He didn't keep the ball!

Who ended up going home with one of the best souvenirs in history?

3 months ago JulioBernazard Comment 16 comments 0 recs |

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This is, oddly, the part of the story I keep telling.

Disclaimer: this post doesn't mean what you think it means.

by AngG on May 13, 2008 9:32 AM EDT 0 recs

“As soon as I saw the runners take off and it was line drive, I knew I had a chance at a triple play,” Cabrera said.

i can’t imagine thinking that fast. peralta too. he just stood there and casually pointed at the base then baserunner to tag him which i didn’t notice live. i’ve always been in awe of that aspect of baseball – the knowing what to do in a split second part. i never played beyond t-ball or beer league softball now so it’s completely foreign to me but i imagine it becomes instinct for these guys at a certain point.

by Brick. on May 13, 2008 10:06 AM EDT 0 recs

As soon as the ball was hit, before it got to Cabrera, Rick Manning (on STO) started yelling “triple play! Triple play!” I think it is a “learned instinct” among ballplayers.

by Fiddlesticks on May 13, 2008 11:15 AM EDT up 0 recs

Eric Young on ESPN said that infielders run through the situation before each batter (who is forced, what are the tag plays, etc.) so they’re prepared. I think he was saying that it’s not instinct, but a conscious effort to be aware. I was impressed that Peralta was as aware as he was—I’ve heard people criticize him for seeming “out of it,” but he clearly isn’t at all, if that play was an indication.

by peter m on May 13, 2008 10:47 AM EDT 0 recs

Peralta is what I noticed about the replays as well.

Summary: HIRE KLIFF, HIRE LAFFEY, HIRE CC, HIRE WESTBROOK, HIRE FAUSTO. FIRE BYRD. HIRE BRESLOW, HIRE JENSEN, HIRE PEREZ. FIRE BETANCOURT IN NON-SAVE SITUATIONS. FIRE MASA IN 1-RUN GAMES. HIRE V-MART, HIRE SHOPPACH. HIRE GARKO. HIRE UNASSISTED TRIPLE PLAYS, BUG-EYED INFIELDERS AND FAT SHORTSTOP BATS (NOT GLOVES). HIRE LOOCH, HIRE BENFRAN, HIRE GUTZ. FIRE TYNER. fire wedge.
FIRE PROON. HIRE PRONK.
FIRE BLAKE. FREE MARTE.
(yes, 2 men were left out ... for obvious and opposite reasons)

by westbrook on May 13, 2008 7:00 PM EDT up 0 recs

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but this was “Baseball 101” growing up (know what you’re going to do with the ball before every pitch), and I didn’t even play high school ball.

There’s a slight bit of added difficulty in that Cabrera had to adjust once the runners went in motion, but it was laid out in front of him pretty nicely as the runners gave up, and with good reason.

To be blunt, I’d feel cheated if each and every one of our position players didn’t go through the thought process before every pitch.

You know Selig? Ombudsman.

by rolub on May 13, 2008 11:01 AM EDT 0 recs

now that i think about it what a boring, unimpressive play. i’m going to go watch some little leauge. it’s the same thing, basically. baseball is just the same thing over and over again. these guys are just machines that repeat the same task over and over again.

by Brick. on May 13, 2008 11:48 AM EDT 0 recs

I never said it was boring or unimpressive. It was pretty exciting to me.

Luck and timing had more to do with it than the thought process… that’s all.

You know Selig? Ombudsman.

by rolub on May 13, 2008 12:09 PM EDT up 0 recs

the cool part to me is what goes on in a guy’s head or doesn’t go on in that couple of seconds between “runners go”, “cover second” and “liner to me.” that results in “ho hum, tripple play.”

by Brick. on May 13, 2008 12:35 PM EDT up 0 recs

Of the rarest events in a baseball game – a perfect game, 4 home runs in a game, or an unassisted triple play, obviously, the TP has the most amount of luck attached to it. To turn the TP, you need at least 2 on, no one out, runners in motion and a catchable line drive.

Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing any of those events in person.

"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.

by Harry Doyle on May 13, 2008 2:59 PM EDT up 0 recs

Come out tonight. I’m managing my 7 year old son’s little league team. We turn triple plays all the time.

Actually, this is something I have been trying to drill into these kids all season. Before nearly every pitch, I’m yelling from the dugout, “Where’s the play?” Even when I get the right answer, I need to remind the kids to figure out for themselves, “what’s the play?” We’re still working on that, and getting them to execute what the play may be is another story altogether.

