Many baseball people like to say “the triple is the most exciting play in the game.” I prefer the triple play.

Seven hundred and three triple plays have been recorded in the history of the game, going back to 1876, and the 703rd was turned tonight in Chicago by the White Sox against the Texas Rangers.

This triple play was unprecedented, in one regard.

It was the first triple play to be scored 9-3-2-6-2-5. That is, right field to first base to catcher to shortstop to catcher to third baseman.

You can see the video here.

The wiki entry notes that most triple plays involve players in the infield, particularly of the 5-4-3 sort. Line out to third with two runners caught off base … or the hard-hit ground ball, step on third and continue with the regular 5-4-3 double play.

Three outs, all at once. A rally snuffed and an inning over in a matter of seconds.

My theory is that this particular triple play, the 703rd, was made possible by Texas’s Prince Fielder, who was on third base when the play began.

Fielder, remember, is probably the fattest man in Major League Baseball (5-foot-11, 275 pounds) and, as a base-clogger, he suffers few rivals. Maybe Ryan Howard. Maybe Pablo Sandoval or David Ortiz. A few pitchers.

This triple play doesn’t happen at all if Fielder, who had double to open the inning, had been able to score on Adrian Beltre’s subsequent single. But that would require Fielder to run 180 feet nonstop, and that’s asking a bit much of the big guy.

As the triple play unfolds, Fielder’s immobility creates the environment of doubt making the triple play more likely.

The situation: No outs, Fielder on third, Beltre on second, Ian Desmond on first.

Mitch Moreland hits a ball sharply down the right-field line, and the first impulse of the runners on first and second is to get ready to move, because no one wants to get forced out (probably at second) if the ball bounces before it is snared.

However, Chicago’s Adam Eaton makes a running catch and throws back to first, where Desmond is trying to return to avoid being doubled off the base.

The throw arrives and Chicago first baseman Jose Abreu makes a meal out of making the tag, chasing Desmond around the base — after Desmond originally overruns the bag. (He would have been safe had he slid into first base, or managed to keep a toe on it as he ran over.)

While this silly stuff is going on, even Prince Fielder, professional slug, is thinking about making a break for home. And Beltre is thinking the Big Kid might do that, and he strays off second, toward third.

Abreu eventually throws home to catcher Dioner Navarro, thinking Fielder must certainly have broken for home by now, but Prince is pretty much anchored to the bag, still.

However, Beltre is in no-man’s land between second and third, where he absolutely shouldn’t be, given that he no longer has to advance a base and should never assume that Fielder is going to score. Navarro throws to shortstop Tony Saladino, who is at second base, and the latter begins running Beltre toward third.

Which is occupied by Fielder, who feels pressured to come off the bag … and Saladino veers towards runs Fielder, the lead runner, as players are coached to do.

The ball goes back to the catcher, and Prince Fielder gets all his goo to stop and reverse direction, but Navarro’s throw to third baseman Todd Frazier is in plenty of time and Fielder essentially gives up as he is tagged several feet from the base.

Triple play. 9-3-2-6-2-5. Key moment in Chicago’s 5-0 victory.

Now, it’s not special like an unassisted triple play is special. (The rarest play in baseball, achieved only 15 times in 150 years.) But it’s fun, anyway, to see everyone scurrying around. Aside from Prince, who waddles.

First triple play of the year in baseball.