Strange things happen in professional baseball, but even stranger things can happen in amateur sandlot ball. Harry Hardner was involved in one of the most peculiar plays possible in baseball.
Hardner’s Walnut Street team played on a field in Milwaukee that had no fences. No matter how far the ball was hit, it was in play until the pitcher had it back in his glove. In one game Hardner got a fat pitch and drove it far over the outfielder’s head. Hardner raced around the bags happily.
Just as Hardner crossed the plate, a teammate who was coaching at first began shouting, “Run to first! Run to first!” The teammate and the opponent’s first baseman noticed that Hardner had failed to touch first on his way around the bases.
Tired as he was, Hardner took off for first just as the ball came in from the outfield. He slid hard into the bag just as the throw arrived. The umpire called him safe.
Hardner was given credit for a single. But his teammates always called it a five-base hit.
From The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
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