Last night while driving to work, I was listening to the Tampa Bay Rays game on the radio and the announcers mentioned this odd story from yesterday:
Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians had a pretty good doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays. In the first game, he hit a home run. In the second game, he pulled off an unassisted triple play, only the 14th time it has been done in major league history (going back to 1876). Cabrera caught a line drive, stepped on second base for the second out and then tagged the runner to complete the triple play. Unfortunately for the Tribe, they still lost the game.
Now, here's where it gets odd: The Indians have had three unassisted triple plays pulled against them; the last time it occurred was in 1968 by Ron Hansen of the Washington Senators. Today, Hansen is an advance scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. Guess where he was? Yup, he was there at the ballpark in Cleveland and saw Cabrera's fielding gem. That's probably the first time that someone who has pulled off an unassisted triple play has seen someone else perform the same feat at the ballpark.
Oddly enough!
