Saturday, April 25, 2020

Keep your eye on the ball. Which one?


“(Sammy) Taylor was behind the plate for one of the odder moments in baseball history, when two baseballs were in play at the same time. The Cubs were hosting the Cardinals on June 30, 1959. Stan Musial was at bat, and the 3-1 pitch from Bob Anderson bounced off Taylor and umpire Vic Delmore and rolled to the backstop. Musial ran to first for the walk. Taylor, instead of retrieving the ball, argued that Musial had fouled it off. That ball was picked up by the Cardinals batboy who handed it to field announced Pat Pieper, who realized it was in play and dropped it. Meanwhile, Delmore took out a new ball and handed it to Anderson. Musial, seeing that nobody had retrieved the original ball, took off for second base. Anderson threw the new ball toward second but fired it into the outfield instead. Musial saw the ball headed to center field and ran to third. He was surprised to be tagged out by shortstop Ernie Banks, who had the original ball that had been tracked down by third baseman Al Dark. It was ultimately determined that since Musial was tagged with the original ball, he was out.


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