Travis's Triple

Sheldon Ocker of The Akron Beacon-Journal is pretty impressed with the idea that Travis Hafner hit a run scoring triple to help seal the Tribe's 7-4 win over the Tigers yesterday. In fact, Ocker was so wowed by Pronk's hit that he felt a science lesson was in order: "Forecasting the weather on the moon is easier than figuring out when (if) Hafner might deliver a triple, and there is no weather on the moon."

Um...thanks, Sheldon. I'm guessing The Beacon-Journal's sports editor called in sick last night. Anyway, a Travis Hafner triple isn't quite the once in a millenium event that you might think it is after reading Sheldon Ocker's column. He's not ever going to remind anyone of Ichiro on the base path, but Travis has hit nine career triples. Hafner had back-to-back three triple seasons in 2003 and 2004, and has failed to pick up a three base hit in only one major league season (2005).

Checking out Travis's stats peaked my interest, so I did a little digging into the stat book. Not surprisingly, almost all of basball's career triples leaders played during the dead ball era. Hall of Famer Sam Crawford is baseball's all-time leader with 312 triples, followed closely by his Tiger teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, who had 297 three baggers. The only active player to crack the all-time top 100 in triples is Steve Finley, who has 124.

The NL and all-time single season triples record belongs to Chief Wilson of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wilson hit an amazing 36 triples in 1912, including a stretch during which he tripled in five consecutive games. The Baseball Almanac has a detailed profile of Wilson's record breaking season here. Sam Crawford shares the AL single season triples record with Shoeless Joe Jackson. Crawford hit 26 triples with the Tigers in 1914, while Jackson hit the same number right here in Cleveland during the 1912 campaign.

Here's everything else you wanted to know about triples but were afraid to ask.