Triple Crown nuggets

The City of Philadelphia has an exclusive piece of baseball’s Triple Crown history.

As a refresher, a Triple Crown in hitting is a player who leads their league in batting average, home runs and RBIs. Pitchers qualify for the same Triple Crown by leading their league in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

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Hitting Crowns

There have been 14 times a hitter has claimed a Triple Crown since 1900.

Right fielder Chuck Klein is the lone Phillies player on the list (.368 average, 28 homers and 120 RBIs) in 1933. That same season, first baseman Jimmie Foxx of the Philadelphia A’s also won a Crown (.356 average, 48 homers and 163 RBIs). It marked the only time two players from the same city reached this accomplishment. A Philadelphia sweep!

The year prior, both Klein and Foxx were MVPs in their respective leagues. Another Philadelphia sweep.

Philadelphia also had a Triple Crown winner in 1901, second baseman Nap Lajoie (.426 average, 14 homers and 125 RBIs). He played for the Phillies as a first baseman/second baseman for the first five seasons of a 21-year career (1896-1900) but jumped to the rival American League when it opened in 1901.

Foxx also played for the Phillies (1945), the final season of 20 in the Majors.

Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers is the most recent winner (.330 average, 44 homers and 139 RBIs) in 2012. Prior to that, Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox (.326 average, 44 homers and 121 RBIs) was the last Triple Crown winner in 1967.

Pitching Crowns

Winning a pitching Triple Crown has been a lot easier. Since 1900, it has happened 33 times. The same applies to Phillies history.

Grover Cleveland Alexander did it twice while with the Phillies, 1915 (31-10, 1.22 ERA, 122 strikeouts and 33-12, 1.55 ERA and 167 K's the following season). The right-hander was the first with back-to-back Crowns. He also became the first to do it for two different teams (27-14, 1.91 ERA and 173 K's), for the 1920 Chicago Cubs.

Steve Carlton joined the exclusive list with his dominating 1972 season (27-10, 1.97 ERA and 310 K's). It was the lone Triple Crown in that decade.

Winners from the Philadelphia A’s include Lefty Grove in 1931 (31-4, 2.06 ERA and 175 K's ) and 1930 (28-5, 2.54 ERA and 209 K's) and Rube Waddell in 1905 (27-10, 1.48 ERA, 287 K's).

The most recent winner happened a year ago in the 60-game season, Cleveland’s Shane Bieber (8-1, 1.63 ERA and 122 K's). Prior to that, there were two in 2011, Detroit’s Justin Verlander (24-5, 2.40 ERA and 250 K's) and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, (21-5, 2.24 ERA and 228 K's).