From CKGUY of Chicago-past: Last night I (Bill) was drifting off to sleep when Yankees announcer John Sterling said some words I’ve never heard before at a game or watching a game on television or listening to the radio. IT’S A TRIPLE PLAY! (Cricket fans: the inning ends, three men are out on a single defensive play.) It was only the second play he had called in forty years, John said, so for many hearing this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. This even made big news in the nation’s capital. Read the Washington Post, to see how catcher Russell Martin banged into that triple-ply last night against Tampa Bay.

Psychologists tell us how intermittent reinforcement–the kind where there’s a big payoff when you least expect it–can keep obsessive levels of behavior occurring even when there no direct payoff for a long time. Explains Las Vegas. And maybe how the reward of hearing a triple play every few decades keeps us tuned in to all those 2-1 games when our team has no chance of a pennant.