Triple Threats

As A prototypically dedicated hitter of the '90s, Mo Vaughn of the Boston Red Sox has a home with a batting cage, a pitching machine that can simulate any pitch delivered from any release point, and a workout room stocked with so many weights he could sell annual memberships. He also has a powerful 240-pound body he uses to swing a 36-ounce bat, one of the heaviest in baseball; a menacing stance in which he hangs so far over the plate that he wears a protective guard on his right arm; two hitting coaches; a higher batting average so far this season (.362 at week's end) than Carl Yastrzemski, the major leagues' last Triple Crown winner, ever finished with; projected totals of 53 home runs and 155 RBIs—and not much more than a prayer of winning the Triple Crown.

"Won't happen," Chicago White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas says sternly, shaking his head for emphasis, "for anybody."

"Almost impossible," Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella says. "I think the Triple Crown as we once knew it is a thing of the past."

Like flannel uniforms, thick-handled bats and the 25-cent scorecard, the Triple Crown—one player capturing the league titles in batting, home runs and RBIs in the same season—has become a museum relic under glass, all the more wondrous with every passing year and positively untouchable. From 1901, when Nap Lajoie won the first Triple Crown, through 1967, when Yastrzemski won it, there were never more than 10 years between Triple Crown winners. However, nobody has won it in the last 28 years.

But as we near the midpoint of this season, three players have put up such huge numbers that a rare run at the Triple Crown seems possible. At week's end Vaughn and Thomas in the American League and the Houston Astros' Jeff Bagwell in the National League ranked among their league's top 10 hitters in the Triple Crown categories. Ellis Burks of the Colorado Rockies, who had hit .524 with six home runs and nine RBIs in his last five games through Sunday, has elbowed his way into this group. But Burks, given his history of injuries and the fact that he has never hit more than 21 home runs in a season, is an unlikely candidate to remain in the chase. Vaughn, Thomas and Bagwell are 28 years old and were born within a seven-month span beginning in December 1967, which means no one has won the Triple Crown in their lifetimes.

How hard is it to be triple-crowned? It has been accomplished only 14 times this century, by a dozen players (chart, page 29), not including such legends as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. And since Yaz won his crown, no player has led his league in batting average and home runs (forgetting, for the moment, RBIs) in the same season. In 1972, Dick Allen of the Chicago White Sox made the best Triple Crown run during this drought, falling short by 10 points in batting average (chart, page 32).

"There are too many guys now who are great at specializing in different parts of the game," Thomas says. "Guys who can hit for a high average and guys who can hit home runs. There are just too many good hitters. I'm sick of hearing all the excuses [for the recent offensive explosion]: small parks, juiced ball, watered-down pitching, small strike zone. Give the hitters credit. People have got to realize that this is a golden age of hitting. It started about three or four years ago. The pitching's no different now. Guys like Mo, myself, Albert [Belle] and [Ken] Griffey came along. That's what happened."

Baseball is so loaded with hitters that Thomas has never won a title in any Triple Crown category, even though he has batted as high as .353 in a season, hit as many as 41 home runs and driven in 128 runs. Eddie Collins, Yogi Berra, Robin Yount and Eddie Murray never finished first in any of the Triple Crown categories in a full season, either. It is a competition in which the bar keeps getting raised, especially in the batting race. All six batting champions in the past three years hit better than .350. That hadn't happened since 1932-34, during another golden era of hitting.

"I don't see anyone winning a Triple Crown," says Frank Robinson, whose .316 average in 1966 is the lowest among Triple Crown winners. "It's very difficult with all the players who can hit for average, like a Wade Boggs or Tony Gwynn, who can hit .370, and the other guys with all the home runs. I felt I got a break when I won because Tony Oliva, who won the batting title the previous two years, had an off year [.307]."

Last season Dante Bichette of the Rockies led the National League in home runs and RBIs and hit .340—and still fell short of the Triple Crown because of Gwynn's .368 average. That's not as bad as what happened to Ruth, who had the top four batting averages of a home run and RBI champion who failed to win the Triple Crown: .393, .378, .376 and .372. Still, Bichette's numbers would have won a Triple Crown in seven of the last 14 seasons and 20 times overall, including 1992, when Gary Sheffield of the San Diego Padres won the batting title (.330) and missed the other jewels by two home runs (35, Fred McGriff of the Padres) and nine RBIs (109, Darren Daulton of the Philadelphia Phillies). Bichette's stats convinced him that the feat is attainable.