Baseball's "Triple Crown" is a pretty hard achievement to reach. Being the leader in batting average, home runs, and RBI has only been done 13 times since 1900 and hasn't been done since Carl Yastrzemski did it in 1967. Why is it so hard to achieve this? I would say the main reason is that when a player decides to swing for the fences on a consistent basis, his average inevitably goes down. Generally, most guys can lock up the HR and RBI lead, but the batting title generally alludes them. So is the case with Albert Pujols in the Nation League.
Right now, Albert leads in HR's (34), RBI (90), but has the second best batting average at .333 (Hanley Ramirez, 3.45). So he's 12 points away from leading in the triple crown. In my opinion, I don't see him winning it this year. With as much power as he hits with, and as good a hitter that Ramirez is, it doesn't quite add up. Now, its possible Ramirez could take a nose dive at the plate in the second half, but I wouldn't bet on that.
I do think we are lucky as baseball fans though, that we get to watch a player like Pujols play because he is a special ball player. He has had his success after the roid era exploded, so he's doing it clean. He's not an asshole like Manny Ramirez, not a weirdo/over all jackass like A-Rod, he's just what seems to be a good guy who can tattoo the baseball. Its a refreshing site to see in a baseball world that seems to find its heroes to be cheating in one way or another every month.
Like I said, I don't think Albert will get the triple crown, but if it happens, I can't think of another player (considering there are really only a hand full of guys who would have a shot at doing it) I would want to achieve it. If for no other reason then the game needs a guy like him to do something extraordinary. So keep rolling Al, good luck!
Garbs
PS: ESPN.com's Tim Kurkjian wrote a great article about Albert and the history of the Triple Crown if you want to check it out
Pujols Pushing for Triple Crown History
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Albert's got nothing on Hanley Ramirez. Nothing!
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I agree...What makes this even more fun to watch is like you said, he's doing this as a legitimately clean player. I was listening to Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio the other day and he made the point that if Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter or Ken Griffey Jr. tested positive for steroids it would be an absolute shocker and probably kill the sport.
Just something to think about.