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We welcome back Bill Schaefer with the first of a two-part series. Today’s essay describes what is possibly the “Greatest Play Ever.” It involves a never-duplicated unassisted triple play by an outfielder! Part Two will feature the “Worst Call Ever.” I think you’ll find today’s essay interesting, but be sure to stay tuned for Part Two!

In the featured photo, we see the participants in the only World Series Unassisted Triple Play: L-R: Bill Wambsganss, Pete Kilduff, Clarence Mitchel, and Otto Miller. Check out the photo gallery featuring the 15 unassisted triple plays in major league history. -GL

“Maybe the Best Play Ever!”

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”-A. Bartlett Giamatti

The Dream Play

In 1908, Bette Davis and James Stewart entered the world and became movie icons. The coming fall issue of Sears Roebuck and Co. would feature, Dr. Wilden’s quick cure for indigestion and dyspepsia.

And the Cubs beat the Tigers in the World Series.

That same year a Yorkshire, England native named Walter Carlisle played his only three major league games for the Boston Red Sox. He had the refined countenance of a British aristocrat. Carlisle looked like a movie star but batted only .100, achieving but one hit in ten official plate appearances. He walked once, stole a base, and struck out four times. Then he was shipped to the minor leagues and played until 1923.

But on July 19, 1911, the 30-year-old, while playing for the Vernon Tigers in the Pacific Coast League against the Los Angeles Angels, made perhaps the most extraordinary play in the history of organized baseball.

There have been 15 recorded unassisted triple plays in major league history and only one in the postseason. The name Bill Wambsganss instantly pops into the heads of baseball fans (our little chihuahua, Buddy, perked up his floppy ears as I typed the name).  

Though Walter Carlisle did little more than blow a kiss to big league baseball, he nevertheless sported a special set of skills: He could run like a cheetah, possessed extraordinary coordination, had a bazooka for an arm, and as a circus acrobat was able to change direction in a micro-second. He was renowned for his tumbling catches where he’d finish with a somersault.

Here’s what happened on that July day, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with additional details from writer, Tim Haggerty:

 “The opposing team, the Los Angeles Angels, had runners on first and second. Angels batter Roy Aiken hit a short fly ball to center, both runners took off and Carlisle made a spectacular diving catch–tumbling over into a double somersault. Carlisle then ran to second retiring runner Moore who had rounded third. The nimble outfielder  switched direction instantly and raced to first, where he barely beat the runner, Metzer, completing the unassisted triple play.”

It was the only such play executed by an outfielder in the history of organized baseball. If you’re still not sure it merits The Greatest Play, here’s a portion of Harry A. Williams’s amazing column from the Los Angeles Times:

Down in the boxes, one excitable fan seemed to get a sudden attack of insanity. He  jumped up and down and yelled, “it’s the greatest play ever made in the world!” He began grabbing the men in the box with him as a rat terrier does a rag doll. “It’s the greatest play ever made in the world!” he yelled into their ears. He flung himself almost head-first into the next box and thumped the next man over the head, “It’s the greatest play ever made in the world; it’s the greatest play ever made in the world,” he shrieked.

After a while, he calmed down and smoothed out his clothes. Straightening his hat and his tie, he sat back in his chair and remarked in a serious, earnest, confidential tone to his next neighbor, “We have just seen the greatest play ever made in the world.”              

Stay tuned for my follow-up essay: “The Call From Hell!”

Bill Schaefer

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