Triple crown (baseball)

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For other uses of this term, see Triple crown

In baseball, the Triple Crown refers to:

1. A batter who (at season's end) leads the league in three major categories -- home runs, runs batted in, and batting average.
2. 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 batting Triple Crown is meant.

Contents 1 Fast facts 1.1 Batting 1.2 Pitching 2 Batting Triple Crown winners 2.1 National League winners 2.2 American League winners 2.3 American Association winners 3 Pitching Triple Crown winners 3.1 National League winners 3.2 American League winners 3.3 American Association winners 4 Major League Triple Crown 4.1 Major League Winners - batting 4.2 Major League Winners - pitching 5 See also

[edit] Fast facts

[edit] Batting

• Last Triple Crown winner: 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-N, 1937.
• Only Two-Time Winners: Rogers Hornsby, STL-N, 1922, 1925; Ted Williams, BOS-A, 1942, 1947.

[edit] Pitching

• Last Triple Crown Winner: Jake Peavy, San Diego, 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, San Diego, 2007.
• Most Triple Crowns: Grover Cleveland Alexander, 3 (PHI-N, 1915, 1916; CHI-N, 1920); Walter Johnson, 3 (WSH, 1913, 1918, 1924); Sandy Koufax, 3 (LAD, 1963, 1965, 1966).

[edit] Batting Triple Crown winners

[edit] National League winners

Year	Batter	Position	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
1878	Paul Hines	CF	Providence	4	50	.358
1894	Hugh Duffy	CF	Boston	18	145	.440
1922	Rogers Hornsby	2B	St. Louis	42	152	.401
1925	Rogers Hornsby	2B	St. Louis	39	143	.403
1933	Chuck Klein	CF	Philadelphia	28	120	.368
1937	Joe Medwick	LF	St. Louis	31	154	.374

[edit] American League winners

Year	Batter	Position	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
1901	Nap Lajoie	2B	Philadelphia	14	125	.426
1909	Ty Cobb	RF	Detroit	9	107	.377
1933	Jimmie Foxx	1B	Philadelphia	48	163	.356
1934	Lou Gehrig	1B	New York	49	165	.363
1942	Ted Williams	LF	Boston	36	137	.356
1947	Ted Williams	LF	Boston	32	114	.343
1956	Mickey Mantle	CF	New York	52	130	.353
1966	Frank Robinson	RF	Baltimore	49	122	.316
1967	Carl Yastrzemski	LF	Boston	44	121	.326

[edit] American Association winners

Year	Batter	Position	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
1887	Tip O'Neill	LF	St. Louis	14	123	.435

[edit] Pitching Triple Crown winners

[edit] National League winners

Year	Pitcher	Team	ERA	Wins	Ks
1877	Tommy Bond	Boston	2.11	40	170
1884	Charles Radbourn	Providence	1.38	60	441
1888	Tim Keefe	N.Y. Giants	1.74	35	333
1889	John Clarkson	Boston	2.73	49	284
1894	Amos Rusie	N.Y. Giants	2.78	36	195
1905	Christy Mathewson	N.Y. Giants	1.27	31	206
1908	Christy Mathewson	N.Y. Giants	1.43	37	259
1915	Grover Alexander	Philadelphia	1.22	31	241
1916	Grover Alexander	Philadelphia	1.55	33	167
1918	Hippo Vaughn	Chicago	1.74	22	148
1920	Grover Alexander	Chicago	1.91	27	173
1924	Dazzy Vance	Brooklyn	2.16	28	262
1939	Bucky Walters	Cincinnati	2.29	27	137
1963	Sandy Koufax	Los Angeles	1.88	25	306
1965	Sandy Koufax	Los Angeles	2.04	26	382
1966	Sandy Koufax	Los Angeles	1.73	27	317
1972	Steve Carlton	Philadelphia	1.97	27	310
1985	Dwight Gooden	N.Y. Mets	1.53	24	268
2002	Randy Johnson	Arizona	2.32	24	334
2007	Jake Peavy	San Diego	2.54	19	240

[edit] American League winners

Year	Pitcher	Team	ERA	Wins	Ks
1901	Cy Young	Boston	1.62	33	158
1905	Rube Waddell	Philadelphia	1.48	26	287
1913	Walter Johnson	Washington	1.09	36	243
1918	Walter Johnson	Washington	1.27	23	162
1924	Walter Johnson	Washington	2.72	23	158
1930	Lefty Grove	Philadelphia	2.54	28	209
1931	Lefty Grove	Philadelphia	2.06	31	175
1934	Lefty Gómez	New York	2.33	26	158
1937	Lefty Gómez	New York	2.33	21	194
1940	Bob Feller	Cleveland	2.61	27	261
1945	Hal Newhouser	Detroit	1.81	25	212
1997	Roger Clemens	Toronto	2.05	21	292
1998	Roger Clemens	Toronto	2.65	20	271
1999	Pedro Martínez	Boston	2.07	23	313
2006	Johan Santana	Minnesota	2.77	19	245

[edit] American Association winners

Year	Pitcher	Team	ERA	Wins	Ks
1884	Guy Hecker	Louisville Colonels	1.80	52	385

[edit] Major League Triple Crown

In general, when one refers to a player as having won a Triple Crown, they mean that the player led his own league in the three categories. A superior but less frequent circumstance is the Major League Triple Crown, wherein which the player leads the entire major leagues in each of the three categories and not just his individual league. 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.

[edit] Major League Winners - batting

Year	Batter	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
1909	Ty Cobb	Detroit	9	107	.377
1925	Rogers Hornsby	St. Louis (NL)	39	143	.403
1934	Lou Gehrig	New York (AL)	49	165	.363
1942	Ted Williams	Boston (AL)	36	137	.356
1956	Mickey Mantle	New York (AL)	52	130	.353

[edit] Major League Winners - pitching

Year	Pitcher	Team	ERA	Wins	Ks
1913	Walter Johnson	Washington (AL)	1.09	36	243
1915	Grover Alexander	Philadelphia (NL)	1.22	31	241
1917	Grover Alexander	Philadelphia (NL)	1.86	30	201
1918	Walter Johnson	Washington (AL)	1.27	23	162
1924	Dazzy Vance	Brooklyn	2.16	28	262
1930	Lefty Grove	Philadelphia (AL)	2.54	28	209
1931	Lefty Grove	Philadelphia (AL)	2.06	31	175
1945	Hal Newhouser	Detroit	1.81	25	212
1963	Sandy Koufax	Los Angeles (NL)	1.88	25	306
1965	Sandy Koufax	Los Angeles (NL)	2.04	26	382
1966	Sandy Koufax	Los Angeles (NL)	1.73	27	317
1985	Dwight Gooden	New York (NL)	1.53	24	268
2006	Johan Santana	Minnesota	2.77	19	245

[edit] See also

• Randy Bass -- Won the batting triple crown twice in Japanese baseball (Nippon Professional Baseball).de:Triple Crown (Baseball)

es:Triple Corona (béisbol) fr:Triple couronne (baseball) it:Tripla corona (baseball) pt:Tríplice coroa (beisebol) ja:三冠 (野球) zh:三冠王 (棒球)