Sunday, September 30, 2007

Statistical Feat Overlooked in '07

With all the goings-on this year in baseball, I'm not surprised one of the most curious statistical feats has gone all but overlooked. I mean, just take a look at some of the many (and I mean many) things that happened this year:

- Tom Glavine won his 300th game.
- John Smoltz and Andy Pettitte each won their 200th games.
- Trevor Hoffman became the first closer to record 500 career saves.
- Pedro Martinez struck out the 3,000th batter of his career.
- Mark Buehrle, Justin Verlander, and Boston rookie Clay Bucholz all threw no-hitters.
- Sammy Sosa hit his 600th career home run.
- Alex Rodriguez, Frank Thomas, and Jim Thome all hit their 500th homers.
- Ryan Howard became the fastest to hit 100 career home runs.
- Craig Biggio became the 27th player to join the 3,000 hit club.
- On Aug. 22, in a 30-3 victory over Baltimore, the Texas Rangers became the first team to score 30 runs in a game since 1897.
- Troy Tulowitzki (it's okay, I'll clarify - starting shortstop for Colorado) became the 13th player in history to turn an unassisted triple play.
- On April 22, Manny Ramirez, JD Drew, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers for the fifth time in ML history.

- And Barry Bonds did something with a home run record and some steroids. That counted, right?

But despite this exhausting list of accomplishments this year, one remains quietly flying under the radar because of how unusual it is. It's not hard to understand why. Put simply - it's complicated.

Detroit center fielder Curtis Granderson and Philly shortstop Jimmy Rollins became the first players to record 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 homers, and 20 steals in the same season since Willie Mays did it in 1957. The two join Mays and Frank "Wildfire" Schulte (1911) as the only players in the history of the game to have 20-20-20-20 seasons. And Granderson and Rollins are the first duo to accomplish this feat in the same season, making it even more remarkable.

If your first thoughts are, big deal, that isn't much of a statline, then I ask you - why haven't more people accomplished this?

But with all the other accomplishments going on, it's no wonder this didn't receive much publicity. After all, it's not every season that players reach marks of 500 and 600 homers, in the same season as others get their 3,000th hit and 3,000th K. And all in the same season that a hallowed record sees its usurper come along and triumphantly replace the former record-holder to the wild approval of the fans.

(What? They put an asterisk on the ball and sent it to the Hall of Fame? And Barry Bonds seemed like such a nice man, too...)

1 Comments:

At 6:33 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

ok so i knew about this, but the reason its so rare has got to be the triples. players like a-rod and beltran who could get the 20-20-20-20 season dont because they hit more doubles and homers and dont leg out triples.

 

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