FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2026
URBANDALE, Iowa—Box-Toppers today announced an historic, multi-billion-dollar partnership with Major League Baseball to become the exclusive home of unassisted triple plays.
Box-Toppers is forming the new All-4-1 Network as the latest among the sport’s growing roster of media rights holders to provide exclusive live coverage of baseball’s rarest play—there have only been 15 unassisted triple plays in Major League history.
Box-Toppers’ All-4-1 Network will be at every Major League stadium when there are runners at first and second base with no outs. But our live break-in broadcast only begins after a line drive to the middle appears likely to be fielded by the shortstop or second baseman and caught on the fly.
We will be sure to catch the historic moment of baseball’s 16th unassisted triple play when the fielder catches the line drive for the first out, tags second base to record the second out for the runner advancing to third base, and tags the runner advancing from first to second base for the third out.
One fielder, three outs, no help.
Using our proprietary FatChance technology, we anticipate the moment before a possible unassisted triple play by analyzing the ball-strike count, calculating the speed and spin of a pitch, and detecting when a middle infielder looks particularly alert.
“Our broadcast begins after the ball is hit, about 0.2 seconds before the catch,” said Shawn Plank, editor and publisher of Box-Toppers, who is also heading the All-4-1 Network as its Autocratic Potentate. “We don’t want to waste your time. One thing we hate is wasting time.”
Box-Toppers’ All-4-1 Network further expands the league’s media ecosystem, joining streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Peacock; traditional platforms like FOX, NBC, FS1, TBS and ESPN; and MLB’s own MLB.TV packages.
“The right strategy is to make sure we are where the people are,” said Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. “You got to go where people are going, even if we have to bring them there—and make them pay for it again.”
Plank said this agreement is even more revolutionary than the expansion of baseball to streaming services like Apple TV and Netflix.
“This goes beyond needing to pay for multiple separate streaming or cable packages to follow the sport,” Plank said. “Now, since we will be switching between telecasts within a game in cases of unassisted triple plays, it will require at least two streaming or cable packages per game!”
Manfred agreed. “We are proud to have All-4-1 be part of the league’s expanding digital footprint. We think of it as the bunion—a localized, slightly painful, but economically inescapable growth on the toe of progress.”
With Netflix recently agreeing to pay Major League Baseball $50 million a year to broadcast two games (Opening Day and the Field of Dreams game) and one event (the Home Run Derby), Box-Toppers will pay a pro-rated amount of $40.5 billion for the rights to be at all 2,430 games this season in case an unassisted triple play occurs.
“We are proud to bring this streaming service as our mission to you, the fan, for the low, low introductory rate of just $1,000 per month,” Plank said, as he subtracted that amount from $40.5 billion and realized how little the figure changed. “Nope, wait, it’s going to have to be more than that.”
But that’s not all you get!
Box-Toppers’ All-4-1 Network also holds live broadcast rights to any in-game ceremonies when players break season or all-time records (exclusively in these captivating categories of achievement):
Grounding into double plays.
Getting caught stealing.
Being hit by a pitch (for batters).
Hitting batters with a pitch (for pitchers).
Allowing passed balls, complete with live coverage of record-holding catchers scampering to retrieve balls from the backstop.
Our live coverage of baseball’s unassisted triple plays on Box-Toppers’ All-4-1 Network is subject to blackouts and other drinking problems. It begins on April 1.
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Media Contact:
Joseph King
Box-Toppers All-4-1 Network Communications
1-800-U4-U6-U3
About Box-Toppers
Since 1995, Box-Toppers has tracked Major League Baseball players who most help their teams win games based on box score statistics. Using a standard formula, Box-Toppers determines a top player in each game, awards them points and ranks the best players by team, position and league. Shawn Plank publishes the results at Box-Toppers.com.
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All-time unassisted triple plays
There have been 15 unassisted triple plays in the history of Major League Baseball, all since 1909. Here is a list of each, the player who achieved the feat, their team, the position they were playing, the date and the means by which they achieved three outs without help.Back to top
| Player | Team | Pos. | Date | Play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neal Ball | Cleveland Naps | SS | July 19, 1909 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 2 | Bill Wambsganss | Cleveland Indians | 2B | October 10, 1920* | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 3 | George Burns | Boston Red Sox | 1B | September 14, 1923 | Line drive, tagged runner, touched 2nd |
| 4 | Ernie Padgett | Boston Braves | SS | October 6, 1923 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 5 | Glenn Wright | Pittsburgh Pirates | SS | May 7, 1925 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 6 | Jimmy Cooney | Chicago Cubs | SS | May 30, 1927 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 7 | Johnny Neun | Detroit Tigers | 1B | May 31, 1927 | Line drive, tagged runner, touched 2nd |
| 8 | Ron Hansen | Washington Senators | SS | July 30, 1968 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 9 | Mickey Morandini | Philadelphia Phillies | 2B | September 20, 1992 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 10 | John Valentin | Boston Red Sox | SS | July 8, 1994 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 11 | Randy Velarde | Oakland Athletics | 2B | May 29, 2000 | Line drive, tagged runner, touched 2nd |
| 12 | Rafael Furcal | Atlanta Braves | SS | August 10, 2003 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 13 | Troy Tulowitzki | Colorado Rockies | SS | April 29, 2007 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 14 | Asdrúbal Cabrera | Cleveland Indians | 2B | May 12, 2008 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
| 15 | Eric Bruntlett | Philadelphia Phillies | 2B | August 23, 2009 | Line drive, touched 2nd, tagged runner |
Source: Wikipedia
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