In baseball, an unassisted triple play occurs when a defensive player makes all three putouts by himself in one continuous play, without his teammates making any assists. For this rare play to be possible there must be no outs in the inning and at least two runners on base. An unassisted triple play usually consists of a hard line drive hit directly at an infielder for the first out, with that same fielder then able to double off one of the base runners and tag a second for the second and third outs.
Most unassisted triple plays have taken this form: an infielder catches a line drive (one out), steps on a base to double off a runner (two outs), and tags another runner on the runner's way to the next base (three outs) (almost universally, the "next base" is the same base on which the infielder stepped to record the second out.) Less frequently, the order of the last two putouts is switched.
It is nearly impossible for an unassisted triple play to occur unless the fielder is positioned between the two runners. For this reason, most of these plays have been accomplished by middle infielders (second basemen and shortstops). Just two were completed by first basemen; in both cases, they were able to reach second base before the returning baserunner. It is possible a third baseman can turn an unassisted triple play with runners at 2nd and 3rd, but this has never happened in baseball. The only unassisted triple play that did not take one of these forms occurred in the 19th century, under rules that are no longer in effect.
The unassisted triple play, the perfect game, hitting four home runs in one game and five extra-base hits in a game are thus comparable in terms of rarity, but the perfect game and the home run and extra-base hit records require an extraordinary effort along with a fair amount of luck. By contrast, the unassisted triple play is essentially always a matter of luck: a combination of the right circumstances with the relatively simple effort of catching the ball and running in the right direction with it.
SPORTS
RESOURCES
This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Baseball" and "Unassisted triple play", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
© Stories Preschool. All Rights Reserved.