw the ball to Charlie Sweasy at second base. It is still debated whether this was truly an unassisted triple play. (Modern rules would indeed have required the ball either to be conveyed to second base to put out the runner who had been on that base and had not tagged up, or to tag that runner.) According to the Society for American Baseball Research, the runner coming from second, Ezra Sutton, had not yet touched third base, which would mean that even by 19th century rules the play was not complete until Hines threw to second, and thus the play was not unassisted. 1 Ernest J. Lanigan’s Baseball Cyclopedia, 1922, which covers professional baseball back to 1876, states on p.157 that Neal Ball in 1909 was “the first major leaguer to make an unassisted triple play.” The Sporting News Baseball Record Book, which covers records back to 1876, likewise does not list Hines’ play in the section on unassisted triple plays.

link

how long until they have the middle infielders learning how to throw a changeup too?