Triple your fun

[Frayed Knot]

This is probably a question which UMDB can answer - at least the first part of it.

We all know that CitiField has become a triples haven in its short life and Gary mentioned the other day how that helped a stunning [u:2ew4zqwy]19 different Mets[/u:2ew4zqwy] hit at least one last season (with 12 having more than one)*. That result is shirley due to several factors, not only from the park itself but also the personnel and the fact that the revolving door that was the NYM everyday roster gave very few guys a full season but pushed a whole lot of folks over 100+ ABs to where three-baggers start to become more likely.

- now I gotta figure that this is a team record anyway. Maybe not the 49 total triples hit (although that might be too) but the way they were so spread out over so many players

- and then I'm wondering if that 19 number is an MLB record. Even in the first few decades of the 20th century when triples were more common it would still be tough to find so many having at least one.







*
Pagan - 11
Sullivan - 5
Tatis - 4
Murphy - 4
Wright - 3
Castillo - 3
W. Valdez - 2
A. Hernandez - 2
J. Reyes - 2
Reed - 2
Francoeur - 2
Sheffield - 2
Figueroa - 1
Thole - 1
Evans - 1
Delgado - 1
Beltran - 1
Cora - 1
Santos - 1



Just for kicks and comparisons I looked up the '09 Yanx and found them with 21 (total triples), 11 (players w/a triple) & 6 (players with 2 or more triples)
and also last year's Phils who had 35, 10 & 6 -- with nearly 40% (13) coming from Shane Victorino
and finally I grabbed what I thought, off the top of my head, might be a very 'triple-y' team: the 1962 Dodgers. And while they did hit a whopping 65 three-baggers that year "only" 15 different players had them and only 9 hit more than one. Maury Wills and Willie Davis had 10 each and Tommy Davis had 9. OK, no surprises there. But then 1B Ron Fairly and catcher Johnny Roseboro had 7 each while big Frank Howard chipped in with 6.

[Benjamin Grimm]

2009 did indeed set a record for most individual Mets with triples. (19)

18 Mets tripled in 1963.

16 Mets tripled in 1962, 1966, and 1980.

15 Mets tripled in 1969 and 1976.

And there were 14 Mets with triples in 1970, 1972, 1987, 1993, 2000, and 2004.

At the other extreme, only 2 Mets tripled in 2010, but the season is still rather young.

For full seasons, the minimum count is 8, which happened in 1983, 1999, and 2005. Only 9 Mets had triples in 1967 and 2002.

[Benjamin Grimm]

| year | lastname | usename | tr |
+------+-----------------+--------------+------+
| 1983 | Ashford | Tucker | 1 |
| 1983 | Backman | Wally | 1 |
| 1983 | Seaver | Tom | 2 |
| 1983 | Foster | George | 2 |
| 1983 | Hernandez | Keith | 3 |
| 1983 | Brooks | Hubie | 4 |
| 1983 | Wilson | Mookie | 6 |
| 1983 | Strawberry | Darryl | 7 |
+------+-----------------+--------------+------+
| 1999 | Kinkade | Mike | 1 |
| 1999 | McRae | Brian | 1 |
| 1999 | Dunston | Shawon | 1 |
| 1999 | Hamilton | Darryl | 1 |
| 1999 | Alfonzo | Edgardo | 1 |
| 1999 | Ord��ez | Rey | 2 |
| 1999 | Agbayani | Benny | 3 |
| 1999 | Cede�o | Roger | 4 |
+------+-----------------+--------------+------+
| 2005 | Wright | David | 1 |
| 2005 | Zambrano | Victor | 1 |
| 2005 | Floyd | Cliff | 2 |
| 2005 | Cameron | Mike | 2 |
| 2005 | Beltran | Carlos | 2 |
| 2005 | Diaz | Victor | 3 |
| 2005 | Matsui | Kaz | 4 |
| 2005 | Reyes | Jos� | 17 |
+------+-----------------+--------------+------+

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: 2009 did indeed set a record for most individual Mets with triples. (19) 18 Mets tripled in 1963. 16 Mets tripled in 1962....

I would guess that the Polo Grounds was a great triples park without specifically researching this ... but simply based on my knowledge of the stadium's configuration. Perhaps the NY Giants might be a contender for those triples records FK was wondering about.

[MFS62]

That led me to look at other major league parks that had dimensions conducive to hitting triples.
I immediately thought of Forbes Field.
A quick look showed that the 1950 Pirates also had 19 players who hit triples (3 of them were pitchers).
There may be more, didn't look after I found that.

Later