Baseball

If Close Counted

The last player to win baseball's Triple Crown, sweeping the homer, RBI and batting titles in one season, was Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. In the National League you have to go back 58 years to find a Triple Crown winer, the Cardinals' Joe (Ducky) Medwick. In all, only 14 players have nwon baseball's toughest trifecta, and in all probability there won't be a 15th this year, despite some fine performances in this strike-shortened season. Maybe it's time baseball came up with an annual award for the player who comes closest to winning the Triple Crown, as a show of appreciation for just how hard it is to win. Call it the Babe Ruth Award. The Bambino, after all, may have been the game's greatest player, but he never won a Triple Crown. He came close a number of times, including in 1923, when he led the American League with 41 homers and 131 RBIs and hit .393, only to lose the batting title to Harry Heilmann, who hit .403.

At week's end there were several players who were at least in the running for the Triple Crown—the closest being Colorado Rocky leftfielder Dante Bichette, who was leading the National League in RBIs (86), was second (to teammate Larry Walker) in he hadomers (26) and was fourth in hitting (.327). But barring an injury to San Diego's Tony Gwynn, who was hitting .365 through Sunday, Bichette will probably join the select list of players who have fallen just short since Yaz's 1967 sweep (box, next page).

In the American League the race is much tighter. White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas is making yet another bid for the Triple Crown. A year ago h a legitimate shot at winning one when the strike hit on Aug. 12. His 38 homers last season put him only two behind Ken Griffey, his 101 RBIs were 11 behind Kirby Puckett's total, and his .353 average put him just a handful of base hits behind Paul O'Neill, who finished at .359. This year, at week's end, Thomas was leading the league in homers with 31 and was tied for fourth in RBIs with 81, seven off the league lead. But his .318 average put him well behind Seattle's Edgar Martinez, who was batting .357.

California's Tim Salmon was giving him his stiffest challenge. The Angel rightfielder was fifth in the league in hitting (.327), third in homers (28) and sixth in RBIs (80).

To appreciate how difficult it is to win the Triple Crown, consider this: Since Yastrzemski's '67 season, no player in baseball has won all three legs of the Triple Crown even in separate years, let alone in the same one. The Indians' Dave Winfield, who is going to the Hall of Fame but only once led the league in any Triple Crown category (with 118 RBIs for the Padres in 1979) thinks there will be another Triple Crown winner "if you just wait long enough." In the meantime hats off to those players who even come close.

Hangin' Them Up

Baseball lost one of its most memorable players on Aug. 11 when Tiger outfielder Kirk Gibson retired at age 38. In an era when many players know exactly what their batting average is on a daily basis, Gibson cared less about personal stats than anyone in baseball. He could be a caveman at times, crude and rude and always unshaven, but all he cared about was winning. In fact, part of the reason he retired may have been the recent trades the Tigers made, sending David Wells and Mike Henneman to National League contenders. When Detroit seemed to throw in the towel, giving up on the wild-card chase, so did Gibson.

Gibson will probably be best remembered for his dramatic ninth-inning, game-winning pinch homer off the A's Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, when Gibson was playing for the Dodgers. It was a blow the A's never recovered from, as L.A. beat Oakland in five games. Gibson was named the National League MVP that year, making him the only MVP in baseball history never to be named to an All-Star team.

Few played the game harder than Gibson. The lasting image of him will be of that big body rumbling around third base at top speed looking for a catcher to flatten. And he was forever losing his helmet as he tore around the base paths. In April 1992, when he was playing for Pittsburgh, Gibson's helmet went flying as he took off for second on a grounder hit by Jay Bell. The ball hit Gibson's helmet, bounced to Cub second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who threw it to third baseman Chico Walker, who got Gibson in a rundown. Walker threw the ball to shortstop Luis Salazar, who tagged Gibson out. Pirate outfielder Andy Van Slyke, who witnessed the play, scored it "7½ to 4 to 5 to 6."