Miguel Cabrera should become the first triple crown winner to improve in all three categories the following year

Miguel Cabrera should become the first triple crown winner to improve in all three categories the following year

I'll tell you why this is so impressive. Of the 13 modern triple crown winners:

None have ever matched or beaten the homer total of the TC year in the following year.

Only three have improved in batting average. (Ted Williams in 1947-48, Mickey Mantle in 1956-57, and Ty Cobb way back in 1909-10)

Only one has improved in RBI (Ted Williams in 1947-48)

Barring an injury or a catastrophic collapse, Cabrera will improve in all three. Improving in even one category is something that has only been done by two of the greatest hitters who ever lived, Cobb and Mantle. Improving in two categories has only been done by arguably the best hitter of them all, Teddy Ballgame. Improving in all three would place one in Olympus, right next to Zeus and Danny "Suits" Sparrow.

(It is possible, but not likely, that Cabrera will win the TC this year. Chris Davis now has the homer lead 46-42, and shows no signs of slowing down.)

SIDEBAR:

For those of you who have not been reading my ramblings these past 18 years, Danny "Suits" Sparrow is my dad. I discussed my relationship with him in my review of Big Fish. It was way back in the 90s that I created the page that assembled his stories. Although it seems clear to me that the incidents described on that page are not vaguely believable, some dude actually cited one of dad's tall tales in a baseball book called Why is the Foul Pole Fair?, which was published in 2003. That was not a collection of Paul Bunyan stories or fanciful Dizzy Dean yarns, but a book that purported to be factual. The author even cited dad's team as "The San Francisco Treats"! Talk about gullible. My dad had passed by the time that book came out, but he would have been proud that he "sold" his story.