Yesterday’s
Belmont Stakes calls attention to the Triple Crown in thoroughbred horse racing.
Winners of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness
Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in a single year are declared Triple Crown winners, a designation
conceived by Charles Hatton writing in the Daily
Racing Form in 1930. Only eleven
horses have won the Triple Crown, the last, Affirmed, in 1978.
Professional
surfing and baseball also award a triple crown.
That makes three triple crown awards.
The
Triple Crown in baseball is awarded when one player in either the American
League or the National League (or in some rare cases all of Major League
Baseball) has the highest batting average, the most home runs and the most runs
batted in during a single season. Before Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown in
2012, Carl Yastremski was the last player to do it 45 years earlier while playing
for the Boston Red Sox. Only 14 players have achieved the feat. Pitchers also
have a triple crown for most wins, best earned run average and most strikeouts
in a single season. Winning the pitching Triple Crown has occurred more often. Grover
Cleveland Alexander did it three times.
From Threes,
Chapter Ten, “Threes in Sports and Games”
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