Equally Elusive
The last baseball Triple Crown was won by Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, the last racing Triple Crown by Affirmed in 1978. In which sport will the next Triple Crown be won first?
The last baseball Triple Crown was won by Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, the last racing Triple Crown by Affirmed in 1978. In which sport will the next Triple Crown be won first?
I have no idea what the average field size in the classics has been but I would imagine that it has been trending upwards, couple that with the different approaches to training now and even some who did win the triple crown then might have a more difficult time today.
The obvious answer is horses.
There’s probably only two players at this point in time capable of putting together a triple crown in baseball – Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez. Of those two, Pujols is easily more likely – he doesn’t strike out much, thus enabling him to hit for average which is an achilles heal of A-Rod’s game. Both have the power to take care of the other two categories.
A-rod is certainly entering the wane of his career but Pujols is at the plateau now. It would not surprise me, if he stays healthy, that he took down a triple crown.
Every other power hitter in baseball capable of leading the league in RBI’s and HR’s strikes out way too much to even contend for a batting title. The game, even in Yaz’s day, had thousands of more balls in play per year than now. If you can’t put the ball in play, you can’t win a triple crown.
Pujols is your only hope for the upset.
Posted by o_crunk on May 15, 2009 @ 7:31 pm
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