Pujols Sparks Triple Crown Watch

The first half of the 2009 baseball season is in the rear-view mirror, and all 30 teams are streaking toward what promises to be a great September. There'll be much for fans to cheer in the second half, but only one name rolls off most tongues as baseball fans discuss what to watch during the remainder of the regular season.

That name is Albert Pujols, and folks are mentioning the 29-year-old St. Louis Cardinals first baseman for good reason. Already considered one of baseball's preeminent stars, Pujols is having a career year, and he has a realistic shot at accomplishing something the National League hasn't seen in 62 years.

In 1937, St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Joe Medwick became just the fourth National League player to achieve baseball's Triple Crown, which requires a player to finish the season tops in homers, RBIs and batting average. It's the last of the three that doom most power hitters, and it's the former that ensured perennial batting champs like Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn never matched the feat.

What did Medwick do? Well, he hit 31 homers with 154 RBIs and a .374 batting average. Each in itself is relatively impressive, but all are attainable for most of the sport's top hitters. In fact, dozens of players posted superior stats in each of the three categories at some point in their careers. It's just that few have done so all in the same season.

Since Medwick's big 1937 season, no other National League player has matched his feat. Meanwhile, only eight different players have achieved the Triple Crown in the American League, according to MLB.com. Boston Red Sox legend and baseball Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams achieved it twice, in 1942 and 1947, and almost snagged it a third time in 1949. Since then, only Carl Yastrzemski has earned the Triple Crown. In 1967, Yastrzemski batted .326 with 44 homers and 121 RBIs. The feat also earned him the Most Valuable Player award and Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year designation.

That brings us to 2009. As the second half of the season began, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols led the National League in both homers and RBIs and was second in batting average. Through 89s games, he had 32 homers, 87 RBIs and a .332 average despite going 1-for-8 just before the break. Then, in the Cardinals' first game of the second half, Pujols belted two homers off starting pitcher Jon Garland in a 6-1 win against Arizona.

Assuming he stays healthy, Pujols is on pace to finish the season with 60 homers and 158 RBIs. But what most folks will be watching is Pujols' batting average. He woke up on July 19 with a .334 mark, and that put him third in the National League behind league-leader Hanley Ramirez (.347) and New York Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran (.336). Ramirez, of the Florida Marlins, has been batting better than .340 since he went 3-for-4 against the Washington Nationals on June 30, but batting average might be the one category where Pujols has the upper hand.

After all, he repeatedly states that he's not a power hitter, and his numbers bear that out. Although he has hit 30 or more homers in each of his first nine seasons, he's also hit better than .314 in each of them. He finished with a .357 batting average in 2008 to finish behind Atlanta's Chipper Jones, and has a lifetime .334 mark. In 2008, though, he had just 37 homers and finished well back of league-leader Ryan Howard, who slammed 48 for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Of course, this isn't the first time since Yaz that a player has created a Triple Crown buzz. In fact, Pujols himself finished in the top three in all three categories during three different seasons: 2003, 2005 and 2006.
In the 1970s and 1980s, though, power hitters rarely were accustomed to leading the league in batting average, a category dominated by men like Boggs, Gwynn, Pete Rose and Rod Carew.

Boston Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice, though, came close in both 1978 and 1979. In '78, he hit .315 to finish third behind league-leader Rod Carew (.333). Rice led the American League that season in both homers (46) and RBIs (139). In '79, Rice hit .325 to finish eight points behind teammate Fred Lynn and was second in the American League in both homers (39) and RBIs (130).

In 1977, Pittsburg's Dave Parker led the National League with a .334 batting average and was third in homers (30) and second in RBIs (117). In 1985, New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly hit 35 homers with a league-leading 145 RBIs. He also had a .324 batting average just one season after he led the American League with a .343 mark. It was Boggs, though, who led the American League with a .368 mark.
In the past 20 years, a handful of guys have come close to the honor.

• Barry Bonds: After slamming a single-season record 73 homers in 2001, he batted a league-leading .370 in 2002 with a league-leading 198 RBIs. His homer total, though, fell to 46, which put him three behind Chicago's Sammy Sosa.
• Frank Thomas: In 1994, he finished third in the American League with a .353 batting average and was second in home runs (38) and third in RBIs (101).
• Larry Walker: In 1997, the Colorado Rockies outfielder blasted a league-leading 49 homers and added 130 RBIs and a .366 batting average. Gwynn, though, hit .372, and Walker's teammate, Andres Galarraga led the league with 140 RBIs. Undoubtedly, many of Galarraga's RBIs came when Walker crossed the plate. After all, Walker also was second in the league with 143 runs scored.
• Manny Ramirez: In 1999, Manny Ramirez hit .333 with 44 homers and 165 RBIs for the Cleveland Indians. Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr., though, had 48 homers, and Boston's Nomar Garciaparra hit .357.
• Todd Helton: The Colorado first baseman nearly achieved the Triple Crown twice. In 2000, he led the National League with a .372 batting average and 147 RBIs, but he finished with 42 homers, which put him third behind Vladimir Guerrero's 44 and Gary Sheffield's 43. Then, in 2001, Helton had 49 homers and 146 RBIs to go with a .336 batting average. His average and RBI total led the National League, but Arizona outfielder Luis Gonzalez hit 57 homers that season. Incredibly, Gonzalez never hit more than 31 in any other season during his 19-year career.
• Vlad Guerrero: In 2002, Guerrero hit .336 for the Montreal Expos and was second in both homers (39) and RBIs (111). Bonds, though, hit .370.
• Matt Holliday: In 2007, the Colorado outfielder led the league with a .340 batting average and 137 RBIs. His downfall? Prince Fielder out-bashed him (50 to 36) in the homer category.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/rare_feats/index.jsp?feature=triple_crown