Yesterday afternoon, Philadelphia second-baseman Eric Bruntlett was in the right place at the right time when Jeff Francouer smoked a line drive up the middle. Bruntlett, who was busy rushing to cover second-base from the hit-and-running baserunners, was half a step away from the bag when he pulled the ball out of the air for the first out. In less than two seconds, he was stepping on the bag for the second out and turning around to tag Daniel Murphy out for the game-ending third out.

In those two seconds, Bruntlett became the 15th player in major league history to turn an unassisted triple play. It was the third year in a row that an unassisted triple play was turned, with Bruntlett joining Asdrubal Cabrera and Troy Tulowitzki in the club.

What's more, the triple play also marked the 2009 season as only the third time in history that the four "banner feats" of baseball were all achieved in the same year. With Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter, Mark Buehrle's perfect game, and the seven cycles that we have already seen, the unassisted triple play was all that was missing, and Bruntlett made short work of that.

The last time it happened was in 1994, when Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game, Kent Mercker and Scott Erickson threw no-hitters, John Valentin turned the triple play and Scott Cooper hit for the cycle. The only other season to see all four feats was 1968, when four pitchers threw no-hitters to go along with Catfish Hunter's perfect game.

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So, will this year go down as the year of the "feat"? In terms of sheer numbers - one no-hitter, one perfecto, one unassisted triple play and seven cycles - it seems like 2009 could lay claim to the title. But I tend to judge cycles as much less impressive than no-hitters or perfect games, so the seven cycles this year don't really compare, in my mind, to the four no-hitters from 1968.

Some might say that there's a fifth "banner feat" that I'm forgetting here: hitting four home runs in a game. It's happened 15 times in all of baseball history as well, so it's just as rare as the unassisted triple play. If I expand the lists to look for all five feats in a single season, I come up with nothing. It's never happened. That means that if, say, Ryan Braun were to smash four homers in a single game between now and the end of the season, this truly would be the year of the feat. Until then, we'll just have to debate what's more special - for no-hitters or seven cycles - and figure out just how the ESPN hype machine has warped our perception of these feats.

Here is the list of seasons where four of the five "banner feats" were all accomplished. Expanding the list to include four home runs in a game gives us one more season:

1. 1968: Four no-hitters (Tom Phoebus, George Culver, Gaylord Perry, Ray Washburn), One perfect game (Catfish Hunter), One unassisted triple play (Ron Hansen), and One cycle (Jim Fregosi)
2. 1994: Two no-hitters (Kent Mercker, Scott Erickson), One perfect game (Kenny Rogers), One unassisted triple play (John Valentin), and One cycle (Scott Cooper)
3. 2003: Two no-hitters (Kevin Millwood, Roy Oswalt et al.), One unassisted triple play (Rafael Furcal), Four cycles (Brad Wilkerson, Eric Byrnes, Travis Hafner, Vlad Guerrero), and One four-home-run-game (Carlos Delgado)
4. 2009: One no-hitter (Jonathan Sanchez), One perfect game (Mark Buehrle), One unassisted triple play (Eric Bruntlett) and Seven cycles (Orlando Hudson, Ian Kinsler, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Melky Cabrera, Troy Tulowitzki, and Felix Pie)

When I was a kid in 1990 and 1991, there were seven no-hitters thrown in each of those years (for fourteen total no-nos in two years). And while that did plenty to confuse my notion of how often no-hitters are thrown, it didn't exactly change the way we viewed those years. I imagine that, even with the perfect game and unassisted triple play, we won't make a big deal over the feats that we've seen this year. The 2009 season may go down as one of the best years for "banner feats", but I suspect we'll better remember it for Mauer's chase for .400 or Pujols 50 home runs or the Yankees' return to postseason dominance or something, and not that Eric Bruntlett was in the right place at the right time. Still, it's fun to watch, and I'd love to see more of each of these. They certainly make for exciting clips on Sportscenter.

(Oh, and if you couldn't tell, I'm not all that impressed with unassisted triple plays. The first time I'd ever heard of one when I was really young, I thought it was pretty fantastic. But then I realized that they all happened in exactly the same way in exactly the same circumstances and required very little skill, and I was less impressed.

If I were to rank the "banner feats" in order of authentic talent, I'd break it down like this: Perfect game, four home runs, no-hitter, hitting for the cycle, and unassisted triple play. How would you rank them? Am I missing something special here? Leave your thoughts in the comments.)

Comments (14)

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The Cycle...
written by Christopher Bates, August 24, 2009

Agreed with you on your ranking of the talent involved in banner feats.

Also, I've always though the cycle was kind of stupid. If a guy collects a 1B/2B/3B/HR he's done something "special," but if he gets a 3B/2B and 2 HRs, then no big deal?

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...
written by GrandSlamSingle, August 24, 2009

Does stealing your way around the bases count as a banner feat?

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What about 2 grand slams by the same player in one game?
written by underheight, August 24, 2009

Josh Willingham of the Nationals hit 2 grand slams on July 27, 2009 against the Brewers.

That's rarer than a perfect game. 13 two grand slam games; 18 perfect games.

http://www.baseball-almanac.co...ts11.shtml

http://www.baseball-almanac.co...perf.shtml

The only other year on your final qualifier list that also had a two grand slam game was 2003. Bill Mueller of the Red Sox did it on July 29, 2003 against the Texas Rangers.

Granted, there is a fair amount of luck involved in that situation, too. But it's still a special rare feat, making 2009 definitely a "year of the feat"

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written by Dave B, August 24, 2009

This is a great jumping off point for many discussions. Perfect game = four homers, rare, memorable, not fluky. Stealing all four bases in one game is about as hard, I'd wager. All three require a great performance, plus some luck. I wonder what a matching fielding feat would be - assists at all four bases in one game? probably never happened . . . I like this thread.

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Baseball Almanacs list of feats
written by underheight, August 24, 2009

If someone really wanted to slog thru it, Baseball-Almanac.com has a ton of feat pages, which are easily accessible via a nice Google search:

site:baseball-almanac.com inurl:feats

or just click on this link:
http://tinyurl.com/lvrpfs

Google shows 89 results. I don't have time at the moment to dig thru all of them, but ones of note are:

-- 3 pitch innings

-- 4 strikeout innings (21 times, including THREE times in 2003(!), none in 2009 so far)

-- 9 pitches, 9 strike innings

-- 6 hits in a 9 inning game (three times so far in 2009; none in 2003)

-- Home Runs by Pitchers Off Each Other in the Same Game (very rare in modern era, last time in 2002)

-- Stealing Second, Stealing Third, Stealing Home in same inning (once in 2009 by Jayson Werth of the Phillies; not surpisingly Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner are tied with the major league record, each doing it 4 times in their careers)

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written by George Waas, August 24, 2009

Two grand slams in the same inning. Done only once by Fernando Tatis with St.Louis. Straight cycle (1B, 2B, 3B, HR) or reverse cycle--ever been done?

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written by lar @ wezen-ball, August 24, 2009

Great points, all, eapecially that list from underheight. Thanks for that.

When I made the list, I was only thinking of the four "main" feats that most people think about. But then the 4-homer game crossed my mind and I kind of knew that there were a bunch more that I had forgotten. I'm glad that you guys have been able to come up with some of them. And, remarkably, many of them have already happened this year.

So, though we may remember the year for other reasons, this could legitimately be remembered as the "year of the feat".

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written by Monte, August 24, 2009

@ underheight

I agree with your assessment of two grand slams in the same game as being worthy of inclusion -- and moreso than most of the other categories. However, as a correction to your assessment, your source indicates Jim Northrup hit two in 1968, so that years appears to belong with both 2009 and 2003 in the lists cited above.

@ Larry G

I have two truly "skill" feats that are rarer than a no hitter, perfect game, four home runs, hitting for the cycle or unassisted triple plays:

First, is there are only five instances of a pitcher throwing 20 strike-outs in a game, and I think that deserves greater accolades than even a perfect game:

(1) Tom Cheney -- 1962 (16 innings)
(2) Roger Clemens -- 1986
(3) Roger Clemens -- 1996
(4) Kerry Wood -- 1998
(5) Randy Johnson -- 2001 (11 inning game, but Johnson struck out 20 in 9 innings)

Second, is three sacrifice flies by the same player in the same game, accomplished only ten times:

Ernie Banks, Chicago 06-02-1961
Russ Nixon, Boston 08-31-1965
Don Mattingly, New York 05-03-1986
Vince Coleman, St. Louis 05-01-1986
Candy Maldonado, San Francisco 08-29-1987
George Bell, Toronto 08-14-1990
Chad Kreuter, Detroit 07-30-1994
Juan Gonzalez, Texas 07-03-1999
Edgar Martinez, Seattle 08-03-2002
Jose Lopez, Seattle 4-15-08

There are several signficant individual "feats" that have only occurred once in all of MLB history by a single player. They probably deserve their own category for "feat years". Among my personal favorites are:

(1) Two grand slams in the same inning -- Fernando Tatis -- 1999 (already noted above)

(2) Back-to-back no hitters -- Johnny Vander Meer -- 1938

(3) Grand Slam on first major league pitch -- Kevin Kouzmanoff -- 2006

(4) Caught stealing four times in the same game -- Robby Thompson -- 1986. Note, this was a 12 inning game, so the feat apparently still has not been accomplished in a nine inning game.

(5) Stealing the same base twice in the same inning -- Germany Schaefer -- 1908

(6) Ten Consecutive Strike-Outs -- Tom Seaver -- 1970

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Four HR
written by Tommy Bennett, August 24, 2009

I think four home runs is a fantastic feat (especially "Big" Ed Delahanty's four inside-the-park HRs), but there's nothing complete about it. It's just a sufficiently high bar that few people have achieved. However, perfect games (and to a lesser extent no-hitters and unassisted triple plays) represent a certain maximum of performance, and so for that reason I think they're slightly more elegant.

But not necessarily requiring more authentic talent.

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written by The Common Man, August 24, 2009

I have nothing really to add to the discussion, Larry, I just wanted to say how cool I think this entire topic is. I like futility feats a lot (probably because I was such a bad baseball player), so Robby Thompson's four CSs are pretty exciting to me.

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Keep 'em coming
written by lar @ wezen-ball, August 24, 2009

@Tommy, I completely agree. There is something different about the "counting feats" as opposed to the "completion/perfection feats". Though the elegance of the 20-K feat makes it a little different.

@Monte, That's a good list there, thanks. I appreciate it. I might be arguing semantics, but I think I'd classify some of those as "records" more than "feats". Though I suppose it is pretty arbitrary.

Keep the feats coming, though. If there are enough, we might be able to determine a pretty clear winner as "yer of the feat". I'm feeling pretty good about 2009, though...

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written by Monte, August 25, 2009

@ The Common Man

Another great "futility" feat is hitting into four double plays in the same game. What makes it notable is that of the two people to accomplish it, one is a Hall of Famer and the other is one of the best managers of our generation -- so one wonders if he would have pinch hit for himself if he was managing himself:

Goose Goselin -- 1934
Joe Torre -- 1975

Funny related fact -- the top six career leaders in most double plays are all Hall of Famers: (1) Cal Ripken Jr. (2) Hank Aaron (3) Carl Yastrzemski (4) Dave Winfield (5) Eddie Murray (6) Jim Rice...

@ Larry G

Your criticism about the distinction of "records" versus "feats" is actually very fair. For instance, I certainly agree that "record" is a better description of Seaver's 10 strike outs in a row. Nonetheless, I still like it because the guy was one of the greatest pitchers of all time and it really is an amazing statistic, and it's sort of elegant to see it remain a "record" (or "feat" if you will) almost 40 years after it was accomplished. For the same reason, I have to agree that 20 strike outs in a game is as much a record as a feat -- but I consider it a feat, because I predict some day a pitcher will record 21 (or more) strike outs, but those who first reached 20 should and will still be celebrated.

One other great "skill" feat, that doesn't solve the "year of the feat" issue but which is definitely worthy of note, is 10 (or more) RBIs in a single game, accomplished only 13 times by a pretty eclectic group of hitters:

Wilbert Robinson - 06-10-1892 - 11 RBIs
Jim Bottomley - 09-24-1924 - 12 RBIs
Tony Lazzeri - 05-24-1936 - 11 RBIs
Phil Weintraub - 04-30-1944 - 11 RBIs
Rudy York - 07-27-1946 - 10 RBIs
Walker Cooper - 07-06-1949 - 10 RBIs
Norm Zauchin - 05-27-1955 - 10 RBIs
Reggie Jackson - 06-14-1969 - 10 RBIs
Fred Lynn - 06-18-1975 - 10 RBIs
Mark Whiten - 09-07-1993 - 12 RBIs
Nomar Garciaparra - 05-10-1999 - 10 RBIs
Alex Rodriguez - 04-26-2005 - 10 RBIs
Garret Anderson - 08-21-2007 - 10 RBIs

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Ranking the Feats
written by Brian Myers, August 25, 2009

You're right to devalue the unassisted triple play, since skill has nothing to do with it. U/A triple plays are rare not because of skill but because the CIRCUMSTANCES are rare.

When it comes to ranking the difficulty of the others, tho, it needn't be a subjective exercise. The difficulty of a feat, over a sufficiently large number of opportunities, is correlated with how frequently that feat occurs. If you define your opportunities, you can make some objective estimates.

Let's assume that for each game played, 2 opportunities exist for a perfect game or non-perfect no hitter, and -- nowadays -- 16 or 18 (NL and AL, respectively) for a 4-HR game or cycle (the average number of 'batter starts' dating back to 1900 is 16.45 per game, adjusting for the advent of the DH rule).

Since 1900, there have been about 200,000 games played, totaling approximately 396,000 pitcher starts and 3.25 million batter starts. Since we know how many of each feat has actually occurred, we get the following frequencies:

4 HR: 1 per 250,441 opportunities
perfecto: 1 per 24,733
cycle: 1 per 13,289
non-perfect no-no: 1 per 1,930

So, looked at per opportunity, the perfect game is about 10x more frequent than a 4 HR game. The cycle is 19x more frequent, and the no-hitter 130x moreso. Personally, I discard the cycle as primarily luck also. Yes, the hitter has to be able to hit for power and has to have a good deal of speed, but triples are rare and the cycle does appear to be more an outcome of luck than of skill. I watched Pedroia hit a HR, triple and two doubles in Tampa last year and a reporter had the temerity to ask him if he'd been tempted to stop at 1B when he doubled the second time. Ridiculous.

Looked at from another angle, what are the odds of a spectator seeing each of these feats? This differs from the opportunities-based approach, because two pitchers and 16-18 non-pitching batters. For the spectator, each of them is an opportunity. Those odds are:

4 HR: 1 per 15,220 games
perfecto: 1 per 12,367
non-perfect no-no: 1 per 965
cycle: 1 per 808

So if you're a player, the order of difficulty (or at least rarity, greatest to least) goes: 4-HR, perfecto, cycle, non-perfect no-no. If you're a fan and care more about the odds of actually seeing a feat accomplished, it goes: 4-HR, perfecto, non-perfect no-no, cycle.

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About USA Basketball
written by About USA Basketball, August 24, 2010

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