He hadn’t seen it all!
Cyclones skipper Tom Gamboa has been paid to take part in baseball games for 44 years now, and even grizzled scribes like yours truly have come to believe he has beared witness to just about everything that could happen on a baseball diamond.
A walk-off hit by pitch? Of course.
A 20-inning opening day disaster? Got it.
A first base coach being attacked by a fan? Well, that happened to him.
So you would think he’s seen a triple play happen right before his eyes, right?
Wrong.
“That’s the first triple play that I’ve been involved in my whole 44 years,” Cyclones skipper Tom Gamboa said after watching his boys pull one off to help save a game on July 10.
Brooklyn was clinging to a 4–3 lead in the eighth inning when Hudson Valley put runners on first and second with nobody out. The Renegades were threatening, but the Clones snuffed out the possibility of a comeback with the historic play.
A bunt attempt was popped up high enough for catcher Dan Rizzie to haul in for out number one. Rizzie then threw to second, where shortstop Colby Woodmansee was covering for the second out. Woodmansee then threw to Nick Sergakis at first for the triple play.
That’s a routine 2–6–3 triple play if you are scoring at home.
Of course, it’s not every day that a professional team in Brooklyn completes a triple play. Before Sunday, the last time it happened was on April 26, 1949 when the Dodgers did it against the woeful Boston Braves. Back then, left fielder Gene Hermanski, second baseman Jackie Robinson, and first baseman Gil Hodges pulled off the feat.
Coincidentally, both Sergakis and Hermanski homered before being part of a triple play later in the game.
Brooklyn was victorious both times, with the Dodgers winning 5–2 and the Cyclones holding on for the 4–3 win.
The Dodgers eventually turned another triple play in 1996, but by that time the team had been playing in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years.
One more note on triple plays. Joe Pignatano was the Dodgers catcher for the last five innings of their last game at Ebbets Field in 1957. As a member of the 1962 Mets, Pignatano hit into a triple play in his final career at-bat on the final day of the season.
Pignatano cemented his New York legacy as a coach on the 1969 Mets that won the World Series. The manager of that team was, of course, Gil Hodges, who had completed that triple play 20 years earlier.
So all this begs the question: If the double play is a pitcher’s best friend, what is a triple play? His wife?
We’ll let you ponder that one.
