Unassisted

You can’t blame someone for hitting into an unassisted triple play. It doesn’t happen that often but think of it: with one swing of the bat—and usually a good swing—you make three outs on one pitch. A troublesome spot for a pitcher becomes fodder for all of baseball history.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), there have been exactly 800 triple plays in the major leagues from 1876 to 2025 (SABR Triple Plays Database). This total includes data from the Negro Leagues, compiled in partnership with Seamheads.com.

There are some triple plays listed by Seamheads that don’t indicate whether the play was unassisted or involved two or more fielders. That doesn’t mean they weren’t unassisted; as Seamheads notes on its site: “A blank space does not indicate a zero; it means insufficient or missing data.”

There’s a widely reported unassisted triple play from 1878, but the details are murky and it isn’t recognized in MLB’s official rolls, so I haven’t counted it; that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

There are four triple plays listed by Seamheads, the source SABR used for its triple-play database, that don’t indicate whether the play was unassisted or involved two or more fielders. They could have been unassisted; as Seamheads notes on its site: “A blank space does not indicate a zero; it means insufficient or missing data.”

One reason it’s one of the rarest plays in baseball is that it happens only in certain situations.

Obviously, there have to be runners at first and second and no outs. When the pitcher delivers, the runners are moving—either the manager has called a hit-and-run, or the runners are sure the batter has smoked a ball that’s bound to drop; then the batter hits a line drive at either the shortstop or second baseman. Twice, the play has been started by a first baseman. (A third baseman or catcher has never made an unassisted triple play.)

The infielder catches the ball for out number one, steps on second base to force the runner (who was heading to third) for the second out and then tags the player who was running from first for the final out. The pattern is slightly different for a first sacker.

The 15 players include three Hall of Famers—so even the best suffer this—a pitcher/outfielder in the same game; there has been one in a World Series (1920), and two have ended ball games.

On July 19, 1909, in the first game of a doubleheader between the Cleveland Naps and Boston Red Sox, Boston’s first two batters in the top of the second reached base with no outs against Cy Young. Trailing 1-0, Amby McConnell, playing second base, came to bat.

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported, “McConnell poled a vicious liner over second, to all indications a clean single. Neal Ball dashed over, gloved the ball, touched second, retiring Heine Wagner, and ran down Jake Stahl.” It was the first unassisted triple play in the majors. (There had been five such plays in the minors.)

“It was all over in a jiffy and few fans realized what happened,” stated the paper.

Cleveland won 6-1. Young won his 14th victory of the season and 492 in his career.

McConnell never saw a major league ballgame until he played in one on April 17, 1908. In his first two seasons, he stole 57 bases, but a leg injury in 1910 limited him to 12. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox and feuded with owner Charles Comiskey over money. After 1911, McConnell never played again in the majors.

The fifth game of the 1920 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Brooklyn Robins at League Park on October 10 saw two series firsts—a grand slam and a home run by a pitcher, Jim Bagby. Cleveland was leading 7-0 in the top of the fifth inning. Brooklyn’s first two batters, Pete Kilduff and Otto Miller, singled. The pitcher’s spot was up next, but Clarence Mitchell also played the field and was a good hitter. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported how Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss “sprung a little bit and grabbed the ball with his gloved hand. Never hesitating, he continued to second base, easily doubling Kilduff. Then, when Wamby turned to throw to first base, he saw Miller frozen directly in front of him. Wamby tagged Miller easily. The crowd was silent momentarily, then, realizing what had happened, broke into thunderous applause.”

In 1920, Mitchell won five and lost two. He played a few games at first base and in the outfield. As a pinch hitter, he collected six safeties in 18 attempts. For the first time in his career, he made it to the World Series, where he made his place in history by hitting into that triple play. Cleveland won 8-1 and took a 3 to 2 games lead. In game six, Cleveland defeated Brooklyn 1-0 to win the World Series.

On Tuesday, August 7, 1923, Cleveland’s Frank Brower had one of the best batting days in history against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium. He went 6-6, driving in four runs in a 22-2 Cleveland victory. Five weeks later, he hit into one of the worst fates for a batter:

On September 14, 1923, Cleveland came to bat in the top of the second. Second baseman Riggs Stephenson singled; third baseman Rube Lutzke walked. Brower hit a line drive to Red Sox first baseman George Burns, who caught the ball. His momentum carried him toward Lutzke, whom he tagged, and then Burns ran to second to beat Stephenson for the third out. It was the first time such a play was started by a first baseman, and it was the third time in three weeks Cleveland hit into triple plays, all started by first basemen.

Brower alternated between playing first base and the outfield. He enjoyed his best season that year, batting .285 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs. He died on November 20, 1960, and is buried in Sudlersville Cemetery in Sudlersville, MD, where Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx was born and is buried in the same graveyard.

