Neal Ball (2nd from left) posing with the three Boston players (Amby McConnell, Heinie Wagner and Jack Stahl) he outed

An unassisted triple play occurs when a defensive player makes all three outs by himself in one continuous play, without any teammates touching the ball, which would be considered an assist.  It is one of the rarest plays in baseball, even above hitting four home runs in one game.  This is a rare feat because so many conditions must be met for the play even have a chance of possibility. There cannot be any outs in the inning and there must be at least two runners on base who will undoubtably be running with the pitch, like with a hit and run. And finally, the hit by the batter usually has to end up being a line drive or other strong contact hit.  This hit must head directly at an infielder, usually either the shortstop or second baseman so that a tag may be involved.  The feat has happened only 15 times in major league history, plus once in 1878, which is still disputed to this day.

Because that 1878 triple play is disputed, the first unassisted triple play is considered to be in 1909.  A this game against the Boston Red Sox, short stop Neal Ball of the Cleveland Naps caught a line drive, touched second base and then tagged a runner. That pretty much went exactly how it would have to go.  I think it would be an awesome sight to see and I would love to witness one in my day.