Last man to match Pagan's feat remembers the day

Before the Mets' Angel Pagan hit an inside-the-park home run and started a triple play in the same game Wednesday night, there was Ted Kazanski.

Phillies shortstop Kazanski had been the last player to accomplish that unusual feat - on Sept. 25, 1955, nearly 55 years ago.

When reached by phone Thursday, Kazanski, 76, remembered the triple play he started that day much better than he did his inside-the-park homer.

That's because - get this - the triple play ended the Phillies' season. "One swing," he said. "Bam! The season's over."

All these years later, the memory of that play remains fresh in his mind, thanks to the incredible abruptness - not to mention oddity - of seeing a team's season end on a triple play.

Speaking from his home in northern Michigan, Kazanski remembers that day at the Polo Grounds being "beautiful and sunny." Neither team was in a pennant race, so the doubleheader between the Phillies and Giants didn't matter in the standings. But it became a memorable day - at least for Kazanski.

"It was the ninth inning and we were winning 3-1 and they got the first two guys on," he said. (Joey Amalfitano singled and Whitey Lockman walked.) "They had two great hitters coming up, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Hofman - one righthanded and one lefthanded - and Hofman hit a line drive to me at short. I flipped it to Bobby Morgan, I think, to Marv Blaylock, I think, and then the season was over."

(Correct on all counts, according to the play-by-play of the game on retrosheet.com. The lefthanded-hitting Rhodes, the hero of the 1954 World Series, never got a chance to bat.)

And the inside-the-park homer? That came in the fifth, a two-out shot to left off Jim Hearn. Kazanski doesn't recall the details of that, even though it was his only hit of the year (1-for-12), but he does remember something else about that game.

"We had a guy on the team, a great guy named Saul Rogovin, and he was a relief pitcher. He was old at that time, 35 or so. When you're in your 20s, you think a guy in his 30s is old. But anyway, Saul had a sleeping disorder. I don't know what they call it. But he could fall asleep anywhere.

"Our bullpen in the Polo Grounds was way out in left-centerfield, probably it seemed like 450 feet away. So Saul is out there in the bullpen and - bam! - we get the triple play and the season is over and people are running on the field.

"And we all get back to the clubhouse, which in the Polo Grounds was way out in centerfield. You had to go out there and climb these steps. There was a window looking down over the field in the clubhouse. And then Pete the clubhouse guy, he says, 'Holy --, Saul's still out in the bullpen sleeping! He's sleeping out there and the season's over!' So we had to send the batboy out there to get Saul."

You may wonder how Kazanski remembers the triple play and the teammate sleeping, but not the inside-the-park homer. This might help explain it: He hit another inside-the-park shot at the Polo Grounds the next year. Off the same pitcher, no less. And this one was a grand slam.