Three weeks after the American League saw its third unassisted triple play, the National League had its first on October 6, 1923. The Boston Braves were leading the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in the top of the fourth. Cotton Tierney and Cliff Lee singled, bringing Walter Holke to bat. According to MLB, Holke “smashed a sinking liner” that Braves shortstop Ernie Padget caught; he stepped on second to force Tierney and tagged Lee.

Born in St. Louis, Holke had bounced between the majors and minors even though he hit above .300 at both levels. In 1917, he became first baseman for John McGraw’s pennant-winning New York Giants. In the World Series, he batted .276, but the Giants lost to the Chicago White Sox in six games.

Holke joined the Phillies in 1923 and batted a career-best .311. 1925 was his last season in the majors. He played several years in the minors and, as player-manager of the Hazleton (PA) Mountaineers in 1930, hit .400 with 20 home runs in 77 games. He retired in 1935 to work on a Missouri farm. Later, he was a coach for the St. Louis Browns in 1940.

The next unassisted triple play happened on May 7, 1925. In the top of the ninth inning, the visiting St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Jim Bottomley came to bat with two runners on base and no outs, with his team down by a run. Bottomley lined a shot at Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright, who caught it, stepped on second to retire Jimmy Cooney, and then tagged Rogers Hornsby out for the triple play, the first one to end a ballgame.

Holke was born on a farm in Missouri in 1900. St. Louis Cardinals GM Branch Rickey was tipped off by a policeman about the left-handed hitter and signed him.

Four years later, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds; four years after that, he was sent to the St. Louis Browns.

The next unassisted triple play happened May 7, 1925. In the top of the ninth inning, the visiting St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Jim Bottomley came to bat with two runners on base and no outs with his team down by a run. Bottomley lined a shot at Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright, who caught it, stepped on second to retire Jimmy Cooney and then tagged Rogers Hornsby out for the triple-play, the first one to end a ballgame. In 1974, the Veterans Committee voted him for induction to the Hall of Fame. 

The next unassisted triple play happened May 7, 1925. In the top of the ninth inning, the visiting St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Jim Bottomley came to bat with two runners on base and no outs with his team down by a run. Bottomley lined a shot at Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright, who caught it, stepped on second to retire Jimmy Cooney and then tagged Rogers Hornsby out for the triple-play, the first one to end a ballgame. In 1974, the Veterans Committee voted him for induction to the Hall of Fame. 

The next day in Detroit, May 31, 1927, Cleveland was batting in the top of the 9^th trailing 1-0. Pinch hitter Glenn Myatt walked, and Charlie Jamieson bunted for a single. Homer Summa was next and lined a pitch to Tigers first baseman Johnny Neun, where he tagged the Jamieson who was off the bag and sprinted to second to beat Myatt, who had been running on the pitch.In a SABR bio written by Chris Rainey, the author began: “Homer Summa logged over 3,300 plate appearances and posted a .302 batting average in the major leagues. The Baseball-Reference list of highest career batting averages for players with 3,000 plate appearances has him at 191st. He is a mere .0001 behind Willie Mays.That is select company.”

There had been seven unassisted triple plays between 1909 and 1927. The next one didn’t happen for another 41 years. 

On July 30, 1968, Cleveland played the Washington Senators in Griffith Stadium. In the bottom of the first inning, Dave Nelson singled and Russ Snyder walked, bringing up catcher Joe Azcue. He hit a liner to Senators shortstop Ron Hansen, who made the catch, stepped on second to force Snyder and tagged Nelson. 

Del Unser was an outfielder for Washington that day. “I vaguely remember seeing a triple play in the big leagues,” he said. “This happened in my rookie season; however when losing a game 10 to 1, I tried to sublimate those bad losses as much as I could.”  

“As an aside,” he said. “ Joe Azcue had further bad luck against the Senators as he tried to block home plate too early against my slide and I unfortunately broke his left ankle.  It was a good hard legal slide at the time.  Today’s rules might disagree.”  

A Cuban native, Azcue was signed by the Cincinnati Reds before he turned 17. According to s SABR bio by Bill Nowlin, his bonus included a catcher’s mitt and a $45 advance to be deducted from his monthly pay of $150. Or as he later (said), “I got a glove and a Coca-Cola.”

Azcue played nearly 1,000 games as a catcher for six major league teams. In 1966, he led the majors by throwing out 62 percent of would-be stealers. In 1968, he was an All-Star with Cleveland, when he hit ..280 with 42 RBIs. 

He told Newlin how he called a game: “I tell ’em, “Throw anything you want. I call it.” 

Today, he lives in Kansas and his children and grandchildren live nearby.

