Phillie Morandini Makes Triple Play : Baseball: He becomes the ninth major league player to do it without assist.

PITTSBURGH —  Mickey Morandini of the Philadelphia Phillies made the first unassisted triple play in the National League in 65 years--and only the ninth in major league history--when he turned one Sunday against Pittsburgh.

Morandini became the first second baseman to do it in a regular-season game, turning a line drive by Jeff King with two on and none out into an inning-ending play.

King later singled home the winning run in the 13th inning, giving the Pirates a 3-2 victory.

“It really happened so fast,” Morandini said. “It didn’t hit me until I got to thedugout. Then I realized I’d done something few people have done.”

Morandini made the first unassisted triple play in the majors since shortstop Ron Hansen of the Washington Senators at Cleveland on July 30, 1968, and the first in the NL since shortstop Jimmy Cooney of the Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh on May 30, 1927.

With the score tied, 1-1, Andy Van Slyke led off the sixth inning with a single and took second on a single by Barry Bonds. The runners were moving on a 3-and-2 pitch and King hit a liner up the middle that Morandini grabbed by diving to his right.

Morandini scrambled to his feet and, with Van Slyke nearly to third base, stepped on second and turned to tag Bonds, who was nearly to second base.

“I guess I’m a really great manager,” Jim Leyland of the Pirates said. “I ran us into an unassisted triple play. How many managers can say that?”

King earlier failed to bunt the runners over.

“I felt lousy about it,” King said. “Then I happened to look at the scoreboard and saw it was the first time it had happened since 1927, and I really felt lousy.”

Neither Morandini nor the other players involved reacted on the field to the play. Morandini, who grew up just outside Pittsburgh in Leechburg, Pa., shook hands with teammates near the dugout.

“It’s nice to do it in front of the family,” said Morandini, who earlier lost his job to Mariano Duncan, then regained it 10 days ago when Duncan injured a shoulder. “They got to see a big play.”

And the ball? Morandini flipped it on the mound as he trotted by on his way to the dugout. A ball that should be headed to Cooperstown instead probably wound up as a souvenir foul ball for some fan.

“That was stupid on my part,” Morandini said.

The only other unassisted triple play by a second baseman in major league history was in Game 5 of the 1920 World Series by Bill Wambsganss of the Cleveland Indians against the Brooklyn Dodgers on Oct. 10, 1920.

There have been five unassisted triple plays in the American League, all involving the Indians. Cleveland’s Joe Azcue hit into the one turned by Hansen. There have been four in the National League--and Art McKennan, the Pirates’ stadium announcer for Sunday games, has seen three of them.

In the NL’s last unassisted triple play, Hall of Famer Paul Waner hit a line drive that Cooney caught. Cooney stepped on second to double off Lloyd Waner, Paul’s Hall of Famer brother, and made a tag to complete the play.

“I was working in the Forbes Field scoreboard . . . it was a 10:45 a.m. game, the first of a morning-afternoon doubleheader,” McKennan said. “It was a line drive to the shortstop and he stepped on second and tagged the runner.”

On May 7, 1925, McKennan saw Pittsburgh shortstop Glenn Wright turn one in the ninth inning against St. Louis--with Cooney as one of the runners.

“I’ve now seen three triple plays, Kiki Cuyler’s double to win the ’25 series for the Pirates against the Washington Senators, Bill Mazeroski’s homer in ‘60,” McKennan said. “I’ve seen so much history, I feel like a dinosaur.”

All nine unassisted triple plays came with runners on first and second.

An unassisted triple play is among the rarest feats in baseball. Nine major leaguers have hit four home runs in a game, and 11 pitchers have thrown perfect games.