I imagine that at the major league level, that sort of situational awareness has been drilled into the players so deeply, it becomes second nature.

"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.

by Harry Doyle on May 13, 2008 2:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

Ditto for the kids that I coach. We’re constantly trying to get them to think about where the play is. But it does become more and more rote over time.

-Erik

by drerikbrady on May 13, 2008 3:13 PM EDT up 0 recs

After I made my post above, I remembered that we did nearly turn a triple play this season. In the end we did get two outs …

... in this rather pedestrian fashion:

Bases loaded, no outs, looping ‘line drive’ caught by the SS. He throws toward second (I presume to get the runner racing from first) and overthrows the second baseman, the ball goes into right center, where the center fielder throws it back in to the second baseman. He still doesn’t step on second, but does throw it to the third baseman who does step on third to force out the runner who had been on third and ran home and into the dugout while we were tossing the ball around the field.

In discussing the call with the umpire (who was about 15 years old), he said that he was assuming that the runners standing on third and second had tagged and were safe – because of that, I dropped my thoughts of making an appeal and went on with the game.

Coaching 7 year olds is always interesting … more so tonight when we start having the kids pitch – from the full little league distance of 46 feet!

"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.

by Harry Doyle on May 13, 2008 4:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

I’d have to believe that managing in a game umpired by teens is interesting as well.

My umpiring career lasted all of 1 game. I was 13 or 14, and was the field ump, with the other kid (whom I knew from the little league) was the behind the plate. First off, the managers of each team asked to meet with me halfway through the game because the homeplate ump was awful… not regular awful, but pitches-were-hitting-the-plate-and-being-called-strikes awful. Mind you, I played on this kid’s team before, and he camped sometimes under, mostly in front of, flyballs in right field like he was trying to stamp out a brushfire. I said I’d talk to him, but we’re assigned our positions by the league and I couldn’t change. When telling the home plate ump, he gave me the “I call them like I see them” reply, and I just told him to maybe tighten the zone up a bit. Later on, he would throw out a coach for arguing balls/strikes from the dugout.

Second, I made my own goof. In position just over the pitcher’s left shoulder with 2 outs and a runner on first, the batter hits a ground ball to the shortstop. I put myself in position to get a good look at 2nd base for the force out… unfortunately, the shortstop had other ideas (and the correct one, mind you) of throwing to first to get the hitter for the final out. However, with my big butt right in his throwing line, he double-pumped to avoid taking my head off. By the time I could to the ground (literally, i did), it was too late and both runners were safe. I took an earful from the team’s manager/coaches, but thankfully, they would get the next out without any scoring damage. I went over to the manager after the inning to apologize, which he appreciated.

The next summer, I spent my working hours in the air-conditioned trailer just outside of the gates at Geauga Lake processing season passes. Much less pressure.

You know Selig? Ombudsman.

by rolub on May 14, 2008 9:20 AM EDT up 0 recs

I’m a VP of the league where I manage my youngest son’s team. Meanwhile, my oldest son is a cadet umpire in the league, so I have a simple rule. I try to treat the teenagers who are umpiring my games the way I expect other managers to treat my son. I don’t expect the kids to get every call right, but I expect them to try to get every call right.

That being said, I was at my wits end during my game last night. The kid who was the umpire didn’t have a consistent strike zone, he called my son out on what was clearly a checked swing, and worst of all, I had a player duck to avoid being hit by a pitch. It hit his bat, then his helmet while he was still in the batter’s box and bounced into fair territory. The catcher picked up the ball and tagged him out, so the umpire called the kid out on what should have been ruled a foul ball.

I got some level of revenge. We were losing badly, so I didn’t care about the score. There were two outs top of the lastinning – and because of time, we weren’t going to get our last at bats. This was the epitome of useless, garbage time. When the umpire forgot the count and asked me and the other manager if he’d just called strike two or strike three, I told him it was strike two, just so the game would go on longer and he’d have to stay and work some more.

"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.

by Harry Doyle on May 14, 2008 10:44 AM EDT up 0 recs

The managers (presumably adults) asked to meet with one teenage umpire to complain about the other teenage umpire? Wow. I guess that’s better than just slipping you a note after gym class, though.

by Fiddlesticks on May 14, 2008 10:44 AM EDT up 0 recs