The Elusive Triple Crown...

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

Will baseball recover?

*Please note, I wrote this blog post on February 10th for a public relations blog about how baseball needs to improve its image following A-Rod's steroid scandal. The only reason I have not shared it with anyone was because it was outdated and irrelevant. Because of the news that Mr. Alex Rodriguez may have been taking steroids as early as high school, it makes this story relevant again.

Thank you for the relevance, A-Rod!

***

These are dark times for America's past time. Clouded by scandal, baseball has fought to clear its name of alleged steroid use by some of recent times' greatest players: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and now...Alex Rodriguez. Once pegged as the savior for Major League Baseball, A-Rod was supposed to pull his sport back to prominence as the premiere "clean" player. He was supposed to break the all-time home run record currently held by Barry Bonds without the aid of performance enhancing drugs.

That hope is now gone. With Alex Rodriquez admitting yesterday that he used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 - 2003 while with the Texas Rangers. The Seattle sports fan in me instantly thought, "Phew, at least he was out of Seattle during those times." But really this issue is bigger than local sports. Major League Baseball has a huge mess on their hands. Athletes are paid hundreds of millions of dollars to put up huge power numbers and many believe steroids are the answer or quick fix to produce.

How can baseball fix this? There is little doubt the sport has damaged its image from the steroid era. Is there any way for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to save his sport in the eyes of the public?

If you look back at history there have been scandals in major sports before: The 1919 Black Sox throwing the World Series, Pete Rose's gambling, NBA official Tim Donaghy's gambling and several Olympic and Tour de France dopers. In each instance, the respective sport had to make an example of those caught. The Black Sox and Pete Rose were banned from baseball for life, Tim Donaghy fired, and Olympic medalist's were stripped of their medals.

Why hasn't this happened during the steroids era?

Baseball needs to make a statement that cheating will not be tolerated. They need to make a sacrifice to save their sport. Granted, Alex Rodriguez used these steroids when there was no official policy on banned substances and I'm not saying an example needs to be made of him, but what he did was still cheating. Bud Selig needs to bite the bullet on this one. Records need to be pulled from any player involved in steroids and subsequently banned from the sport. Harsh...maybe, necessary...yes.

Club House Chemistry overated?

I just read a really good article from Bill Simmons on ESPN talking about A-Rod and his effect on the Yankees, and more generally, the effect a super star like A-Rod can have on a clubhouse. Something interesting to think about when we talk about the Mariner's improved clubhouse atmosphere (Or maybe percieved improvement at this point).

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4050462