The Pennsylvania state rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, were playing the Philadelphia Phillies on September 20, 1992. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Pittsburgh’s Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds were on first and second with no outs. Cleanup hitter Jeff King came to bat. With the runners moving on a 3-2 count, King lined a shot at Phillies second baseman Mickey Morandini, who stepped on second to force Van Slyke and tagged Bonds.

In an Associated Press story, King said, “I felt lousy about it. Then I looked at the scoreboard and saw it was the first time it happened (in the National League) since 1927, and I really felt lousy.” Earlier in the at-bat, he failed to bunt the runners over.

“I guess I’m a really great manager,” Jim Leyland of the Pirates said. “I ran us into an unassisted triple play. How many managers can say that?”

King was the first player selected in the June 1986 amateur draft by the Pirates. He made his major league debut against the New York Mets, going 0-1. Ten years later, he had his finest season with Pittsburgh, hitting .271 with 30 home runs, 111 RBIs, and he even stole 15 bases in 16 attempts. After the season, he was traded to the Kansas City Royals. In two full seasons with the Royals, he hit 52 home runs and drove in 205 runs. After playing in 21 games in 1999, he voluntarily retired.

The contest between the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 8, 1994, will be famous (if it isn’t already) for the major league debut of Alex Rodriguez. His teammate that night, Marc Newfield, hopes that’s the case.

In the top of the sixth, he came to bat with Mike Blowers on second and Kevin Mitchell on first. The Boston Globe reported, “Newfield hit a soft line drive directly at Justin Valentin. Valentin caught the ball, tagged second, and started towards first. Mitchell slowed to a walk and Valentin tagged him as he jogged by.”

“Valentin’s play looked so easy it took the Fenway Park fans a full two minutes to realize they had witnessed the 11th unassisted triple play and the ninth triple play in the regular season since 1900,” reported the paper.

Like Rodriguez, Newfield was a Mariners first-round draft choice, selected in 1993. He made his debut on July 6, 1993.

On July 31, 1995, Newfield was traded to the San Diego Padres. On July 31, 1996, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. He hit .307 that season for Milwaukee, but while playing in 143 games in the next two seasons, he hit only .229 and .237. In 1999, while at Boston’s AA team, Newfield seriously injured his knee when he collided with his team’s shortstop. This injury effectively ended Newfield’s baseball career.

There was something slightly different about Oakland A’s shortstop Randy Velarde’s unassisted triple play against the New York Yankees on May 29, 2000. With Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada running on a 1-1 pitch, Shane Spencer drilled a pitch directly to Velarde, but unlike the other unassisted triple plays, Velarde tagged Posada running towards second and then touched second base; usually, the infielder steps on second and then tags the runner. But Spencer still hit into the triple play.

And what a history Shane Spencer had.

He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was a player and batting coach for independent league teams. He hit three grand slams in 10 days but spent eight years in the minors before making the majors. An older rookie who hit home runs, he was nicknamed Roy Hobbs (the Robert Redford character in The Natural). He was the victim of a hoax when someone claiming to be Spencer called a New York City radio station and admitted he used steroids.

He had a cup of coffee when he first played with the Yankees in 1998, then hit 10 home runs in 67 at-bats in September that year. He hit key home runs in the ALDS against the Texas Rangers, and the Yankees went on to win the World Series—the highlight of his five-year career.

For the first and only time, a pitcher batted into an unassisted triple play on August 10, 2003.

In the bottom of the fifth inning in a game between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, the score was tied 1-1. Cardinals catcher Mike Matheny led off with a single, and centerfielder Orlando Palmeiro reached on a fielder’s choice on a sacrifice bunt. Next was pitcher Woody Williams, who would finish his career as a .260 hitter. However, he lined a ball that Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal made a leaping grab, then stepped on second to force Matheny and tagged Palmeiro who was running back to first.

Williams hit into the play in a career year. At age 36, he was 18-9, pitching 220 innings in 33 starts.

Gregory (Woody) Williams attended the University of Houston and was selected in the 28th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1988 draft. A right-hander, he debuted on May 14, 1993. He was primarily a reliever his first four seasons with the Blue Jays but was inserted into the rotation in 1997. He was 9-14 with a 4.35 ERA in 31 starts. He went 22-21 in his next two years. After the 1998 season, he was traded to the San Diego Padres. In 2001, he was traded back to the Cardinals and finished the season going 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 17 starts. He finished his career pitching for his hometown team, the Houston Astros.

He is now the pitching coach for the baseball team at the University of Houston.

You know who Chipper Jones is: first player selected in the 1998 draft, World Series champion in 1995, MVP winner in 1999, batting champion in 2008, hitting .364 at age 36, and Hall of Fame inductee.

