Let’s get three
Royals turning the triple
I’ve always been fascinated with arcane occurrences that regularly pop up in major league baseball. Halter top day remains at the top of the list. Hitting for the cycle has always been a favorite of mine. Sluggger hitting an unwitting fan with a hot dog? That works. No-hitters are always fun, though I’m not sure we’ll ever see another no-hitter by a Royals pitcher. Maybe someday we’ll see a no-hitter thrown by multiple pitchers, but the single pitcher no-no is probably a thing of the past. These days I’d be happy with a complete game.
Another oddity I treasure is the triple play. They’re not quite as rare as you would believe, with 739 being the official number thrown out by MLB as of July 1, 2025. The Royals have been on the giving and receiving end of several.
When I was still playing beer league softball, we turned exactly one triple play, and it was a honey. Beer league games only last 7 innings, thankfully. Going into the top of the 6th, we were down by 14 runs, which was uncommon for us. We caught fire and scored 8, then held the home team scoreless to give us a chance. We put up another seven runs in the top of the 7th to take an improbable lead. I was playing first that night thanks to an injury to our regular first baseman. The home team’s leadoff guy drew a walk, which should be outlawed in slow pitch softball. Their second batter stroked a single, putting men at the corners. Now I’m thinking, best case we might be able to get extra innings. Best case. The third batter hit a sharp grounder at our shortstop Jeff, who gobbled it up, stepped on second and fired to me for out number two. For some unexplainable reason, the guy on third broke for home after I recorded the second out. Like I said, it’s beer league. I wheeled and fired a strike to our catcher Bryan, which beat the runner by a good ten feet. No Lucas Duda air mails here. Bryan applied the tag, triple play, game over, we win by one. The other team was so pissed they wouldn’t even shake after the game. I have got to tell you, the post-game beers never tasted better.
The Royals recorded their first triple play on August 13th, 1972, in a game against the Texas Rangers. Only 5,598 fans were on hand at Arlington Stadium to witness triple play #533 in major league history. With Dick Drago on the mound, pitcher Dick Bosman led off the bottom of the third with a double. Drago then walked Elliott Maddox. The next batter, Toby Harrah, tried to lay down a bunt.
Now I’m going to interrupt this triple play thread to rant a little. Why in the hell would any manager order a bunt in this situation? You’ve got two men on and nobody out, it’s only the THIRD inning and Harrah was an excellent hitter. His 17-year career slash was only .264/.365/.395, but like a lot of hitters, his early and late years were his worst. Harrah stroked 1,954 career hits, 195 home runs and drew 1,153 walks. He led the league in walks in 1977 with 109 and drew over 80 walks in 8 different seasons. He was a four-time All-Star and was good for 51 WAR over his career. You know how many Royals have been worth better than 51 WAR for their career? It’s a short list. Of position players, George of course. And Carlos Beltran, who accumulated a lot of his with other teams. That’s it. Amos Otis didn’t do it. Neither did Willie Wilson or Alex Gordon. For pitchers, you have Kevin Appier, Zach Greinke and Bret Saberhagen. I may have somehow missed someone, but that shows you that Harrah was a helluva player.
Harrah had a good eye, and he had some power. Even more confounding is that the Rangers manager at the time was Ted Williams, arguably the greatest hitter of all time. Why would Ted get conservative with one of his best bats at the plate? Yeah, I’ve heard all the arguments about moving the runners over and bunting to avoid the double play. Yada yada yada. Esteemed writer Joe Posnanski is the president of the anti-bunt club and I’m the vice-president. In my opinion, the bunt is a surefire inning killer and over the years it would drive me absolutely batty when Ned Yost would bunt the Royals out of any possible scoring opportunity. The Royals have been deploying this inning killer with some regularity in the 2025 season, and it has been aggravating my ulcers.
Back to 1972: In a turn of poetic justice for the anti-bunt mob, Harrah’s bunt coughed and died right in front of the plate. Uncertain if it was a fair ball, Harrah hesitated getting out of the box. Royals’ catcher Ed Kirkpatrick jumped on that ball like I jump on a donut. He tagged Harrah out then whipped a throw to third baseman Paul Schaal to retire Bosman. The swift Maddox, running on the pitch, got hung up between second and third. Schaal fired a throw to Cookie Rojas at second who returned it to Schaal for the tag and a sweet 2-5-4-5 rally killer. The triple play was #533 in history. In the end, it didn’t matter as the Rangers prevailed, 13-4.
