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As we enter the final days of the 2012 season, Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera is trying to do something no ballplayer has done in 45 years—win a Triple Crown. The last Triple Crown winner was Boston‘s Carl Yastrzemski, who led the American League in all three major batting categories in 1967.

If Cabrera wins out, he will become the second Tiger in history to win a Triple Crown, joining all-time batting leader Ty Cobb, who won the honor in 1909.

Here are 10 things you may not know about the MLB Triple Crown.

There have been 17 Triple Crowns in baseball history, with 15 different players winning the honor.

The American League has seen nine Triple Crowns and the National League seven. Canadian Tip O’Neill of the St. Louis Browns was the only player from the American Association to win a Triple Crown, way back in 1887.

Rogers Hornsby (1922 and 1925) and Ted Williams (1942 and 1947) are only two-time Triple Crown winners.

Paul Hines of the Providence Grays was the first Triple Crown winner, taking National League honors in 1878.

The highest batting average for a Triple Crown winner was Hugh Duffy of the Boston Braves, who hit .438 in 1894, still MLB’s single-season record. Nap Lajoie of Philadelphia led the American League with a .426 average for the Philadelphia A’s in 1901.

National League Triple Crown winner Rogers Hornsby hit .401 in 1922 and .403 in 1925 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The most HRs in a Triple Crown season is 52, hit by Yankees switch-hitter Mickey Mantle in 1956.

The Yankees‘ Lou Gehrig knocked in 165 runs in 1934, the most ever for a Triple Crown winner. Jimmie Foxx had 163 for the Philadelphia A’s in 1933. 

The last National Leaguer to win the Triple Crown was Joe “Ducky” Medwick, way back in 1937, some 75 years ago.

The only Triple Crown winners not elected to the Hall of Fame were the first two winners: Paul Hines and Tip O’Neill, and Heinie Zimmerman of the 1912 Cubs.

Triple Crown Winners

American League
YEAR   PLAYER                                   HR    RBI    AVG
1967    Carl Yastrzemski, Boston        44    121    .326
1966    Frank Robinson, Baltimore     49    122    .316
1956    Mickey Mantle, New York        52    130    .353
1947    Ted Williams, Boston              32    114    .343
1942    Ted Williams, Boston              36    137    .356
1934    Lou Gehrig, New York             49    165    .363
1933    Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia     48    163    .356
1909    Ty Cobb, Detroit                        9    115    .377
1901    Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia         14   125    .422

National League
YEAR   PLAYER                                  HR    RBI    AVG
1937    Joe Medwick, St. Louis            31    154    .374
1933    Chuck Klein, Philadelphia       28    120    .368
1925    Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis        39    143    .403
1922    Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis        42    152    .401
1912    Heinie Zimmerman, Chicago   14    103    .372
1894    Hugh Duffy, Boston                   18    145    .438

1878    Paul Hines, Providence              4    50     .358

American Association
YEAR   PLAYER                                    HR    RBI    AVG
1887    Tip O’Neill                                 44    121    .326

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When Jim Thome hit a pinch-hit home run for the Phillies earlier this year, he broke the record for walk-off home runs in a career with 13. Thome had been tied with five Hall of Famers — Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle — before his record-setting blast.

Mantle actually had 13 walk-offs if you count his ninth inning, upper deck home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series (all-time MLB records apply to regular-season games only). Of Ruth’s dozen walk-offs, he had 11 as a Yankee and one as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

The New York Yankees have hit 210 walk-off home runs in their long and illustrious history, the first by Wee Willie Keeler in 1905 as the then-named Highlanders beat the Washington Senators. Here are the Yankee walk-off kings.

Mickey Mantle (13) — Outside of the World Series winner, Mantle’s most famous walk-off occurred on May 22, 1963. That night, batting in the 11th inning against the Kansas City A’s, Mantle belted a ball he later called “the hardest ball I think I ever hit.” The ball was still rising when it struck the facade above the upper deck in right field at Yankee Stadium, 118 feet high and 370 feet from home plate. Some estimates say the ball might have traveled 600 feet or more.

Babe Ruth (11) — The Babe hit more memorable home runs throughout his career than anyone. His signature walk-off occurred on September 24, 1925. With one out in the bottom of the 11th inning and the bases loaded, he hit a grand slam to beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5. Ruth also hit a walk-off home run for the Boston Red Sox early in his career.

Yogi Berra (7) — Three of Berra’s walk-offs came against the Red Sox (1955, 1957, 1958). He victimized Boston hurlers Ellis Kinder, Ike Delock and Willard Nixon respectively.

