Albert Pujols won the RBI crown in the National League this year (edging Carlos Gonzalez, of the Colorado Rockies, by the slimmest of margins, 118-117).
By capturing the RBI title, Pujols accomplished a feat that only two other active players have achieved (a few retired, or dead, players have done so, too). What is that accomplishment?
Pictured: Hall of Famer Cap Anson (card #18 from the 2001 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts set), who holds the record for claiming the most RBI crowns in a career (eight seasons, two more than Babe Ruth).
Tim—this question is harder than I thought..only two other players have had 100+ rbi seasons for 10 years in a row..Jimmy Foxx and Alex Rodrigues, but I may be answering the wrong question..like some students in class..r
Or is it leading the league in RBI and runs scored?
Dean Dennis,
Although this wikipedia entry is a bit behind, it does reveal that you can add Al Simmons and Lou Gehrig to your list of players with 10 or more consecutive seasons of 100+ RBIs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_RBI_records#Eight_or_More_Consecutive_Seasons_with_100_Runs_Batted_In
I'll give you this, though: Alex Rodriguez is one of the two other active players to accomplish the feat that I'm looking for!
David,
Not the accomplishment I have in mind.
Tim
Career triple crown? Pretty sure this is Pujols' first RBI title, but I know he's won the HR and AVG crowns before.
Yes indeed. Pujols has now achieved the career triple crown, having had the highest league batting average in 2003 and capturing the league home run title in 2009 (and again this year). He's never finished lower than 5th in the league in RBIs, but this is the first year that he led the league. His career stats can be viewed at this link:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pujolal01.shtml
Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez are the two other active players to capture the career triple crown (Bonds is no longer active, is he?).
I posted on the topic of career triple crown winners last year at this link:
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2009/07/baseball-trivia-career-triple-crown-winners.html
does eddie murray get an asterisked mention here? as we've discussed, he led the majors in batting average one year, and in the strike-shortened 1981 season he got credited for 1st in HR and RBIs for the AL.