Have you noticed that Cabrera is so hot that he could win the triple crown?

Have you noticed that Cabrera is so hot that he could win the triple crown?

Last night he had a double, two dingers and six ribbies. That gave him a solid lead in batting average and RBI, and he's only two homers behind Hamilton. Nobody has pulled off a triple crown in 45 years!

I know full well what I said last week about Mike Trout and the MVP, but would the writers deny the MVP to a triple crown winner? That doesn't seem likely to me, but it has happened. It happened to Ted Williams TWICE. He lost to Joe Gordon in 1942 and DiMaggio in 1947. He lost the 1947 ballot by one stinkin' vote.

Think that was odd? Lou Gehrig won the triple crown in 1934 with some spectacular numbers (.363, 49-165) and finished FIFTH in the MVP balloting. He even finished behind one of his own teammates!

There were no MVP awards before 1924, so the only other player to win a triple crown without an MVP was Chuck Klein in 1933, but that snub was legitimate. Klein played in tiny Baker Bowl, where he hit a ridiculous .467 at home (that's not a misprint) and .280 on the road. He had 81 RBI at home, 39 on the road. Klein's LIFETIME batting average at Baker Bowl was .395! The 1933 MVP went to a pitcher, Carl Hubbell, the guy who once held my father to a ground rule double, thus spoiling his 4.000 slugging average.

There have been three triple crown winners since Williams. All three (F Robby, Yaz and Mickey) have won the MVP.