In Other News, 5/20/09

[bmfc1]

Some unusual (please don't nitpick on the use of "unusual") events last night (5/20):

Jacob Ellsbury tied a record for put-outs:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2009/05/21/the_ultimate_tracking_device/

The Astros batted out of order:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6434155.html

The Rangers completed a triple play:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090520&content_id=4841850&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

The MFYs hit three consecutive homeruns in one inning (which might have caused John Sterling to explode):
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=4649865

[Frayed Knot]

And David Ortiz hit a homer.
Now THAT'S unusual!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Love triple plays! That one took all of 4 seconds to complete.

[Benjamin Grimm]

My daughter was asking me about triple plays the other day. She wanted to know if such a thing was possible. (I remember wondering the same thing about inside-the-park homers when I was her age.)

I told her that they were very rare. In 39 years of watching baseball, I've seen exactly one, not counting highlight replays, of course. All I remember of it was that it involved Wally Backman. I believe it was against the Pirates in 1987. I'm not even sure if the Mets were in the field for the play or on the bases.

[Frayed Knot]

I saw one live which was pretty cool - especially since it wasn't the usual TP (if there even is such a thing).

Giants had runners on 1st & 3rd - no outs (duh!).
Bonds was the guy on 3rd and he froze briefly while seeming unsure of whether to break on a standard ground ball. So while the Mets were turning a conventional 6-4-3 (or maybe 4-6-3, I forget) Bonds breaks late for the plate where he's tagged out on a throw from the 1st baseman after the DP was in the bag.
Crowd loved it, even more so I think because it was Barry.

[Frayed Knot]

The "unusual" theme of this thread reminded me of this from a day or two ago:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/pedro-feliz-and-the-golden-zapatos/

I love this kind of shit.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jayson Werth stole his way around the bases?

[Frayed Knot]

Yup, 'bout a week ago.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I've been waiting my whole life to see that.

There's a controversy among researchers. Ty Cobb was long believed to be the career leader in pulling that trick, but some have tried to prove in recent years that Wagner did it more.

[Farmer Ted]

A friend claims that Pete Rose stole the bases once. I'll have to look it up, but seems reasonable.