What is the Triple Crown in Baseball/Softball?
Winning the Triple Crown in baseball or softball refers to leading the league in Batting Average, Homeruns and Runs Batted In.
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As the game grew, the Triple Crown also started being referred to with regard to pitching, where it is leading the league in Wins, Strikeouts and Earned Run Average (ERA).
Batters Who Have Won the Triple Crown
| League | Year | Player | BA | Homeruns | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL | 2012 | Miguel Cabrera | .330 | 44 | 139 |
| AL | 1967 | Carl Yastrzemski | .326 | 44 | 121 |
| AL | 1966 | Brooks Robinson | .316 | 49 | 122 |
| AL | 1956 | Mickey Mantle | .353 | 52 | 130 |
| AL | 1947 | Ted Williams | .343 | 32 | 114 |
| AL | 1942 | Ted Williams | .356 | 36 | 137 |
| NL | 1937 | Joe Medwick | .374 | 31 | 154 |
| AL | 1934 | Lou Gehrig | .363 | 49 | 163 |
| AL | 1933 | Jimmie Foxx | .356 | 48 | 163 |
| NL | 1933 | Chuck Klein | .368 | 28 | 120 |
| NL | 1925 | Rogers Hornsby | .403 | 39 | 143 |
| NL | 1922 | Rogers Hornsby | .401 | 42 | 152 |
Pitchers who have won the Triple Crown
The number next to their name denotes how many times they've won the pitching Triple Crown. It takes a power pitcher with excellent control and electric stuff to win the pitching Triple Crown. A pitcher needs to generate a lot of swings and misses to earn the nod.
So, it should come as no surprise that the pitchers on the list either bring the heat, or, in the case of Dwight Gooden, have wiffleball level off-speed pitches. In fact, Gooden's curveball was referred to as, Lord Charles.
- Amos Rusie (1)
- Bob Feller (1)
- Bucky Walters (1)
- Christy Mathewson (2)
- Clayton Kershaw (1)
- Cy Young (1)
- Dazzy Vance (1)
- Dwight Gooden (1)
- Grover Alexander (3)
- Hal Newhouser (1)
- Hippo Vaughn (1)
- Jake Peavy (1)
- Johan Santana (1)
- John Clarkson (1)
- Justin Verlander (1)
- Lefty Gomez (2)
- Lefty Grove (2)
- Old Hoss Radbourn (1)
- Pedro Martinez (1)
- Randy Johnson (1)
- Roger Clemens (2)
- Rube Waddell (1)
- Sandy Koufax (3)
- Shane Bieber (1)
- Steve Carlton (1)
- Tim Keefe (1)
- Tommy Bond (1)
- Walter Johnson (3)
Triple Crown FAQs
Which hitter has won the most Triple Crowns?
Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams have each won the Triple Crown twice.
Which year was the Triple Crown won in both leagues?
In 1933, Chuck Klein of the Philadelphia Phillies and Jimmie Foxx of the Philadelphia Athletics both won the Triple Crown in their respective leagues. What's crazy is that they both played in the same city.
What is the lowest batting average of a Triple Crown winner?
Frank Robinson's .316 batting average in 1966 while playing for the Baltimore Orioles represents the lowest average while winning the Triple Crown.
What is the least amount of homeruns hit for a Triple Crown winner?
Chuck Klein's 28 homeruns in 1933 is the lowest amount of homeruns hit in a Triple Crown winning performance. That's not a Punch and Judy performance either.
What is the lowest RBI total for a Triple Crown winner?
The 114 RBI hit by Ted Williams in 1947 was the lowest amount of RBI for a person who won the Triple Crown that year.
What does the average Triple Crown batting season look like?
The average Triple Crown season for hitters would have taken place in 1948 in the American League and would have had a slash line of .357/41/138.
In other words, the Average Triple Crown season is a MVP-winning season almost every single year, with a batting average of .357, 41 homers, and 138 RBI.
Check out our Batting Average Calculator.
What does the average Triple Crown pitching season look like?
The average Triple Crown season for pitchers would have taken place in 1936 in the National League and would have had a slash line of 31/1.93/258.
Those are awesome numbers for a pitcher. 258 strikeouts holds up in nearly any era, where as 31 wins with a 1.93 ERA would be absolutely dominant in today's game. You could almost say unheard of with the restriction on innings and statistics pointing out the declining benefits of keeping a pitcher in the game for an extended period of time.
Has Women's D1 NCAA Softball ever had a Triple Crown winner?
We're unsure, we'll get back to you after some research. That said, Oklahoma's Jocelyn Alo almost won the Triple Crown during the 2022 season, with a .515 batting average, 34 homeruns and 85 RBI over 62 games.