Mickey Morandini, 2B

The Setup:

Philadelphia was playing in Pittsburgh. The score was tied 1-1 in the sixth inning. Curt Schilling was pitching for the Phillies when Andy Van Slyke led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a base hit to right. Barry Bonds followed with a groundball base hit to left. Van Slyke stopped at second base, with Jeff King coming to bat.

The Play:

With the count full, Pirates manager, Jim Leyland, started the runners. Jeff King hit a line drive just to the right of second base. Mickey Morandini dove to his right to catch the line drive. He got up quickly and tagged second base and immediately tagged Barry Bonds who slowed up coming into second and made no effort to return to first.

The Rest of the Story:

On the Philadelphia television broadcast, the color commentator, Richie Ashburn, mentioned right before the pitch that if the runners were going it would be an opportunity for a triple play. As the pitch was delivered, Ashburn says, “There they go!” Play-by-play man, Harry Kalas, also says, “There they go!” As the line drive is hit, Ashburn says, “There it is! There it is!” At this point confusion sets in. Kalas tries to count the outs, “There’s one…there’s two” although all three outs have been made. Ashburn then yells, “Run to first! Run to first!” However, Morandini is running off of the field and flips the ball to the pitcher’s mound. At which point Kalas asks, “Did he get…?” Ashburn then says, “Oh okay, okay. He tagged him. How about that?”

Jeff King got a little bit of revenge after hitting into the triple play. In the bottom of the thirteenth inning, he won the game for the Pirates with a walk-off single.

For Art McKennan, the Pirates stadium announcer, it was the third unassisted triple play that he had seen in person. He saw Jimmy Cooney’s and Glenn Wright’s both turned at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh nearly 70 years earlier.

Quotes:

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

“I felt lousy about it. Then I happened to look at the scoreboard and saw it was the first time it had happened since 1927, and I felt really lousy.” - Jeff King, Pirate batter who hit into the triple play. (Apparently the scoreboard said first time in the National League since 1927, because there was Ron Hansen’s in 1968 in the American League.)

“That was stupid on my part.” - Mickey Morandini talking about flipping the ball back to the mound instead of keeping it as he ran off the field.