Thursday, April 22, 2010

Can Somebody Please Explain This?

Please note the following headlines taken from Yankees.com, the Daily News, and the Post respectively:







Since when is a triple play a guarantee of victory? Yankees lose despite triple play? I've never really heard someone say after a loss, "the inability to turn a triple play really killed us today. If only we'd been able to turn one, then we would have had this game in the bag."

The strangest one, though, may be the Daily News headline stating that the Yankees wasted the triple play. Did they play an extra out that inning? You can't waste a triple play. A triple play records three outs. It can happen in an inning where the opposing team scores no runs, or in an inning where the opposing team scores ten runs. All it gives you is three outs. Unless you somehow manage to forfeit those outs, you can't waste a triple play.

How about, 'Yankees Lose; Turn Triple Play'? That headline seems reasonable. It doesn't suggest any causality between triple plays and winning. Not that any of this really matters, I just find these headlines a little weird. Plus it's 4am and I can't sleep, so pointless post complaining about nothing it is.

5 comments:

lady gaganonymous said...

2010 Yankees are the tits. Even when we lose we turn triple plays and steal home.

Rich Mahogany said...

LG, you are the coolest (note I did not say "the tits" as that could be construed as insensitive when applied to a lady, and that's not my style).

This post is dead on. A triple play is a neat event but it's not as good for the team as never allowing baserunners in the first place.

The video of the triple play is fun to watch because all the Yankees high five and celebrate in the dugout just because something cool happened.

Unknown said...

Totally agree. It's like saying despite the kickoff return for a touchdown they lost the football game or despite the half court shot to end the first half....etc etc.

Now if they had said "Starter retires 27 in a row and they still lose",that would be more in context.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

Exactly. If you somehow manage to blow a perfect game (say the 27th batter swings and misses but the catcher doesn't hold on, and then botches the throw to first, and the next guy hits a game winning home run), then you've got a story. The half court shot analogy is dead on. It's cool, but meaningless. Particularly since a triple play is substantially no different than three consecutive ground balls, or a line-out followed by a double play. Regardless, three hitters come up and after the third there are three outs. Basically those headlines amount to saying, "despite 1-2-3 inning in the third, team loses."

lady gaganonymous said...

Well, a triple play is really cool. It's a lot different than just a 1-2-3 inning. But I agree, it has nothing to do with winning the game. Like you said, "Yankees lose, turn triple play" would have been a much better title.

(thank you, Rich. I like to think that I am pretty cool.)