Watching a triple unfold provides some of the most exciting action on the baseball diamond.
The batter chugging past second hoping to beat the throw. The outfielder firing the ball back to the infield. And the slide into third in a cloud of dust as the throw comes in. Is he safe? Is he out? Whatever the umpire's ruling, the attempted triple always gets pulses pumping.
A similar scenario took place for a junior varsity ballplayer with Bound Brook High School in New Jersey some years back — and with a result that's anything but ordinary.
Jake Maser, then a freshman, came up to bat in the second inning of a game Bound Brook was leading 6-0, MyCentralJersey.com reported. With runners on second and third base, Maser hit a long drive to the gap in left center, the outlet said.
Sure enough, Maser rounded second and decided to try legging out a triple, MyCentralJersey.com reported.
John Suk was coaching third base, the outlet said, and knew it would be a close call — a "bang-bang" scenario with the runner and ball likely arriving at the base at nearly the same time.
Given the "bang-bang" likelihood, Suk told Maser to slide into third base, MyCentralJersey.com reported.
But unfortunately for the kid, his cleats "dug into the dirt and the force of the slide caused him to roll over his right ankle," the outlet said, citing court papers.
Maser's injury required surgery, MyCentralJersey.com said.
Maser — who graduated from Bound Brook in 2016 — filed a lawsuit alleging Suk and the Bound Brook Board Board of Education "negligently" and "carelessly" supervised the game, the outlet reported.
Suk and the board asked Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone to dismiss the suit because Maser hadn't proven the coach acted negligently under a recklessness standard, MyCentralJersey.com said.
But after Ciccone dismissed the lawsuit, the outlet said Maser took up his case with an appellate court — and the court on Wednesday ruled Ciccone "never analyzed whether [Maser] presented facts in support of his claim that [Suk's and the board's] conduct was reckless."
The appellate court remanded the case back to Ciccone "to make that analysis," MyNewJersey.com reported, adding that the appellate court said it would "not suggest the outcome" of the case.
Ciccone can either dismiss the case, the outlet said, or order it to trial.
(H/T: The College Fix)