The Royals went triple play less until May 3rd, 1985, against the Yankees in New York. With Mike LaCoss on the mound, Mike Pagliarulo led off with a walk. LaCoss then allowed a single to Billy Sample. Bob Meacham’s grounder to third was botched by third baseman George Brett, allowing Pagliarulo to score and give the Yankees a 6-1 lead. With the runners going on a 3-2 pitch, Rickey Henderson hit a line drive to second baseman Frank White. White threw to first for the second out, and Steve Balboni fired one to shortstop Onix Concepcion at second for a triple play. Score it 4-3-6 TP.
On July 4, 1988, Kansas City pulled off a Royals Hall of Fame triple play against the Red Sox with a slick 8-4-3 eraser at the Stadium. With two Bosox on base, Jim Rice drilled a line drive to center field that looked impossible to catch. Willie Wilson ran the ball down, made the catch then fired a throw to Frank White to double off Mike Greenwell. White then threw to George Brett, playing first base, to get Ellis Burks. Thus, triple play #585 became only the third triple play executed on Independence Day and the first on that day since 1929.
The Royals pulled off another triple play, #623, on May 14, 1994, against the Oakland A’s. With Kevin Appier on the mound, Stan Javier led off the 3rd with a walk. Mike Aldrete followed with a single, with Javier holding at second. Geronimo Berroa then hit a sharp grounder to Gary Gaetti at third. Gaetti stepped on the bag, starting a classic 5-4-3, Gary Gaetti to Terry Shumpert to Wally Joyner triple killing.
They turned a three killing against the Orioles on April 3rd, 1996, with a 5-4-3-2 number for #628. In just the second game of the season, the Orioles were laying a 7-1 whipping on KC. In the bottom of the 6th, Roberto Alomar and Rafael Palmero (who had both homered earlier) stroked consecutive singles. Bobby Bonilla then hit a grounder at Joe Randa at third, who threw to Bip Roberts at second for the first out. Roberts went to Bob Hamelin for out number two. Alomar just kept running, so the Hammer piped a throw to catcher Sal Fasano to get Alomar for out number three. Easy peezy, 6-4-3-2. The play didn’t matter much, as the O’s prevailed by the score of 7 to 1.
The last triple play for the Royals occurred on June 11th, 2006, in a game at the K against Tampa. In the top of the second, Johnny Gomes tagged Scott Elarton for a lead-off home run to put Tampa up 1-0. Elarton walked the next batter, Aubrey Huff, then gave up a single to Rocco Baldelli which put runners at the corners. Russell Branyan chipped a dying quail into centerfield which sent both runners moving. David DeJesus made a great play to catch the ball. His throw to the infield was cut off by Elarton who relayed to Angel Berroa to get Baldelli. Berroa then fired a throw to Mark Teahen at third to get the retreating Huff to complete triple play #666. The Royals also lost this game, 8-2.
In a somewhat strange twist, the Royals have never won a game in which they executed a triple play. We’re closing in on a twenty year triple play drought, but with Bobby and Maikel in the infield, I’ve got hope we’ll see another soon.
According to my research the Kansas City Athletics only turned one triple play in their history, and it appears to have been the only triple play ever pulled at Municipal Stadium.
It happened on September 4th, 1966, in the second game of a double header against the Boston Red Sox. In the top of the first, Rico Petrocelli led off with a single off Athletic pitcher Gil Blanco. Future Royal Joe Foy drew a walk. The third batter, Don Demeter also walked, loading the bases. Such was the life of the Athletics in those days. This brought up the ill-fated Tony Conigliaro. Conigliaro had made his debut in 1964 as a 19-year-old and slugged 104 home runs in his first three and a half seasons before a horrific beaning in 1967 nearly killed him, but in the summer of ’66 Conigliaro was in his youthful prime. This triple play, #498 all-time, was almost identical to my beer league triple play. Conigliaro hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Bert Campaneris who flipped to Dick Green at second to force Demeter. Green fired the ball to first baseman Tim Talton for the second out. Petrocelli, breaking late from third was tagged out by catcher Phil Roof on a slick 6-4-3-2 play. This triple play was #498 in major league history. The Athletics won this game by a score of 7-2.