THE AUTUMN OF 9-4-2-2

That seminal, stunning double play in the Dodgers-Mets game yesterday certainly was one for the ages. Two guys tagged out at home plate on the same play? How often do you see that? By the way, Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew... couldn't have happened to a pair of nicer guys.

Some of sport's greatest wordsmiths -- of print, spoken word and the web -- took their stab at describing it, so here's a little mini-symposium:

• The Washington Post's Thomas Boswell notes, "Kent could have scored while talking on his cellphone."
• It was such a baserunning blunder that Dodgers announcer Vin Scully was hearkening back the team's days in Brooklyn, as the New York Times' Richard Sandomir reported.
• Deadspin wondered if the proper way to score the play would have been "9-4-2-dumbass Drew."

Yours truly can only remember two runners being tagged out at home on the same play happening once in 20-odd years of watching way too much baseball, and it happened in 1985, the first year I was old enough to pay attention to the Blue Jays.

On a single to right-field in the bottom of the third inning, Phil Bradley collided with Jays catcher Buck Martinez, who held on to the ball but suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle. Martinez, incredibly, saw the original batter, Stormin' Gorman Thomas running from second to third and tried to throw him out, only to have the ball sail into left field. (Hey, he did have a broken leg). Incredibly, the normally defensive deficient George Bell was not only backing up third base, but his throw home was straight and true, and Martinez caught it and tagged out Thomas for the 9-2-7-2 DP.

What most people don't know it was the second inning in a row that Barfield started a double play -- an inning earlier, he threw out Jim Presley trying to tag up and score on a fly ball. Those plays proved pivotal, since it went to extra innings, with the Jays winning 9-4 on George Bell's grand slam in 13th inning.

Didn't see that one -- it was a night game played on the West Coast, so it would have started after my bedtime -- and didn't see the Dodgers play either. Oh, well. It wasn't the first time yours truly has missed a once-in-a-liftetime post-season moment. When Devon White made the catch for the Blue Jays in 1992 and umpire Bob Davidson blew the call that would have given them the first World Series triple play in three score and 12 years, yours truly was in the basement, throwing wood on the fire.)

Related:
Buck Martinez Wikipedia page
Mariners-Blue Jays boxscore from July 9, 1985 (Retrosheet.org)

Back with more between periods of the Sens-Leafs "contest." Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.