Clarion Content

No two exactly alike?

The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies demonstrated one of the fundamentally great things about baseball yesterday. Baseball's continuing potential for uniqueness is almost endless. Of all the ways that baseball mimics life, this is one of the most pleasurable. In approximately, 173,000 baseball games played since 1900 never before has a team started a game with an inside the park home run and ended with an unassisted triple play.

With his team already trailing 6-0, centerfielder Angel Pagan led off the bottom of the first for the Mets with an inside the park home run. It was several hours later his teammate Jeff Francouer ended the game with a line drive to Phillies second sacker Eric Bruntlett. Bruntlett, who had made the misplays that led to the first and second, none out situation, recorded only the 15th unassisted triple play in major league baseball history. An unassisted triple play occurs when one defensive player records all three outs in an inning without help. As it did yesterday, it normally happens on a line drive to a middle infielder with a double steal underway. It is among baseball's rarest feats, just slightly rarer than the perfect game, just slightly more common than someone hitting two grand slam home runs in the same game. It had been merely 82 years since a game ended on an unassisted triple play.

Two other news and notes items from the Clarion Content's Sports Editor's desk.

First, it looks like the American League's Most Valuable Player race is coming down to the Yankee's MVP, as in, pick the most valuable Yankee and you have got the A.L. MVP. There is a groundswell of support in New York for Derek Jeter to get the award, as he has never won one. He is having a remarkable season in a Hall of Fame career. He is hitting .332, he trails only the mighty Ichiro in total base hits on the season, and is 5th in runs scored. He is playing better defense than he has in ages, stealing bases and providing the stability and consistency in a pressure packed Yankee clubhouse.

On the other side of the room, Mark Teixera has been impeccable. His Gold Glove caliber defense has made Jeter, Cano and the third baseman look so much better than old iron gloved Jason Giambi did. He is leading the team in homers and RBI, he is second in the American League in both categories. He is also second in total bases. It is hard to bet against the best player, on the best team for the MVP.

The other item from the sports desk is much less of a sure thing. For some reason we still have a feeling the Minnesota Twins are going to sneak up and steal the A.L. Central from the clutches of the Tigers and the White Sox. Those two teams have had a lot of time and chances to leave the Twinkies in the dust, but have been meandering around .500 for far too long. Minnesota is 4.5 games back entering play today. The White Sox have to face the Red Sox, while Tigers take on the A.L. West leading Angels. The Twins, on the other hand, open a set with the A.L. East cupcakes, the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins have the two best players of any of the teams in the Central, in Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. It says here they could be right there for first place by the beginning of next week and in the thick of the race the rest of the way.

Labels: baseball, sports