Hobart’s Johnny Lazor Field…Home of the Unassisted Triple Play!

There’s a very small baseball field in Hobart, WA where the little guys who like to think they are big guys play T-ball. It’s close to the Hobart Store, where sun flower seeds and gatorades are kept well stocked for the serious players and fans. Several years ago the field was renamed in honor of Hometown boy, Johnny Lazor who was born in Taylor WA (now known as Hobart WA) in 1912.

Johnny was a relative late-comer to “The Show” breaking into the big leagues in 1943 at the ripe old age of 30 with the Boston Red Sox. He played 4 years and ended his career with a .263 average.

In 1995, almost fifty years after Johnny’s career ended, and well before the field was renamed in his honor, my little guy (who’s not so little anymore) pulled off an unassisted Triple Play as a second baseman.

Here’s how it went down:

With a runner at first and second, Connor caught a fly ball (out #1), stepped on the second base bag (out #2) and managed to catch the first base runner, who was frozen in the base path like a deer in the headlights.(out #3)

Of course at 6, Connor really had no idea what he was doing and neither did the base runners. He was reacting to the instructions yelled by the coaches (and his Dad) and was quite content to take the applause and accolades which came along with that….

If you ever happen to drive by Johnny Lazor field, which is located just South of the Hobart Fire Station on 276th in the Spring, you’ll likely see parents and families gathered around the tiny dirt infield, watching new baseball memories being made. And who knows……maybe some new history as well.