...in the 2007 regular season, and I'm not sure if people fully realize what a special year Alex Rodriguez is having, and is on pace to have. I sure wasn't aware of it.Right now, A-Rod is projected to hit .304 with 51 homeruns, 151 RBI, 146 runs, and 21 steals.
Just for starters, nobody has enjoyed a 50-150 season since Sammy Sosa in 2001 and we all (*) know (*) about (*) what (*) some (*) people (*) think (*) about (*) numbers (*) put (*) up (*) in (*) the (*) late (*) 90s (*) and (*) early (*) 00s. Asterisks aside, Sosa had exactly zero stolen bases that year, meaning he was just a dangerous slugger, not necessarily a dangerous base-runner.
Prior to Slammin' Sammy (who did it again in 1998 and added 18 steals, to boot) you have to go back 69 years to Jimmie Foxx's 1938 season. And was it ever a season. He hit .349 with 50 homers, and 175 RBI. BUT, he stole just 5 bases, and scored (just, ha!) 139 runs. Foxx had an eerily similar season 6 years before, in '32 when he went .364, 58, 169, and 151 runs. But he only had 3 steals that year.
Hack Wilson's RBI-record-setting 1930 season also surpassed the 50-150 threshold, and did so by a wide margin. Hack went .356, 56, 190, and scored 146 runs. But again, he only stole 3 bases (noticing a theme?).
The list wouldn't be complete without a Bambino sighting or two, so here we go. Babe Ruth went 50-150 in 1927, knocking 60 over the fence, driving in 164, and scoring 158 times. But if you guessed he wasn't much of a base-stealer, you were right, at least not that year. He swiped just 7 bags in '27, although he did snag 17 in 1921, the same year he went .378, 59, 171, 177.
And that's it. That's the 50-150 list: Sosa twice in the steroid era, Foxx twice and Wilson once in the 30s, and Ruth twice in the 20s. And not one of those guys stole 20 bases in the same season.
So if A-Rod keeps up his current pace, he'll (a) become the first player to hit 50, drive in 150, and steal 20 in the same year (b) become just the fifth player to hit 50, and drive in 150 in the same year and, if he picks it up just a little (c) become just the third player to enjoy a 50-homer, 150-RBI, 150-run season.
Lest we forget this all could happen in the same season he became the youngest to 500 career homeruns. And people still hate this guy...go figure.
1 comment:
Yeah but you forget, he yelled "Ha" at a thrid baseman and goes to strip clubs. Who would want a guy like that on their team?
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