“Man’s out—two out—three out!” called the umpire, after a moment’s puzzled study.
Then, as the crowd heard his decisions and realized what Thatcher, the third baseman, had accomplished, a cheer started that gathered and gathered in volume until it mounted skyward like a peal of thunder.
Unassisted Jeff had made a triple play![1]
[1] A play of this sort took place in the World’s Series of 1920 between the Brooklyn and Cleveland team when the Cleveland second baseman made a triple play unassisted. It was the first play of its kind ever recorded in a World’s Series and only the fourth on record in the history of the national game.
His brilliant catch of Oleson’s fly had put the batter out, and as he dropped to third and touched the bag, automatically Southers, who had left for home, also went out, and Wild, romping down from second, had been tagged out within five feet of third base, thus putting out the entire side in a single play and bringing to naught the most critical situation that the Pennington team had been in during the entire game.
Nothing as scintillating as this in the way of baseball had ever occurred at Pennington, or at Lawrencetown, either, for that matter, and the crowd went wild over Jeff.
His team mates, coming in from the field, literally mobbed him, and picking him up bodily, carried him on their shoulders toward the player’s bench, much to Jeff’s embarrassment. Then they started on a parade around the diamond, for the game had ended there, the score still 2 to 1 in Pennington’s favor, so it was not necessary to play the last half of the ninth inning.
The student body, led by the blaring band, fell in behind the triumphal procession of players, with Thatcher on their shoulders, and round and round the diamond they went in a wild snake dance that finally worked its way off the field and over to the gymnasium.
There, as the players mounted the steps, Jeff was cheered and cheered again, and then in a brief lull in the noise some one shouted from the crowd: