My Last Baseball Game and a Quadruple Play

My baseball career started as a request from the sports master of my high school for a teacher to take responsibility for baseball as a new sport. I decided to give it a go. As a school Cricket coach, I had become tired of the long days in the sun umpiring these cricket games. Baseball gave me the opportunity to look after a team where the game ended after 90 minutes. I had never played the game but I was lucky enough to have the help of a baseball tragic to learn the game.

In the first years of the high school competition, the rules were modified. Firstly, there was no lead off for base running until the pitcher started his action. Secondly, each team had to have at least two pitchers because a pitcher could only pitch two innings at a time before being replaced. The next pitcher had to pitch to four batters before he could be replaced. The idea behind the modified rules was to allow all schools a chance to be competitive. There were few baseball clubs in Brisbane. But the schools near them would have been a great advantage if the full rules were used and baseball would have died as a school sport before it got off the ground.

So with the help of the baseball tragic, we taught the boys to bat, take a catch and simple fielding plays. Only one boy in the team had any baseball experience. He was turned into a catcher. We had two serviceable pitchers. The starting pitcher was a left handed who could throw a pitch that curled late. Our relief pitcher had a great fast ball and threw a good low inside pitch.

As a result, my school team won its way to the grand final, playing against a team that had a strong feeder club. After three tight innings we went on to win the premiership.

The modified rules remained for a few years and I was transferred to another new school where I introduced baseball as a sport. I soon realised if I was to gain continued success with baseball I had to play the game itself and begin to attend coaching clinics. So, at age thirty-one, I took up baseball where I learn to play the game. About this time, full rules were introduced to the school competition. I continued to use the same coaching approach with my teams as again all my students were new to the game. Success came eventually when we reached the grand final only to lose narrowly.

This brings me to my last game of baseball and a quadruple play to finish my baseball career. I always played centre field in my third grade team. We were playing the last game of the season at our home ground. It was the top of the last inning. We were leading. However with none out and loaded bases, the winning run for our opposition was on base. If we got an “out”, the game was ours. The pitcher was tired. He threw a pitch right in the middle of the strike zone. The batter hit a long high ball between centre and left field. The base coaches called all the runners through thinking that the ball was safe. Before the ball was even caught, the third base runner passed home and the others runners rounded their next base.

If any one was going to catch the ball it had to be me. I dived and made the catch. This meant every runner had to return to their original base. I threw the ball to third base to throw the runner out. The ball was then relayed to second and then first base to get the other runners out. The batter was caught out. Consequently we gained four outs-a quadruple play. The game was won and we didn’t need to bat again.

What a way to finish my baseball career.

https://youtu.be/C0qBiUlsIh4