Triple Plays
While in Chicago, Cooney entered the record books as the sixth player in the modern era to turn an unassisted triple play. On May 30, 1927, in the fourth inning of a game against Pittsburgh, Cooney caught a line drive hit by Paul Waner, stepped on second base to retire Lloyd Waner, and then tagged Clyde Barnhart coming down from first base.
One day after Cooney's fielding gem, Johnny Neun also turned an unassisted triple play. Despite their joint fame, Cooney and Neun never actually met, as they were playing in different leagues. (They did face each other in a minor league game in 1929, but didn't exchange words.) Finally, nearly six decades later, in 1986, Sports Illustrated arranged a conference call between the two.
Cooney also had a hand in two more triple plays in his big-league career: first, he was credited with an (assisted) triple play (with Jim Bottomley and Rogers Hornsby) on July 30, 1924. Second, Cooney was called out when Glenn Wright pulled off an unassisted triple play on May 7, 1925. Oddly, it involved the same two men as the previous year's play: Cooney was on second while Hornsby was on first and Bottomley was batting.
Read more about this topic: Jimmy Cooney (1920s Shortstop)
Famous quotes containing the words triple and/or plays:
“The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“With sweet May dews my wings were wet,
And Phoebus fir’d my vocal rage;
He caught me in his silken net,
And shut me in his golden cage.
He loves to sit and hear me sing,
Then, laughing, sports and plays with me;
Then stretches out my golden wing,
And mocks my loss of liberty.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)