This play was fairly routine, but I wish it had been caught on video for the way I ended it. I was playing well back on the grass at SS, figuring I could get to any ground ball to the left side and get the force at 2nd. What I wasn't prepared for, was the batter hitting a routine grounder to the 2nd baseman. I took off as hard as I could for 2nd, knowing it was going to be an extremely close play. I saw the runner and I were going to get to the base at the same time, and I knew I didn't want my foot planted on the base when he got there. I caught the throw from my 2nd baseman, beat the runner by a hair for the out, and did a 270 degree flip over the runner who made a perfect slide. My left elbow scraped the ground first, and I thought, "This is gonna hurt!" just before I landed with my full weight directly on the end of my thigh bone in my hip socket. Seems impossible, but I managed to do it! Knocked every joint in my pelvis and spine out of alignment. I was pretty much numb all over, but stayed in the game. Next inning, I was in a lot of pain, and the last inning, I could barely move. Everyone, including the runner, thought he had taken my legs out with his slide, but he never touched me. I had somehow hit the base with my foot, and immediately jerked it backwards - while the other foot was still off the ground - which caused the flip. I couldn't do that on purpose if I had to.
This was Oct 2007, about 6 weeks after I turned 52. Went to the chiropractor, healed up, and was looking forward to the last game of the year the next Sunday, but I suffered a "mild" concussion in a car wreck Saturday afternoon and had to miss the game.