Alex Rodriguez (6) and Graig Nettles (6) — A-Rod’s highlight was a two-out, ninth inning grand slam that gave the Yankees a 10-7 win over the Orioles early in the 2007 season. Both Rodriguez and Nettles belted extra-inning home runs to beat Boston. A-Rod’s 15th inning blast gave the Yankees a 2-0 win in 2009; Nettles hit a 14th inning walk-off to give the Yankees a 6-4 win in 1978.

Bernie Williams (5) — Bernie is the only player in MLB history with two walk-off home runs in the playoffs. Bernie went boom against the Orioles in the 11th in 1996, and three years later repeated the feat against the Red Sox. Both homers occurred in the first game of the ALCS, and both times the Yankees went on to capture the pennant and World Series..

7. Joe DiMaggio (4), Tommy Henrich (4), Reggie Jackson (4), Chris Chambliss (4) — DiMaggio hit a three-run blast to beat the St. Louis Browns, 15-12, in 1938. Henrich hit three of his four walk-offs in 1949, including the first in World Series history to defeat Don New Newcombe and the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game One of the 1949 World Series. Reggie’s most memorable walk-off was a two-out, ninth inning blast to beat the Red Sox, 2-0, in a key September 1977 game. Chambliss hit the first pitch in the bottom of the ninth for the home run that gave the Yankees the 1976 pennant against the Kansas City Royals.

BTW: Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, Joe Collins, Tom Tresh. Oscar Gamble, Mel Hall and Jason Giambi each hit three walk-off home runs for the Yanks. Roger Maris, Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, and Tony Lazzeri were among those tied with two.

Claudell Washington hit a two-run homer to beat the Tigers in the 18th inning of a September, 1988, contest. It ranks as the latest walk-off home run in Yankee history. Two nights earlier, Washington victimized the Tigers with a ninth-inning walk-off homer.

Walk-off grand slams: Babe Ruth (1925), Red Ruffing (1933), Charlie Keller (1942), Joe Pepitone (1969), Ruppert Jones (1980), Mike Pagliarulo (1987), Jason Giambi (2002) and Alex Rodriguez (2007)

Catcher Russell Martin hit the Yankees’ most recent walk-off, a leadoff shot to beat the crosstown rival Mets 5-4 in June.

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Willie, Mickey and the Duke.

With the passing of Duke Snider, now only Willie Mays survives from the great triumvirate that patrolled center field in New York in the 1950s—and the Boys of Summer are down a man.

In his New York Times obituary, Edwin Donald Snider’s career was summed up this way: “Playing for 18 seasons, he had 407 home runs, 2,116 hits, batted at least .300 seven times, had a lifetime batting average of .295 and was generally among the league leaders in runs batted in and runs scored.” He was renowned for his superb defensive play as well.

The Duke will always be known as a Dodger—he spent a combined 16 years in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. But Snider was purchased by the Mets for $40,000 in 1963, played one season in New York and finished his career with the San Francisco Giants in 1964.

Through the information found on sources like Baseball Reference and Retrosheet, the  SportsLifer (in 1963 a SportsKid) was able to determine that he saw Snider play once, on a sticky, hot summer afternoon in New York.

The Duke was a Met then, batting cleanup and playing right field, when the Metropolitans hosted the St. Louis Cardinals at the old Polo Grounds in Manhattan.

Hickman’s Natural Cycle

That was the same game where Jim Hickman hit for the only natural cycle in Mets history, powering them to a 7-3 victory. Snider had a big day that afternoon as well, with three singles and a pair of RBI in four at-bats.

The Duke spent just one season with the Mets but collected both both his 400th homer and 2,000th hit in a Met uniform.

Clearly near the end, he hit just .243 in 1965 with 14 homers and 45 RBI. Several other players—some famous, some not so famous—appeared in that Mets-Cards game on August 7, 1963.

Stan Musial, playing in his final season, pinch-hit for Dal Maxvill in the eighth inning and grounded to first base.

Ernie Broglio started the game and was the losing pitcher for the Cardinals. The following June, he was traded to the Cubs for Lou Brock.

Broglio Traded for Brock

That trade would propel the Cards to a World Series victory over the Yankees in 1964. Bill White, Ken Boyer and Tim McCarver, mainstays on that 1964 club, all played in the Polo Grounds that day.

Broglio was relieved by Lew Burdette, who beat the Yankees three times to lead the Milwaukee Braves to a World Series win against the Yankees in 1957.

