The shortstop who made three outs, then hit a home run

On July 19, 1909, Cleveland Naps shortstop Neal Ball caught one line drive, stepped on second base, and tagged a runner. In that tiny burst of movement, he made all three outs himself: Major League Baseball's first officially recognized unassisted triple play under modern American League/National League record-keeping. Then, in his next at-bat, he hit an inside-the-park home run. 1 2

The setting was the first game of a doubleheader at League Park in Cleveland. The visiting Boston Red Sox put runners on first and second with nobody out in the second inning: Heinie Wagner singled, and Jake Stahl followed with a bunt single that moved Wagner to second.

Boston then tried a hit-and-run. Amby McConnell drove a 3-2 pitch up the middle, but Ball was moving toward second and leaped to catch it. That was out No. 1. He touched second base to force Wagner, who had been running toward third. That was No. 2. Stahl had started from first, then tried to retreat when he saw the catch. Ball caught him before he could get back. Three outs, one fielder, no throw to a teammate. 2

Ball later remembered the catch in a sentence that sounds almost annoyed by its own importance: "I jumped, and the darn thing hit my glove and stuck. The rest was easy." 3

The geometry explains why the play is so unusual. An unassisted triple play usually needs runners at first and second, both moving on the pitch, plus a line drive close enough to a middle infielder for one player to catch the ball, touch a base, and tag a runner before either can react. MLB's historical list contains 15 such plays, which is a remarkably small club across more than a century of major-league baseball. 1

The oddity did not stop with the fielding record. Ball came up in the bottom of the inning and drove the first pitch he saw from Boston pitcher Charlie Chech over Tris Speaker's head in center field. He ran all the way around for the first home run of his major-league career, and the only homer he hit in 1909. 2

The game had its own bit of history in the background. Cy Young was pitching for Cleveland against the Boston club where he had spent the previous eight seasons. Young had been traded back to Cleveland before the 1909 season, and he completed the 6-1 victory over his former team. 2

That makes Ball's afternoon read like a baseball box-score prank: three outs made alone, followed immediately by a home run, with the game's all-time wins leader watching from the mound.

Ball is generally credited as the first player to complete an unassisted triple play in major-league history, but the wording "officially recognized" matters. SABR notes an 1878 play credited to Providence's Paul Hines that has been disputed; contemporary reporting said a teammate may have made the third out. MLB does not count that episode as an unassisted triple play, leaving Ball's July 19, 1909 play as the accepted modern AL/NL record-book first. 1 2

A century later, the glove Ball used for the play remained on display at the Hall of Fame. The record is rare enough. The home-run encore is what turns it into a story worth remembering every July 19.