Saratoga News
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It's an unassisted triple-play worth remembering
By Dick Sparrer
My son turned an unassisted triple-play.
Uh, no, it wasn't this past weekend. It wasn't even this season. Fine, so it wasn't even in this century!
It was about 25 years ago, but the passage of time doesn't minimize the incredible baseball talent that it took to perform such a feat, nor does it cloud the importance of publicizing the special event.
I know what you're thinking--an unassisted triple-play is pretty rare in baseball. In fact, it's occurred so few times in the history of the game that it's called "one of the rarest fabulous feats in Major League Baseball."
But he did it, and his grandfather would tell the story to anyone who cared to listen--or even those who didn't care all that much--for the next 20-plus years.
You see, my son Mike, like so many other kids, played baseball from the time he was 6 until he was almost 20, and he's still very much involved in the game as a coach on Brad Sanfilippo's staff at Los Gatos High School.
Mike was the starting varsity catcher for four years at Pioneer High School ... but, no, he didn't do it for the Mustangs.
He was a seven-time (or so) all-star in youth baseball ... but, no, he didn't do it as an all-star.
Nope, he did it in his first year of organized baseball ... as a first baseman for his T-ball team.
It seems that the bases were loaded and this kid hit a pop fly, so obviously all the base runners took off (hey, it's T-ball!). Mike caught the pop (one), tagged his bag (two), then chased down the runner trying to race home from second (three). If I remember correctly, the runner on second was taking a direct route straight across the pitcher's mound to home plate (remember, it was T-ball), but Mike still tagged him out to complete the trifecta.
I was reminded of the play last weekend when Natalie and I went out to catch a couple of the T-ball games the grandkids were playing in, Anthony on his Little League team and Kaitlyn on her Bobby Sox team.
Watching them brought back so many memories of my own boys I just had to share them with my son-in-law Jim, who patiently listened and actually pretended to be interested.
Finally he must have heard enough about my sons' grand slams and circus catches, so he said, "You know, I really have to film the game now."
Ah yes, the filming of the game--the ritual fathers experience during the child-rearing years. And on this particular Saturday, Jim was doing his part at Anthony's game, and son-in-law Brian was doing his at Kaitlyn's game.
I did the same thing when my boys were young. In fact, I have so much video of Mike and Kevin that I could produce a full-length feature film and have more than enough left over for the sequel.
So as Jim was shooting yards of video of Anthony making spectacular plays at shortstop, I invited him over to watch a few hours of film of my boys playing baseball and football--from T-ball through high school.
"Oh, I'd really like to, but, uh, we're really busy right now at work ... yeah, that's it ... work is really hectic right now," he stammered.
I said, "Well, we could ... " but he quickly interrupted.
"You know, I hate to be rude, but I really have to film this," he said. "Maybe we can talk later."
And with that he buried his face in the viewfinder to film some kid none of us knew who was trying desperately to knock that rubber ball off the tee.
Meanwhile, Anthony was bearing down at shortstop with all the intensity of Omar Vizquel. Earlier in the day it had been Kaitlyn starring at first base, shortstop and pitcher in a Bobby Sox T-ball game that ended in a tie--I think the score was 30-30, or something like that. She was 3 for 3 with a grand slam on a ground ball back to the pitcher.
Hey, a grand slam's a grand slam!
Anthony didn't have a slammer, but he was also 3 for 3. And I'm pretty sure his game ended in a tie, too--30-30 I think.
Funny, but I'm pretty sure that most of Mike and Kevin's T-ball games ended in ties--not sure if they were 30-30, but it was something like that. What's more, they were always 3 for 3, and Mike had that unassisted triple-play. With stats like that, you'd think the Major League scouts would have come callin', but no.
You know, I have two sons, and I was there throughout their baseball years to offer encouragement (OK, I so I was pushy and obsessed over their baseball careers). But all I asked for in return was one little thing--that one of them would play Major League Baseball. Through their lives, Mike and Kevin have seldom disappointed me ... except in this case.
Now my only hope is that Anthony parlays his T-ball success into a Major League contract one day. Or you know what? Maybe it will be Kaitlyn!
Want to talk? Drop me an email at dsparrer@community-newspapers.com or give me a call at 408.354.3110, ext. 31.
