Matsui and Triple Crown

The press was talking about it a lot as he was bouncing between first and second in a couple of the Triple Crown categories. However, he's held on to the top spot in batting average, home runs, and RBI's for a month now, making it hard to keep up the hype. The top three in the Triple Crown categories in the Central League going into play today are:

Batting Average
1. .349 Hideki Matsui (YG)
2. .331 Kosuke Fukudome (CD)
3. .323 Akinori Iwamura (YS)

Home Runs
1. 42 Hideki Matsui (YG)
2. 37 Roberto Petagine (YS)
3. 27 George Arias (HT)

RBIs
1. 91 Hideki Matsui (YG)
2. 83 Roberto Petagine (YS)
3. 82 Alex Ramirez (YS)

Not only that, but Matsui also leads the Central League in runs scored (100), total bases (306), bases on balls (99), on base percentage (.471), and slugging percentage (.697). This is far and away a year dominated by Godzilla.

Nonetheless, yesterday's Nikkan Sports actually gave a bigger headline to the new Pacific League Triple Crown qualifier, Alex Cabrera. He hit his 51st home run last night while going 3 for 4 to raise his average to .3351, .0003 over Orix' Tani. Looking at the Triple Crown categories in the Pacific League, we see:

Batting Average
1. .3351 Alex Cabrera (SL)
2. .3348 Yoshimoto Tani (OBW)
3. .332  Michihiro Ogasawara (NHF)

Home Runs
1. 51 Alex Cabrera (SL)
2. 42 Tuffy Rhodes (OKB)
3. 33 Norihiro Nakamura (OKB)

RBIs
1. 109 Alex Cabrera (SL)
2. 105 Tuffy Rhodes (OKB)
3.  87 Norihiro Nakamura (OKB)

His 51st home run of the season last night also marked his 100th of his very short NPB career (2 years an counting as he's agreed to play for the Lions again next year). Cabrera is the 24th player to hit 100 career home runs in Japan and the 4th to hit 100 in two years behind the likes of Oh, Bass, and Ochiai. With 21 games remaining, Cabrera is on pace to hit 60.

But that's not the most amazing thing about Cabrera's Triple Crown bid. At the end of the first half (well, at the All Star break, anyway), Ogasawara was batting .365, .075 over Cabrera who was batting .290 at the time. Since then, Ogasawara hit a bit of a slump and Cabrera has hit .395 to take over the lead, leading the Lions' offensive charge to a huge 15 game lead over second place Daiei.

As for the last time the Triple Crown was won, I did a few Google searches in Japanese and English to cross check each other, and the best English resource was here (4th set from the top). They all confirm that Bass was the last winner of the award in 1986:

1938 OL Haruyasu Nakazima (Kyojin)
1965 PL Katsuya Nomura (Hawks)
1973 CL Sadaharu Oh (YG)
1974 CL Sadaharu Oh (YG)
1982 PL Hiromitsu Ochiai (Lotte)
1984 PL Boomer Wells (Hankyu)
1985 PL Hiromitsu Ochiai (Lotte)
1985 CL Randy Bass (HT)
1986 PL Hiromitsu Ochiai (Lotte)
1986 CL Randy Bass (HT)

Does it interest anyone else that the last two times a Triple Crown has been accomplished that it was done in both leagues at the same time?

Not only does *that* interest me, but add to it the fact they were done in consecutive years by the same players. Therefore, both guys in 1986 were back-to-back Triple Crown winners, and the only other player to manage that feat was Oh. Talk about coincidence. Of course, had they both been in the same league, that wouldn't have been possible.

Jim Albright