Triple Crown (baseball)

:"For other uses of this term, see Triple crown"In baseball, the Triple Crown refers to:
#A batter who (at season's end) leads the league in three major categories -- home runs, runs batted in, and batting average.
#A pitcher who (at season's end) leads the league in three major categories -- earned run average, wins, and strikeouts.

In the popular imagination, the Triple Crown is often thought of as the epitome of excellence in batting or pitching (even though sabermetric categories claim to be better measures of a player's productivity than the traditional Triple Crown categories). The batting Triple Crown is less common, and has not been achieved since 1967. Usually, when the "Triple Crown" is referred to without specifying batting or pitching, the league batting Triple Crown is meant.

Fast facts

Batting

*Last Triple Crown winner, either league: Carl Yastrzemski, BOS, 1967.

*Last American League Triple Crown Winner (lead AL in all 3 categories): Carl Yastrzemski, BOS, 1967.
*Last National League Triple Crown Winner (lead NL in all 3 categories): Joe Medwick, STL, 1937.

*Last Major League Triple Crown Winner (lead "both leagues" in all 3 categories): Mickey Mantle, NYY, 1956.
*Only Two-Time Winners: Rogers Hornsby, STL, 1922, 1925; Ted Williams, BOS, 1942, 1947.

Pitching

*Last Triple Crown Winner, either league: Jake Peavy, SDP, 2007.

*Last American League Triple Crown Winner (lead AL in all 3 categories): Johan Santana, MIN, 2006.
*Last National League Triple Crown Winner (lead NL in all 3 categories): Jake Peavy, SDP, 2007.

*Last Major League Triple Crown Winner (lead "both leagues" in all 3 categories): Johan Santana, MIN, 2006.
*Most Triple Crowns: Grover Cleveland Alexander, 4 (PHI, 1915, 1916, 1917; CHI, 1920); Walter Johnson, 3 (WSH, 1913, 1918, 1924); Sandy Koufax, 3 (LAD, 1963, 1965, 1966).

Batting Triple Crown winners

National League winners

Pitching Triple Crown winners

National League winners

Major League Triple Crown

In general, when one refers to a player as having won a Triple Crown, it is meant that the player led his own league in the three categories. A less frequent circumstance is the "Major League Triple Crown", where a player leads "both major leagues", not just his own league, in each of the three categories. Since the birth of the American League in 1901, five hitters and eight pitchers have accomplished this feat, although Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Lefty Grove have done it twice for pitching, and Sandy Koufax has done it three times. The most recent Major League Triple Crown Winners were Mickey Mantle in 1956 for hitting, and Johan Santana in 2006 for pitching.

Major League Winners - batting

National League Triple Crown losers

References

*Cite book | author=Gammons, Peter; Gillette, Gary; Palmer, Pete | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition (Espn Baseball Encyclopedia) | date= | publisher=Sterling | location= | isbn=978-1-4027-4771-7 | pages=

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/triple_crowns.shtml List] at Baseball Reference