One of baseball’s rarest achievements is the Triple Crown, awarded to the hitter that leads a league in home runs, RBI’s and batting average. To get an idea of how difficult this is to achieve, there have only been 15 Triple Crown winners since 1878. Thirteen hitters have accomplished this award and all but one is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Players such as Babe Ruth, Stan Musial and Reggie Jackson have never won the award. Needless to say, it is a hard thing to do. It’s been 43 years since Carl Yastrzemski won the award playing for the Boston Red Sox in the American League. Joe Medwick is the last National League player to win the award. He won the Triple Crown in 1937 playing for the St. Louis Cardinals.
2010 Triple Crown race
There has been a lot of attention to the Triple Crown race this year in the National League. Albert Pujols, Joey Votto, and Carlos Gonzalez are all in the top five in each category and all three are capable of winning.
Player Batting Average HR’s RBI’s
Pujols .308 39 104
Votto .321 34 103
Gonzalez .340 32 104
With only 17 games to play, the chances of any of these players to win the Triple Crown is pretty slim. Pujols has such a large lead in home runs that he is really the only one that has a legitimate chance. But unless he gets hot and Gonzalez cools off, it doesn’t look like anyone will win this award.
There have been plenty of players that have high batting averages and hit for power. Stan Musial has won the batting title 7 times but never lead the league in HR’s. Barry Bonds has led the NL in all three categories; he just wasn’t able to pull it together in a single year. In 1993, he was 1st in HR’s and RBI’s but finished 4th in batting average. Because he became such a feared hitter, teams would walk him and he would never lead the league in RBI’s again.
Difficulty of winning Triple Crown
So why is winning the Triple Crown so hard to do? Shouldn't the best players have the best numbers? Most baseball players reach the majors based on a certain skill set such as hitting for power, hitting for average or defense ability. It's very rare to find a player with complete skills but once in a while, you come across a hitter that can combine both and possibly win the Triple Crown.
When Carl Yastrzemski won the award in 1967, there were only 10 teams in the American League. Now there are 14. So even though today's players are in better shape, have access to videotape, and can specialize in one facet of the game, it's actually HARDER to win due to so many more hitters. Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays leads the majors with 46 HR's but is only batting .260 in the American League. Had he be playing in the National League this year, he would have a 7 HR lead on Pujols while batting 80 points behind Gonzalez in average.
What makes this race so impressive is that the National League has 16 teams making the achievement even harder to accomplish. When Joe Medwick won the award in 1937, there were only eight teams in the National League. On opening day in 1937, there were 200 National League players. This year, there were 400 players on opening day in the National League.
Because winning the Triple Crown is hard enough as it is, it is even more difficult now with all the extra teams and players vying for at bats. Whether Pujols, Votto or Gonzalez wins this esteemed award remains to be seen. Baseball fans should appreciate the race because this could be the last chance in a long time that a player is chasing the Triple Crown let alone three in a single season.
Matt Williams - My name is Matt Williams and I moved down to South Florida in December of 2008. I am from NJ originally and I am the youngest of 6 ...
