Friday trivia
 

There have been five winners of the (batting) triple crown who led all of MLB in all 3 categories during their respective triple crown seasons. Can you name them (or better yet, show a card of one of them)?

Hornsby Williams Mantle have to think about the other two.

Probably Gehrig but can't think of the fifth, doubt it was Yaz with that low average and I don't think Frank Robinson or Cabrera.

Hornsby, Gehrig, Williams, and Mantle are all correct.

OK I think Foxx won one so I'll guess him. If not it's going to be something weird like 19th century.

MY First Guess for the 5th spot would have been Yaz. So I would try for Foxx also

Maybe a silly question, but are you including the negro league players and stats now since they are considered comparable to MLB? Assuming so, I can only think of three players, Paul Hines, Ty Cobb, and Mickey Mantle.

Chuck Klein's insane 1930 season jumped into my mind for some reason when I read your question, so maybe?

nm: I just remembered Hack Wilson's RBI record. I think I was mixing the two together :)

Good point. The source where I read it was published before the statistics were integrated, so no I wasn't. Going by the statistics currently included on baseball-reference.com, there are now only 2 players who would qualify. One was Mantle in 1956. The other is the player who has not yet been named.

Secretariat.

I don't know if the old Negro League stats were comprehensive enough to get someone to high enough totals, but I'll guess Oscar Charleston.

Ty Cobb

Buddy Burbage had the highest recognized batting average in 1934, not Gehrig. In 1922 George Sisler had a higher BA than Hornsby, as did Oscar Charleston in 1925. In 1942 Ted Strong had a higher BA than Williams, and in William's 1947 Triple Crown season he was topped in all three categories by someone in either the NL or the Negro Leagues. Mantle is the only one you named so far that led all of the majors in all three Triple Crown categories. I remember that Ty Cobb and Paul Hines equaled Mantle's feat as well.

So I guess if you aren't going to count the Negro League players and stats, that would at least add Hornsby, Gehrig, and Williams to the list, making it at least six players then to have achieved the feat, not five. And if you do count the Negro League players and stats, only three players had led all of the majors in all three Triple Crown stats the year they won it, Hines, Cobb, and Mantle.

The one you're referring to is Cobb I assume, which would be correct. But then you're forgetting about the very first player to have ever been recognized as winning the Triple Crown, Paul Hines from back in the 1880's.

Because of the way they figured which stats would or wouldn't count for the Negro League players, I don't believe they have a single year where they count anywhere near the number of games being played by the AL and NL teams. So no Negro League players would have ever topped the majors in all three Triple Crown categories, they din't have enough HRs or RBIs.

Ummmm, I actually did name Cobb already, along with Hines and Mantle, in my post you just responded to.

Yeah we'll never really be able to do apples to apples on the greats such as Charleston, Gibson, Paige etc.

The Georgia Peach?
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Surely you don't expect me to read entire sentences, sheesh. But yes, Cobb is correct.

LOL

Glenn,

Wasn't trying to give you crap, and I know people usually fall asleep reading my long posts....but that was a short one! LOL

Yeah, I don't really have an excuse there. Probably best if I don't try to read Moby Dick.

Agree! The biggest inconsistency is due to what is being counted as a major league level game for Negro League players, and the huge difference from year to year in the number of games that end up qualifying.

I looked up Paige on Baseball Reference. I am really surprised, even counting his stats equally on a league-relative basis, he got to top 15 all time in a couple of the Bill James categories. There doesn't seem enough there and even in the context of just the Negro Leagues, his stats other than Ks don't seem that overwhelming, not a lot of league leads.

It was all downhill anyhow after Call me Ishmael.

what did ty cobb and a corn cob have in common?

hint: your answer is not what i am thinking of.

LOL

Good one!

Susceptible to the effects of smut?

Late to the game. F. Robinson came to mind as the 5th when I first read it.