Riggans chugs out ~three~

Sometimes, the latest surprise can be the most stunning.

I'm sitting at home in the pre-dawn light of Saturday and The Natural is on Bravo. I'm compiling the Biscuits-related chart that (hopefully) many of you see in our Sunday sports section. Roy Hobbs has hit the clock and that wonderful song is playing -- the same one you hear at the end -- when I roll across another awe-inspiring feat from a Tampa Bay minor-leaguer.

Victory Field in Indianapolis may have been shaken to its very foundation Friday night. It wasn't quite a Victory Lap -- but close enough.

Shawn Riggans has tripled.

Yes, that Shawn Riggans.

Riggans tripled in the sixth inning of Class AAA Durham's loss at Indianapolis on Friday. It's the first triple of Riggans' professional career and it was the catcher's 339th career game. I'd have never thought the former Biscuit had it in him.

Maybe we should be worrying about the poor outfielder(s) who must have been hurt on the play.

Maybe Victory Field suffered a power outage just as Riggans' hit crested toward an outfield gap. (I personally saw such a power outage in Indianapolis in 2000 with a ball heading toward the left-field line. The ball landed foul. Play resumed an hour later.)

Or, maybe, Riggans simply skipped first and second.

Here's the simple description available at minorleaguebaseball.com ... "Shawn Riggans triples (1) on a fly ball to left fielder Ray Sadler." Put those worries aside: Sadler stayed in the game.

To butcher a quote from the great Jack Buck and his call of the Kirk Gibson home run in the 1988 World Series, I don't believe what I just read.