Baseball Shorts: Unassisted Unassisted Triple Play

In today’s episode of “Baseball Shorts,” we pay attention to the unassisted unassisted triple play. It is not an official term, but this triple play is so unique, no player on the defensive side ever touched the ball.

Impossible you may say, but it happened during a 1986 extended Spring Training Game between Minor League players of the Houston Astros and the Chicago White Sox.

The Chisox had runners on first and second with nobody out when both runners took off while the batter hit a pop up. The infield fly rule was called, so the batter was the first out. As the runner from second noticed what was going on, he returned to second base, but the runner from first didn’t realize what was happening and ran past the runner at second base, so he was called out for the second out of the inning. All this happened while the hit ball was still in the air.

The final out was called when the falling ball hit the remaining runner for the third out of the inning.

Unique or what?

Since no player on the defensive side touched the ball, this play can be called the unassisted unassisted triple play.