Yaz on Triple Crown: Someone will do it
Former Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski thinks that being in a pennant race will help Detroit's Miguel Cabrera in his attempt to win the Triple Crown.
BOSTON (AP) — Former Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski thinks that being in a pennant race will help Detroit's Miguel Cabrera in his attempt to win the Triple Crown.
And Yaz should know: He's the last player to lead his league in batting average, homers and RBIs in the same season.
“In ‘67, the Triple Crown was never even mentioned once,” Yastrzemski said. “We were so involved in the pennant race, I didn't know I won the Triple Crown until the next day, when I read it in the paper.”
Yastrzemski batted .326 with 44 homers and 121 RBIs in 1967, when the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox clinched the AL pennant on the last day of the season. Yaz said only once did someone bring up the stat races to him, when pitcher Jim Lonborg told him he would help out by shutting down Baltimore's Frank Robinson.
Baseball had a Triple Crown winner every five years or so in its early days; in fact, it never went more than 10 years without one since the RBI became an official stat in 1920. Before Robinson in ‘66, Mickey Mantle won one in ‘56 and Ted Williams won a pair in ‘42 and ‘47.
More from around the web
RSS Feeds