Three is a magic number, often difficult to achieve

Baseball, apparently, has an infatuation with the number 3. There are 3 outs, there are 3 strikes, and if you take 3 times 3 you get the number of innings and the number of players on the field.

Why, Babe Ruth even wore No. 3 on his uniform. Which must mean something.

So maybe that helps explain the fascination with the notion of the Triple Crown. Because whenever a hitter gets into the second half of the season with even a remote possibility of leading the league in batting, home runs, and RBI, you’re going to see a story about it.

The latest is Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, who is third in the American League in batting while standing second in home runs and first in RBI. And then there’s Texas’ Josh Hamilton, who ranks first, third and fourth in the Triple Crown categories.

That was enough for Major League Baseball to send out a press release under the headline, “Triple Crown threats power teams into contention.” Because that’s certainly more enticing than, “Nobody has won a Triple Crown since the Johnson Administration.”

Yes, nobody has won a Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. And if you’re wondering how long ago that was, consider that Jamie Moyer was still 19 years away from allowing his first major-league home run. So you know it has been a long time.

There’s no particular reason for the dearth of Triple Crown winners.

Maybe it’s because there are more teams; maybe it’s because there are more good hitters; maybe it’s simply because it’s darn near impossible to have a high enough average and enough power and enough teammates on base to lead the league in all three categories.

Either way, it won’t prevent us from exploring the intricacies of one of baseball’s most hallowed accomplishments:

Who has done it?

Prior to this year, there have been 134 seasons in the National League, 109 in the American League, 10 in the American Association, two in the Federal League, and one in the Players Association. That’s 256 league seasons that are considered major league, and a total of 15 players have won the Triple Crown:

Player, year, league Avg. HR RBI

Paul Hines, 1878 NL .358 4 50

Tip O’Neill, 1887 AA .435 14 123

Nap Lajoie, 1901 AL .426 14 125

Ty Cobb, 1909 AL .377 9 107

Rogers Hornsby, 1922 NL .401 42 152

Rogers Hornsby, 1925 NL .403 39 143

Jimmie Foxx, 1933 AL .356 48 163

Chuck Klein, 1933 NL .368 28 120

Lou Gehrig, 1934 AL .363 49 165

Joe Medwick, 1937 NL .374 31 154

Ted Williams, 1942 AL .356 36 137

Ted Williams, 1947 AL .343 32 114

Mickey Mantle, 1956 AL .353 52 130

Frank Robinson, 1966 AL .316 49 122

Carl Yastrzemski, 1967 AL .326 44 121

Everybody on the list except for Hines and O’Neill is in the Hall of Fame.

Hornsby and Williams are the only players to win more than one Triple Crown. Both players also had two seasons in which he led the league in two Triple Crown categories.

What about runs?

Of the 15 times a player has been recognized as a Triple Crown winner, in 10 of them he also led the league in runs: O’Neill, Lajoie, Cobb, Hornsby in 1922, Medwick, Williams in 1942 and 1947, Mantle, Robinson, and Yastrzemski.

I guess that makes it a Quadruple Crown.

Williams also led the league in walks both years, giving him the unprecedented Quintuple Crown. You know, if baseball had an infatuation with the number 5. Too bad he didn’t win the MVP award either of those years.

What about Babe Ruth?

Ruth was in the top five in batting on eight occasions, but led only once — .378 in 1924. He led the league in homers that season, but was second in RBI behind Goose Goslin.

Who was the last player to come close?

Since Yastrzemski won all three titles in 1967, there have been 43 times a player has led his league in two of the Triple Crown categories, including four by Mike Schmidt.

Of those 43, 40 of them have led in homers and RBI, which probably is predictable. Three players have led the league in batting and RBI — Joe Torre in 1971, Al Oliver in 1982, and Todd Helton in 2000. Nobody has led the league in batting average and home runs.

Three of those who led in homers and RBI finished in the top three in batting: Dick Allen in 1972, Jim Rice in 1978, and Dante Bichette in 1995.

Allen came the closest, finishing 10 points back in the batting race. That’s not quite Al Rosen, who in 1953 led the AL in homers and RBI while losing the batting title by .001.

Can anybody do it now?

It’s certainly possible for a player to win a Triple Crown these days, but 43 years of history weighs awfully heavy.

Let’s just say that we’re betting against Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton pulling off the trick this season.

Question or comment for By the Numbers? You can reach Greg Jayne, Sports editor of The Columbian, at 360-735-4531, or by e-mail at greg.jayne@columbian.com. To read his blog, go to columbian.com/weblogs/GregJayne