For the Mets, Tracy Stallard pitched a complete game and got the win. That’s right—the same Tracy Stallard who surrendered Roger Maris’ 61st home run on the final day of the 1961 season.

The Mets lineup featured seven originals—including catcher Clarence “Choo Choo” Coleman and Frank Thomas—along with rookie second baseman Ron Hunt. Hunt was once hit by 50 pitches in a single season and led the National League in HBPs for seven straight seasons.

You never know what you’re going to see when you go to the ballpark, right kid? The 9,977 fans who showed up at the Polo Grounds on August 7, 1963 saw a lot.

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Gil McDougald of the Yankees slides back into first, too late to avoid a double play, in the play that turned the 1955 World Series and gave Brooklyn its only World Series.

Gil McDougald, the Yankees’ utility infielder who passed away earlier this week, was a major player in four of the most memorable moments in baseball history. McDougald played key roles in three of the most famous World Series games ever played and was involved in one of the game’s most horrifying injuries.

A versatile infielder who spent his entire 10-year career with the Yankees, McDougald played second, shortstop and third base and was a member of eight pennant winners, five World Champions and five American League All-Star teams.

Now about those moments.

1. In Game 7 of the 1955 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Billy Martin led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a walk against Brooklyn’s Johnny Podres and McDougald followed with a bunt single. Yogi Berra then sliced a long drive into the left-field corner, but the Dodgers’ Sandy Amoros made a spectacular one-hand catch and fired to Gil Hodges to double up McDougald at first.

That was as close as the Yankees came to scoring. Despite three hits by McDougald, Podres pitched a 2-0 shutout, giving Brooklyn its only World Championship.

2. McDougald started at shortstop in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series when New York’s Don Larsen matched up against Brooklyn’s Sal Maglie at Yankee Stadium. In the second inning of that game, the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson hit a liner that caromed off third baseman Andy Carey right to McDougald, who threw out Robinson by a step.

That play helped preserve what became Larsen’s perfect game, the only no-hitter in World Series history.

3. On May 7, 1957, in Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, McDougald smacked a line drive that hit young Indians southpaw Herb Score in the right eye. The injury caused Score, the American League strikeout leader his first two years, to miss the rest of the 1957 season. Score eventually regained his vision and returned to the mound late in the 1958 season but was never the same pitcher after the injury. Arm troubles led to the premature end of his promising career.

While addressing reporters following the contest, McDougald said, “If Herb loses the sight in his eye, I’m going to quit the game.” McDougald, who remembered long afterward being “sick to my stomach” when Score collapsed, remained in touch with him over the years.

4. McDougald played his last major league game on October 13, 1960: Game 7 of the World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. He entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch runner for Dale Long and scored on a ground ball by Yogi Berra to tie the game 9-9.

The Pirates won the game and the Series in the bottom of the ninth when Bill Mazeroski hit a leadoff, walkoff home run against New York’s Ralph Terry, one of the most legendary home runs ever.

McDougald decided to retire after the World Series when it appeared that the Yankees were going to leave him unprotected for the 1960 expansion draft.
He was the American League’s Rookie of the Year in 1951, playing third base and second base and hitting .306. McDougald connected for the first World Series grand slam by a rookie, a drive at the Polo Grounds off the New York Giants’ Larry Jansen that helped propel the Yankees to a Game 5 victory.

A timely hitter despite an unorthodox right-handed open stance he used early in his career, he twice hit better than .300 in a season and had a career batting average of .276 with 112 home runs.

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Wally Pipp is baseball’s answer to Rodney Dangerfield. And nearly 100 years past his prime, he’s still getting no respect.

The mention of Wally Pipp conjures visions of laziness and fake headaches and calling in sick.

As in, that guy “Pipped” out, he’s not coming to work. Or he’s pulling a “Wally,” translated loosely to mean he’s a coach potato, slacking off again. A sloth.

Pipp is the guy that lost his job to Lou Gehrig, who just happens to the greatest first baseman in baseball history. But Pipp was hardly a slouch on the field. And he was rarely off the field, missing just a handful of games over the previous four seasons before Gehrig took his job in 1925.

In fact, Wally Pipp anchored Yankee pennant winners in 1921, 1922 and the championship 1923 team, which were the Yanks first. He was coming off a career year in 1924 when he hit .295 with nine home runs, 114 RBI and an American League-leading 19 triples.

