Baseball is and always has been a team sport. That's one of the beauties of America's Pastime that separates it from other professional sports.
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But head to a Little League game and you'll probably find that sometimes it's easier for a kid to simply chase down a runner instead of throwing it to his teammate in fear of missing his target.
It helps to be fast like this 4-year-old who pulled off an unassisted "quadruple play," who is not the same kid as the one in the video below.
One speedy youth baseball player is so fast that he accomplished the rare unassisted triple play simply because he's faster than every kid on the field.
Speedy Little Leaguer's Unassisted Triple Play
Watch this kid pull off a triple play BY HIMSELF. pic.twitter.com/WwbUQvVheO
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) May 14, 2021
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First of all, we have to talk about this little dude's range. He looks like he's about 8 or 9 and yet he tracked down a pop fly deep in the hole at shortstop with ease.
Then, it's sprint time.
He caught the runner on second base too far off the base and tracked him down. Without even hesitating, he ran right over to the runner heading back to first base and slapped the tag on him for an incredible unassisted triple play. The whole play only took about five seconds.
His mom posted the video to her TikTok account (@haleynadrian493), where it's received more than seven million views and was reposted by ESPN.
She's even gotten a ton of critical comments from people saying her son isn't a team player. Sure, he may not throw the ball to the second baseman (probably because the second baseman was RUNNING AWAY FROM THE PLAY) and we should undoubtedly strive to teach teamwork to youngsters, but look how blazing fast her son is. Can you blame him for doing it all himself?
"Does he not trust his own team? Throw the ball!" one commenter wrote.
"Way to go you taught your kid how to not be a team player in a team sport," another said.
His mom responded to one by saying he does in fact throw the ball, but his teammates often drop the throws. Take a look at this other video of him. He has a cannon arm, but his first baseman repeatedly drops the ball. I think the kid just wants to really make sure his team gets the out.
@haleynadrian493
But then again, this is only Little League. It's probably more important to get everyone involved than it is to get outs.
For what it's worth, fielding isn't this kid's only skill. He can wallop the ball at the plate and damn near overlapped a kid on the bases during this inside-the-park home run:
@haleynadrian493
Many comments have called for his mom to put him in a non-team sport like track, but I say let him become the baseball superstar he was meant to be. He clearly has unteachable gifts. Now, he just needs teammates that can catch the ball.
