I’m always hesitant to speculate on What Would Nixon Have Done? — partly because who really knows, and partly because such speculation too easily becomes an exercise in what the speculator wants done.
But I can, unreservedly and without any hesitation or shadow of a doubt, say that Nixon would have loved this — the unassisted triple play by Phillies second baseman Eric Bruntlett that clinched last night’s 9-7 victory over the Mets at Shea Stadium. There have only been fifteen unassisted triple plays (and the only one other one that ended a game was back in 1927). Since there have been sixteen perfect games, this was a moment rarer even than perfection. RN would certainly have savored the moment; and it isn’t entirely out of the ballpark that he would have been able to summon up from memory the relevant historical stats.
AP described the play:
With runners on first and second in the ninth inning and a run already in, Jeff Francoeur hit a line drive up the middle that appeared headed toward center field for a single. But both runners were stealing on the 2-2 pitch, so Bruntlett was in perfect position as he moved over to cover second base.
He caught the liner easily, stepped on second to double up Luis Castillo and then turned to tag Daniel Murphy for the third out. Murphy tried to backpedal away from Bruntlett, but had nowhere to go.
“Frenchy hit it on the screws,” Murphy said. “It happened so fast there was nothing I could do.”