On April 29, 2007, Jones became the third Hall of Fame player to hit into an unassisted triple play. In the top of the seventh, Kelly Johnson and Edgar Renteria led off with singles, and Jones came to the plate. On a 3-2 pitch, he hit a liner to Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. He stepped on second to force Johnson and tagged Renteria.

I wonder why Atlanta manager Bobby Cox would call for a hit-and-run with Jones at the plate. He was batting .307 with one home run and seven RBIs. For the year, then 35-year-old Jones hit .337 with 29 home runs and 102 RBIs. Maybe Cox thought Jones would get a good pitch to hit on a full count—the pitcher didn’t want to load the bases with no outs. Cox certainly was not going to bunt in that situation.

A year later, Toronto Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons’ team was mired in a 27-inning scoreless streak. With two men on base and no outs in the top of the fifth inning against Cleveland, he thought he’d shake things up and called for a hit-and-run in that May 12, 2008 game.

Kevin Mench led off with a single, followed by another single from Marco Scutaro. Next was Lyle Overbay. On a 1-0 pitch, Overbay broke his bat hitting a line drive over second base. Cleveland second baseman Asdrúbal Cabrera made a diving backhanded catch and fell down. He hung onto the ball, got up, stepped on second base to force Mench at second, and tagged Scutaro. Returning to the dugout, Cabrera threw the ball into the stands, and while one person contacted the club and said he had the ball, Cleveland has said the ball was not returned, and they could not determine what ball was used.

Overbay was born in Centralia, WA, and attended the University of Nevada. He was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 18th round of the 1999 draft. He was a September call-up in 2001 and singled in his first at-bat against the Colorado Rockies. In 2003, he played a little more than half a season with the Diamondbacks and batted .276. The following year, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers and led the league with 53 doubles, batting .301 with 16 home runs and 87 RBIs. The following year, he batted .276 with 19 home runs, 34 doubles, and 72 RBIs. After the 2005 season, he was traded to the Blue Jays and played five years with them. He concluded his career with Milwaukee in 2014.

He is now the baseball coach at his alma mater, Centralia High School, in Centralia, WA.

In the bottom of the ninth at Citi Field, the New York Mets were trailing the Philadelphia Phillies 9-6 on August 23, 2009. First batter Angel Pagan went to third on an error by Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard. Next, Luis Castillo reached on an error by Phillies second baseman Eric Bruntlett, with Pagan scoring. Daniel Murphy then singled. Up to the plate stepped Jeff Francoeur. On a 3-2 count with the runners moving, Francoeur hit a liner right at Bruntlett, who stepped on second and then tagged Murphy out. It was the second time a game had ended on this type of play.

After the game, Francoeur told Newsday: “That’s just some _____.”

He told the New York Daily News, “It’s a little disheartening, to say the least… even with the runner moving, I didn’t expect him (Bruntlett) to go cover second base.”

“It’s crazy,” said Francoeur. “That’s all I have to say.”

Yes, unassisted triple plays are great for the home crowd where they happen, the player who makes it, and the pitcher who gets out of a jam. But like all the men who have hit into one, they must have felt like Francoeur—crazy and disheartened.

NOTE: News coverage of the death of Robert Redford had many baseball outlets writing about the film The Natural, in which he played the “greatest hitter who ever lived.”

The 1983 film is cited as reviving the interest in baseball movies – Eight Men Out, Bull Durham, Major League, etc.

What a few people don’t know is that there is a Director’s Cut of the film, which, in my opinion, is a better film.

Director Barry Levinson said he was rushed when editing the film to make its release date. He was finally able to cut the picture the way he wanted to but couldn’t because of time restraints. 

The director’s cut is slightly longer than the theatrical release, but is tighter. The film is restructured in that Redford’s character, Roy Hobbs, is on a train to New York to join the New York Knights. There are flashbacks to what led to this train trip, such as scenes with his father, making his bat, and being in love with Glenn Close.

Levinson excised several scenes and added several new ones, 

The first new scene is unnecessary by its logic, but the others are first-rate and help develop the story better.

There is another scene with Roy and his father; a scene with Roy on the train to New York  with the scout who signed Roy, and tells him something important; when Redford meets Close as an adult, which  in the theatrical cut he tells her he thought he saw her at a train station; we see that scene. There’s also one scene so impactful I can’t believe Levinson didn’t think to keep it in the theatrical cut.

The Director’s Cut DVD also has excellent documentaries — from how the film was written, photographed, how costumes were designed; they’re like a mini-course in film-making. Give Redford props: he admitted the film would be criticized for changing the ending of Bernard Malamud’s novel. Give him credit, too, for having Barry Levinson direct the movie. Levinson had directed only one film, Diner, but Redford was so impressed by it he wanted Levinson to direct this big budget, historical piece. 

If you didn’t like The Natural, I think you might like the director’s cut. If you did like The Natural, you’ll like it even more in this version.