No. 1926.08.15 · Live Ball Era
Three Men on Third
Babe Herman doubled off the right-field screen at Ebbets Field and arrived at third base to find two teammates already there.
On August 15, 1926, in the first game of a doubleheader at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn loaded the bases against the Braves in the seventh with one out. Hank DeBerry was on third, pitcher Dazzy Vance on second, Chick Fewster on first. Babe Herman drove the ball off the right-field screen. Under the ground rules it was still in play. DeBerry scored.
Vance, not a practiced baserunner, held up to see if the ball would be caught, then tried to score, was cut off, and retreated. He got back to third at the same time Fewster and Herman arrived. Third baseman Eddie Taylor tagged all three. Vance was the lead runner and was not forced, so he was entitled to the base. Fewster and Herman were out. Herman had doubled into a double play, and the run he drove in stood up as the winner.
He spent years pointing out that nobody remembered the run, only the crowd on the bag. The telling grew until people called it a triple play. It was not. There was already one out. It was strange enough without the embroidery.
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