Quite possibly the strangest triple play in history (K-2-1-5-1)
 

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Two mistakes aid bizarre triple play

Leigh pitcher Tyler Derby pulled off an unusual triple play in a 7-6 10-inning baseball victory over Oak Grove on Tuesday.

In the scorebook, it went K-2-1-5-1.

With runners on first and second, Derby struck out a batter for the first out, but catcher Adam Wells thought it was the third out and rolled the ball back to the mound as he began to leave the field.

As both runners broke, Derby picked up the ball and fired it to third baseman Adrian Mull, who made the putout at third. But the same mental affliction struck Mull, who also rolled the ball back to the mound, thinking the side was retired.

Again, Derby picked up the ball, and sprinted for third, this time beating the runner trying to advance from first, and made the tag.

``We were all laughing in the dugout,'' Leigh Coach Noe Ochoa said. ``I said to the catcher, `You really thought there were three outs?' But somehow, instead of one out, we got three. We got lucky.''

Just like they drew it up on the blackboard.

Insane. Maybe with two outs I can see forgetting the out total, but with no outs. Bad play, good result

Gotta love baseball.

That doesn't focus enough on the stupidity of the runners going and getting beat by the pitcher TWICE.

Was this the retard World Series?

My favorite play of all time was one I only heard about. Ty Cobb is on second with another runner on third. Cobb steals first, confusing the catcher enough to try to throw him out, and scoring the runner from third!

That's awesome! I think we're going to use that with my little league team. That's great!

Heads-up play by the pitcher though, wow.

The MLB rulebook doesn't allow that any longer. I know if you tried it in Pony baseball, the umpire wouldn't be your friend on that one, since they use MLB rules to supplement Pony rules.

I don't know if the LL rulebook permits it or not.

That can't be legal, could it? Don't you have to touch the bases in order?

Jeebs, it used to be legal, but the rulebook was changed at one point to eliminate that.

Cool, thanks. Gotta love baseball history... :)

Awesome. I wonder if anyone has tape of this.

Good job by the pitcher. Seems like he's surrounded by frickin' idiots, though.

If you want a useful semi-trick play for little league, we used this when I was a kid and it worked just about every time.

Situation: Runner on third, less than two out, batter gets walked.

The play: Batter jogs towards first as normal, but about 3/4 of the way down he breaks into a sprint, rounds the bag and heads for second.

The result: Most of the time, nothing happens -- everyone just stands around saying "can he do that?" and you wind up with runners on second and third. Alternately, if the pitcher realizes what's happening and throws to second, the runner on third (who's expecting the play) comes home.

It's actually pretty easy to defend -- the pitcher just needs to run towards the guy heading to second. It will freeze that runner, and still leave time to turn and throw home if the runner on third tries to go. But the odds of a pitcher realizing that are just about zero.

What if the pitcher is back on the rubber? In LL doesn't that end the play, like how you can't steal a base until after the ball crosses the plate on a pitch?

Hilarious.

It sure as hell worked in "Little Big League."

Something similar happened to my team back in Babe Ruth league play. We were playing a horrible team, but it was early and we were only up a couple runs, so after my friend singled to lead off the inning we gave him the sign to steal second. He gets a good lead, good jump and is close to the bag before the catcher even gets the throw off. As he tells us the next inning, the throw was so high and late that he thought it was a pop-up as he was standing safely on second - so he sprints back towards first to avoid getting doubled-up in his mind. Luckily the throw from the guy covering second bounces in the dirt and goes into the woods. I don't think the umpire had any more idea what happened than we did in the dugout, so he gives my friend second anyway on the overthrow/dead ball. Not quite analogous because no one else was on, but certainly one of the weirdest plays I've ever seen.

ponderous....

No idea. Usually the pitcher is wandering around. A bigger problem is when the manager calls time and comes out to talk to and/or remove the pitcher while the guy is still on his way to first. As with any trick play, it's a good idea to tip off the umpire first. One time the other team's coach called time and was halfway out to the mound, but the ump never granted it because he knew what was coming. So not only did we have our trick play working to perfection, but adding the confusion was the other team's manager standing in the middle of it wondering what the heck was happening.

Is it about time to make the obligatory "so, where is Bucc and his post about watching that play" joke?

SI