An earlier post raised the topic of Triple Crown winners -- a player who, in a single season, leads his league in homers, runs batted in, and batting average. The great Carl Yastrzemski was the last player to achieve this accomplishment, in 1967. Only ten other players have won the Triple Crown since 1900: Rogers Hornsby (2x), Chuck Klein, and Joe Medwick in the National League, and Nap Lajoie, Ty Cobb, Jimmy Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams (2x), Mickey Mantle, and Frank Robinson in the American League.
Nine other players have achieved the "career" Triple Crown, leading the league in those three offensive categories, but not in the same single season (e.g., home run and RBI leader in one year, and batting average leader in a different year).
How many of the nine can you name?
Pictured: Rogers Hornsby, from the Topps 2009 "Career Best Legends" 15-card set.
Guesswork: Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Babe Ruth
Posted by: Calvin Massey | July 25, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Calvin, two of your picks are correct.
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | July 25, 2009 at 01:57 PM
Barry Lamar Bonds.
Posted by: anon | July 25, 2009 at 07:08 PM
Barry Bonds is indeed one of the nine. He has led the league in average twice (2002 and 2004), homers twice (1993 and 2001), and RBI's once (1993). In 1993, when he led the league in homers and RBI's, he hit a very respectable .336 -- but that was good only for fourth place (significantly behind the .370 posted by the league leader).
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | July 25, 2009 at 07:21 PM
Joe DiMaggio; Alex Rodriguez
Posted by: Brad Smith | July 25, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Alex Rodriguez, Joe DiMaggio? (Not Willie Mays--don't think he ever led in RBIs)
Posted by: David | July 25, 2009 at 11:24 PM
And Manny Ramirez.
Posted by: David | July 26, 2009 at 01:49 AM
Eliminate Willie Mays. He led the league in homers on four occasions and batting average once. But the best he could do in the RBI race was finish second (twice).
Calvin's other two picks are correct. Aaron led the league in homers in 1957, 1963, 1966, and 1967. He led the league in RBI's in 1957, 1960, 1963, and 1966. And he led the league in batting average in 1956 and 1959.
Ruth led the league in homers in 12 seasons and RBI's in six seasons. He led the league in batting average only once, in 1924 (when he led the league in homers but finished second in the RBI race, finishing eight behind Goose Goslin).
Also, picks by Brad and David are correct. DiMaggio led the league in each of the three stats on two occasions. In 1948 he won the homer and RBI title, but his .320 batting average placed him seventh.
Alex Rodriguez has won the batting title once (1996), the RBI race twice (2002 and 2007), and the home run title five times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007). FYI -- in 2002 and 2007 his batting averages placed him 19th and 13th in the league.
Manny Ramirez won the home run title in 2004, captured the RBI race in 1999, and had the highest batting average in 2002.
In summary, then, readers have identified six of the nine (Ruth, DiMaggio, Aaron, Bonds, Rodriguez, and Ramirez).
Here are the initials of the other three: HZ, JM, and AG.
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | July 26, 2009 at 06:02 PM
Hm. I know there was a player named Heinie Zimmerman, so that may be "HZ". I am guessing "JM" is Joe "Ducky" Medwick. Drawing a blank on "AG".
Posted by: Dave | July 27, 2009 at 01:13 AM
HZ -- Heinie Zimmerman -- led the league in homers and batting average in 1912. He finished third in the RBI race that year, but he had the most RBI's in both 1916 and 1917.
No, JM is not Joe Medwick.
Here's another hint: JM and AG share the same nickname.
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | July 27, 2009 at 08:18 AM
I believe you are lookking for the two "big cats": Johnny Mize and Andres Galaraga. Would never have guess Galaraga without the nickname hint.
Posted by: Andrew Siegel | July 27, 2009 at 09:50 AM
Andrew is indeed correct!
Johnny Mize was the home run king in 1939, 1940, 1947, and 1948. He led the league in RBI's in 1940, 1942, and 1947. And his batting average was the league high in 1939. So he captured two legs of the single-season triple crown in 1939 (finishing third in RBI's), 1940 (finishing second in batting average --- .314 to Stan Hack's .317), and 1947 (coming in at #12 in batting average).
Andres Galarraga led the league in 1993 with a .370 batting average. He led the league in homers in 1996, and he captured the RBI title in both 1996 and 1997.
MANY THANKS TO READERS WHO POSTED COMMENTS! MUCH APPRECIATED!
Send along your baseball trivia questions to me at [email protected] . Once I have a handful, I'll post them on a Saturday (with proper attribution.)
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | July 27, 2009 at 10:17 AM
It is good to see that information, really like to share this, this database really helps, Thanks for the information.
Posted by: Term Papers | February 19, 2010 at 02:39 AM
Fun game. If Albert Pujols keeps his RBI lead over Votto and Gonzalez this season, he will join this club (batting title 2003, HR title 2009 and maybe again this year).
Posted by: Ben | August 31, 2010 at 12:49 PM
It's kind of fun to look for "almosts" too. For example, I thought Frank Thomas would fall short on the batting title, but he actually won one (1997). But he never led in either HRs or RBIs, despite coming close multiple times. And Stan Musial had 6 batting titles and 2 RBI titles, but never won the HR title, despite hitting 475 for his career. The closest he came was 1948, when his 39 trailed Kiner and Mize's 40. (This also denied him the single-season triple crown for that year.) Tris Speaker won a batting title and HR crown (with 10 in 1912), but missed out on RBIs. His closest season was 1923, when his 130 was one short of Ruth at 131. And Josh Hamilton looks like he'll pick up the batting title this year to go with his 2008 RBI title. He has many years left to look for that HR crown...
Posted by: Ben | August 31, 2010 at 02:10 PM