At the close of play on June 2, 1925, the Yankees found themselves in seventh place  in the eight-team American League, 13-and-a-half games behind the first place Philadelphia Athletics.

Gehrig Takes Over

As the story goes, that day Pipp told Yankee Manager Miller Huggins that he had a headache, and Huggins replaced him with Gehrig in the Yankee lineup. Lou Gehrig, who had pinch hit for Yankee shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger the previous day to start his famous consecutive games streak, didn’t sit down for nearly 15 years, 2,130 games later.

Pipp’s recollection of that day is somewhat hazy. Decades later, in a 1953 interview, he recounted that he did have a headache—because he had been beaned in batting practice.

“Charlie (Caldwell) (better known in later years as Princeton’s football coach) whistled one in and, somehow or other, I just couldn’t duck,” Pipp recalled. “The ball hit me right here on the temple. They carted me right off to the hospital. I was in that hospital for two solid weeks. By the time I returned to the Yankees, Gehrig was hitting the ball like crazy and Huggins would have been a complete dope to give me my job back.”

That’s not exactly how it went down. In fact, Pipp was a pinch-hitter the very next day, June 3, after his supposed beaning. Although Pipp never started another game at first base for the Yankees, Gehrig didn’t exactly tear the league apart in 1925, and Huggins had pinch hit for a few times because the Yankees’ manager was disappointed in Gehrig’s performance against left-handers.

Pipp’s Beaning

Pipp’s beaning took place exactly a month later—on July 2. According to various accounts he suffered a fractured skull or a concussion—certainly more than a headache. He played sparingly the rest of the season and was shipped to Cincinnati at the end of it.

The Yankees originally picked up Pipp on waivers from Detroit in 1915. For nearly 10 years Wally Pipp was a fixture in the Yankee lineup. When Pipp sprained an ankle in 1923, Gehrig,  was called up for a few games. Columbia Lou hit .423 with his first homer and nine RBI in limited duty. In 1924 he hit .500 in 12 at bats and knocked in five runs. In 1925, Gehrig hit 20 homers, drove in 68 runs and batted .295, a harbinger of much bigger and better things to come.

Pipp had a solid career and was one of the best first basemen of his era. He led the American League in home runs with 12 in 1916 and nine in 1917. He hit .281 for this career, with 90 HRs, 997 RBI and 1,941 hits.

Hardly a dead beat. Wally Pipp may have lost his job, but he lost it to the guy who ultimately became the greatest first baseman in baseball history.

There’s no shame in that.

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Ted Williams may have been the greatest hitter who ever lived. Williams played for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960, and missed nearly five full seasons while serving his country in World War II and later the Korean War as a Marine fighter pilot.

The Splendid Splinter hit 521 home runs, third all-time behind only Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx, and he retired after homering in his final at-bat in 1960. Williams had a .344 lifetime average, won seven batting titles and was the last player to bat .400 with a .406 average in 1941.

Williams hit .388 to win the American League batting title in 1957—at the age of 38. He won two MVPs (1946, 1949) and is the only player in history to win the Triple Crown twice. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1966.

David Cataneo’s book I Remember Ted Williams contains anecdotes and memories from the players and people who knew him best.

Here is a sampling of some of the top reminisces from that book:

“I always say that Ted needed another planet. You look at what he has accomplished. Ted Williams was one of the best fishermen, so he kind of conquered the seas. He’s one of the best baseball players, so he kind of conquered the land. He was an ace pilot, so he kind of conquered the air. So he’s kind of a man who’s outgrown this planet. He’s the real John Wayne.”
– Maureen Cronin, daughter of Red Sox manager Joe Cronin

“He never wanted to be embarrassed at the plate. Ever. He talked about it. He said, ‘When I walk down the street, I want people to say: ‘There goes Ted Williams, the best hitter I’ve ever seen.””
– Broadway Charlie Wagner, Red Sox pitcher, 1938-42, 1946

“One day at Tiger Stadium, he put on the greatest demonstration of batting practice that I had ever seen. He hit one ball after another, most of them in the upper deck. He loved to hit in Detroit. I think out of 20 pitches, he hit 17 up into the stands. And when he got through, it was early, but there were 30-35,000 in the stands. Those people just stood and gave him a standing ovation. You would have thought he had just won the World Series.”
– Boo Ferriss, Red Sox pitcher, 1946-1950

“I never met anybody in my life who was as electric as he was. I’ve met some who are electric, but none to the brilliance that he was. I mean he’d light up a funeral parlor.”
– George Sullivan, Fenway Park bat boy in 1949, sportswriter in the 50s and 60s, and the Red Sox PR director in the 80s

Williams had a stormy relationships with the Boston media—whom he referred to as the “Knights of the Keyboard.” The sportswriter who hurt Williams most was wrinkly, sour Mel Webb of the Boston Globe. On the opening day of spring training in 1947, Williams greeted the old scribe by saying, “Why don’t you drop dead you old bastard.” Webb vowed to get back at him, and he did during that season’s MVP balloting. He completely left Triple Crown winner Williams off his ballot. Ted lost the award to DiMaggio, 202-201. If Webb had voted Ted at least 10th most valuable, Williams would have won.”

