How Many Triples Did Babe Ruth Have in His Career?

In his 22 year major league baseball career Babe Ruth hit 136 triples. The most triples he had in one year is 16 in 1921. During that year Babe Ruth batted 540 times so his triple average was 3%. Meaning he hit a triple 3% of the time he had an official at bat in 1921.

The best triple average of Babe Ruth's great career was in 1918 when he hit 11 triples in 317 at bats while playing for the Boston Red Sox for a triple average of 3.5%.

The 136 triples Babe Ruth hit in his career ranks him 71st on the all-time list for triples in a career one triple ahead of Pete Rose and one behind George Brett.

Triples were a far more common occurrence during Babe Ruth's baseball career than they are today. When Babe Ruth had his career high of 16 triples in 1921 while playing for the New York Yankees the American League hit 694 triples in 42,796 at bats for a triple average of 1.6%. So a triple was hit on average once every 1.6% of the time a player batted in the American League in 1921.

In 2010 in the American League there were only 368 triples hit in 77,467 at bats for a triple average of just .5%. So a triple was hit in the American League just once every .5% of the time a player batted on average. That is just 1/3 of the percentage of triples that were hit in 1921. Clearly triples are less a part of baseball today than they were during Babe Ruth's time.

Babe Ruth hit at least one triple in every year of his career except for his first year with the Boston Red Sox in 1914 when he was a rookie pitcher and batted just 10 times and his last year when he was 40 years and had 72 at bats playing for the Boston Braves. While playing for the New York Yankees from 1920-1934 Babe Ruth had at least 2 triples every year and averaged 7 triples per year.

In his major league baseball career Babe Ruth hit 136 triples and averaged 9 triples per 162 games played over his brilliant Hall of Fame baseball career.

For more see How Many Stolen Bases Did Babe Ruth Have in His Career?

How Many Double Plays Did Babe Ruth Hit Into in His Career?

Sources: http://www.baseball-reference.com/