I am officially upset with Ian Kinsler

In case you missed it last night, there was a triple play in the Rangers-Tigers game: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... p&c_id=mlb

I have watched the video about a dozen times now, and I can't figure out why Ian Kinsler flips the ball to Elvis Andrus. Watch the video if you haven't already.

After a Brandon Inge double and a four pitch walk to Ryan Raburn, Jim Leyland calls for a hit-and-run and Gerald Laird hits a slow line drive to Kinsler. Kinsler could have very easily tagged the runner and second base before either Inge or Raburn returned to their base. By flipping to Andrus (who steps on 2nd and then tags Raburn for the third out), we were denied the rarest of feats in Major League Baseball. There have been 17 perfect games and 15 4-HR games, but only 14 times has there been an unassisted triple play. Now perfect games require an extraordinary effort, as does hitting four home runs in a game, but they both require a bit of luck too. For the unassisted triple play, its all about being in the right place at the right time. As Troy Tulowitzki said after his unassisted triple play, "It just fell in my lap." Either way, Kinsler missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity last night. Andrus is partly to blame, as he was calling for the ball, but my beef is with Kinsler.

Here are some links to some unassisted triple plays that DID happen:
Asdrubal Cabrera - 14th time in MLB history
Troy Tulowitzki - 13th time in MLB history

Asdrubal Cabrera, Cleveland 2B 05-12-2008 5th inning
Randy Velarde, Oakland 2B 05-29-2000 6th
John Valentin, Boston SS 07-08-1994 6th
Ron Hansen, Washington SS 07-30-1968 1st
Johnny Neun, Detroit 1B 05-31-1927 9th
George Burns, Boston 1B 09-14-1923 2nd
Bill Wambsganss, Cleveland* 2B 10-10-1920 5th
Neal Ball, Cleveland SS 07-19-1909 2nd
Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado SS 04-29-2007 7th
Rafael Furcal, Los Angeles SS 08-10-2003 5th
Mickey Morandini, Phila 2B 09-20-1992 6th
Jimmy Cooney, Chicago (NL) SS 05-30-1927 4th
Glenn Wright, Pittsburgh SS 05-07-1925 9th
Ernie Padgett, Boston (NL) SS 10-06-1923 4th

Does anyone else think its peculiar that the only World Series triple play was an unassisted triple play, and that the only no-hitter was a perfect game?

So when will we see the first HOME RUN cycle (grand slam, 3-run HR, 2-run HR, solo HR). Minor leaguer Tyrone Horne is the only professional baseball player to ever accomplish this feat, on July 27, 1998 in a AA game.

Is Atlanta the only city that has seen a 4-HR game (Bob Horner), an unassisted triple play (Rafael Furcal), and a perfect game (Randy Johnson)?

As a Mets fan, I must point out that the Braves lost all three of those games.


David

All that matters is the TEAM recorded the triple play. It is a team sport

Huffamaniac said:

All that matters is the TEAM recorded the triple play. It is a team sport

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There is no unassisted triple play in team.

The same thing popped into my head when I saw the video.

I think it's cool that 2 of the 14 UTPs happened in back-to-back days in 1927.

As for the OP - Kinsler did an unselfish act.

IndyMann said:

I think it's cool that 2 of the 14 UTPs happened in back-to-back days in 1927.

As for the OP - Kinsler did an unselfish act.

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+1, it would've been nice for him to do it himself, but it was even nicer of him to share the experience with the Andrus (i think was the other guy)