“He always talked to the out-of-town writers just to screw the Boston writers. You know what he’d do? He’d be in the dugout and an out-of-towner would come in and he’d give him a big handshake. “Let’s get out of here.” They go down to the end of the dugout, all alone. They’d be talking, and all the Boston guys would be looking and wondering what the hell he was telling him. Maybe he was quitting or something. Ted did it on purpose.”
– Tim Horgan, longtime Boston Herald columnist

“Of all the things Ted told me, he said, ‘I’ve gotten all kinds of accolades in the baseball department, but the thing I’m most proud of was I was a good marine fighter pilot.’ He was so darned proud of being a marine.”
– Long-time friend Frank Cushing

Williams on being sold to the Red Sox
“When I first heard the news that I had been sold to Boston, I almost blew a fuse. I always dreamed of playing with the Yankees or Giants. Babe Ruth was my hero. I used to dream of hitting home runs into the friendly right-field stands in the Yankee Stadium or Polo Grounds. Why, I had followed baseball since I was old enough to read and the Red Sox had been mired in the second division throughout my boyhood.”

His opinion on whether, as manager of the Washington Senators, he could get along with a cantankerous player like Ted Williams.
“If he can hit like Ted Williams, yes.”
   

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That Joba bravado has been replaced by inconsistent relief pitching.

It’s clear the New York Yankees’ constant juggling of roles, responsibilities, and pitch counts have messed with Joba Chamberlain’s head.

Today’s Joba isn’t the same Joba who, at the age of 21, made his MLB debut in 2007 throwing fire out of the Yankee bullpen. Joba set the American League on its ear that year with a 2-0 record and a 0.38 ERA in 19 appearances. If not for a swarm of midges in Cleveland, he would have been a playoff hero as well.

The Yankees instituted the ill-famed “Joba Rules” that year and made Chamberlain a starter in 2008. And his career has gone in reverse ever since.

Chamberlain failed to win a starting spot in spring training this year and was moved back to the bullpen, presumably to re-inherit his dominant eighth inning setup role of 2007.

More than halfway through the season, it hasn’t happened.

This season began well enough for Joba, who had a 1-1 record and a 2.16 ERA as late as May 14. That night, he struck out the side and earned his only win of the season, against Minnesota.

Joba’s Blowups :

Since then, he’s been highly unreliable, to be kind. Here’s a litany of Joba’s recent blowups:

• May 16: Gives up three runs to the Twins and takes the loss.
• May 18: Surrenders four runs; Yanks blow lead and lose to the Red Sox 7-6.
• May 29: Pitches a third of an inning against the Indians, gives up four runs and suffers his third loss.
• June 17: Fails to retire a batter, gives up three runs to the Phillies in 7-1 loss.
• July 10: In a disastrous eighth inning in Seattle, gives up three hits, including a grand slam, and falls to 1-4 as Mariners win 4-1.

“I have to limit the damage,” Joba said. “It’s either been really good, or given up three or four runs. (In the second half of the season) I want to limit the damage and continue to get better to do things that are going to help this team win.”

Chamberlain’s ERA is now 5.77. In fact, his ERA has gone up every year since 2007; it was 2.60 in 2008 and 4.75 in 2009. That’s a striking indicator of Joba’s decline.

And as if they haven’t messed with Joba’s head enough these past three seasons, the Yankees have now put him on notice.

“I’m not saying on a daily basis we’re going to change our eighth inning guy, but you have to earn your rules here,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said recently. “And we evaluate on a regular basis.”

Translation: Start pitching better in the second half Joba, or you’ll slip down in the bullpen pecking order. The bridge to closer Mariano Rivera needs to be better than you’ve given us so far.

MLB players don’t think Joba is all that good either. In a recent anonymous poll in Sports Illustrated , 12 percent of all players said Joba was the most overrated player in the game.

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