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[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot.]
You can go an entire career without personally seeing it happen, even though in the aggregate, there's usually one that happens to somebody every year or two. The situation that has to exist to potentially being it into existence is pretty rare by itself - no outs and at least two baserunners. And then, what has to happen after that is, quite frankly, a mistake. A gamble that turns out horribly, some errant baserunning, or a series of mental mistakes by the offense that are capitalized on by the defense. In any case, when the dust settles, the unthinkable has happened - three outs recorded in one play. The half-inning is over in a single sequence of action.
The triple play is not quite the Holy Grail of defensive efforts, as many of those kinds of actions are more properly classified under what it takes to be The Hero, but it is a near guarantee of a space in the record books and admission to a relatively exclusive club. As a singular defensive play, it is the perfect expression of everything coming together just so, between fielder coordination, baserunner decisions, and the intangible luck that sometimes comes from good planning, training, and repetition.
There's a very strong argument to be made that if a defense is in a situation where a triple play can be made, the defense has not been in their best game at that point, and one might be tempted to attribute more of the triple play to luck than anything else, as most triple plays are initiated by a line drive that is caught by a fielder without having to do a lot of movement, who can then double and triple off two runners that were in the midst of a hit-and-run and can't get back to their bases in time. It looks a lot like somebody got really, really lucky in this situations. Like the double plays in the last post, what appears to be fortune is supported by a bedrock of practice, mental awareness, and concerted effort so that the fielders appear in the right places at the right times to get the outs and move the ball along to its proper destinations. It's easy to forget, when looking through the lens of the television camera, but there is nothing that happens in a baseball game that hasn't had thought and analysis of into it, often right before the event happens. That, and much of the time, players are moving in anticipation of something happening somewhere else on the field. If you can, when you watch games live, try watching a game without following the ball and see if you can develop a sense of knowing where the ball is without having to pay attention to it. The information on display all around the field should make it possible to direct your eye to where the play is going to go without having to follow the little white sphere exclusively. All of that going on away from the ball is what makes it possible for spectacular things to happen with the ball.
I have been on a team that turned an unassisted triple play at the learning level, and I still remember who did it (Duke) and how it happened (fly ball in the infield to third base - ball caught (one), base touched to get out runner who did not tag up (two), tag applied to runner arriving from second who did not tag up either (three)). I remember trying it myself when I had a similar opportunity - couldn't put the tag on for the third out. But it was such an impressive thing that once it was done, of course we wanted to have it for ourselves, too. As a testament to skill and ability. If 8 had been willing to give up the ball to a teammate, we might have had a triple play, but alas, chasing the glory prevented the right course if action from happening.
This card, in a reading, represents either spectacular success or spectacular failure, depending on whether you're the fielding team or the hitting one. For the fielders, the triple play means the pinnacle of teamwork and execution. Great thanks should be applied all around for having managed to turn what could have been a bad situation into the very best possible result, by noticing and taking advantage of mistakes or gambles by your competitors. You have done an impressive reversal of your situation, but don't think it's going to happen like this the next time. Tighten up the defense, maybe consider a pitching change or a shift in defensive alignment or pitch selection. And, perhaps, understand a little better the true potential of your team.
If you're the offense and this happens, well, I'm sorry. That's pretty much the definition of failure to have this done against you. The gamble backfired, or someone committed mental errors on the base path - could have been you, could have been someone else - and now everyone has to head back to the dugout with a promising chance cut short in one action. Circumstances were against you Learn what you can, fix the mistakes, and remember that even the very best players still end up succeeding less than half the time over their careers. Another opportunity will come.
Triple plays are rare and valuable things and demonstrate defensive baseball in a dramatic fashion. Savor them, should you get the opportunity to watch.
You can go an entire career without personally seeing it happen, even though in the aggregate, there's usually one that happens to somebody every year or two. The situation that has to exist to potentially being it into existence is pretty rare by itself - no outs and at least two baserunners. And then, what has to happen after that is, quite frankly, a mistake. A gamble that turns out horribly, some errant baserunning, or a series of mental mistakes by the offense that are capitalized on by the defense. In any case, when the dust settles, the unthinkable has happened - three outs recorded in one play. The half-inning is over in a single sequence of action.
The triple play is not quite the Holy Grail of defensive efforts, as many of those kinds of actions are more properly classified under what it takes to be The Hero, but it is a near guarantee of a space in the record books and admission to a relatively exclusive club. As a singular defensive play, it is the perfect expression of everything coming together just so, between fielder coordination, baserunner decisions, and the intangible luck that sometimes comes from good planning, training, and repetition.
There's a very strong argument to be made that if a defense is in a situation where a triple play can be made, the defense has not been in their best game at that point, and one might be tempted to attribute more of the triple play to luck than anything else, as most triple plays are initiated by a line drive that is caught by a fielder without having to do a lot of movement, who can then double and triple off two runners that were in the midst of a hit-and-run and can't get back to their bases in time. It looks a lot like somebody got really, really lucky in this situations. Like the double plays in the last post, what appears to be fortune is supported by a bedrock of practice, mental awareness, and concerted effort so that the fielders appear in the right places at the right times to get the outs and move the ball along to its proper destinations. It's easy to forget, when looking through the lens of the television camera, but there is nothing that happens in a baseball game that hasn't had thought and analysis of into it, often right before the event happens. That, and much of the time, players are moving in anticipation of something happening somewhere else on the field. If you can, when you watch games live, try watching a game without following the ball and see if you can develop a sense of knowing where the ball is without having to pay attention to it. The information on display all around the field should make it possible to direct your eye to where the play is going to go without having to follow the little white sphere exclusively. All of that going on away from the ball is what makes it possible for spectacular things to happen with the ball.
I have been on a team that turned an unassisted triple play at the learning level, and I still remember who did it (Duke) and how it happened (fly ball in the infield to third base - ball caught (one), base touched to get out runner who did not tag up (two), tag applied to runner arriving from second who did not tag up either (three)). I remember trying it myself when I had a similar opportunity - couldn't put the tag on for the third out. But it was such an impressive thing that once it was done, of course we wanted to have it for ourselves, too. As a testament to skill and ability. If 8 had been willing to give up the ball to a teammate, we might have had a triple play, but alas, chasing the glory prevented the right course if action from happening.
This card, in a reading, represents either spectacular success or spectacular failure, depending on whether you're the fielding team or the hitting one. For the fielders, the triple play means the pinnacle of teamwork and execution. Great thanks should be applied all around for having managed to turn what could have been a bad situation into the very best possible result, by noticing and taking advantage of mistakes or gambles by your competitors. You have done an impressive reversal of your situation, but don't think it's going to happen like this the next time. Tighten up the defense, maybe consider a pitching change or a shift in defensive alignment or pitch selection. And, perhaps, understand a little better the true potential of your team.
If you're the offense and this happens, well, I'm sorry. That's pretty much the definition of failure to have this done against you. The gamble backfired, or someone committed mental errors on the base path - could have been you, could have been someone else - and now everyone has to head back to the dugout with a promising chance cut short in one action. Circumstances were against you Learn what you can, fix the mistakes, and remember that even the very best players still end up succeeding less than half the time over their careers. Another opportunity will come.
Triple plays are rare and valuable things and demonstrate defensive baseball in a dramatic fashion. Savor them, should you get the opportunity to watch.
