[jtur88]

What would it take in the 21st century for a playe to break Owen Wilson's record of 36 triples?

Wilson batted only .300 in 1912, with 175 hits. Only 106 were singles. I am presuming that he played that year with the run-til-you're-out philosophy, since he hit only 19 doubles. Suggesting that he hit 55 gappers, went for a triple every time, but got thrown out at third 19 times. Apparenly, he often didnt even stop at third, as he finished only 3 HRs behind the league leader, But his home run average was about constant through four seasons, so those were probably mostly over the wall.

A generation ago, the triples leader was typically in the mid-teens, and decades would pass without anybody hitting 20. but in recent years, there is usually a player who flirts with or exceeds 20. Relevant to this, though, is that with modern strategy, few players would try to stretch a double into a triple unless there is one out. Risk outweighs the benefit with no outs or two outs. So, unless it ball is still rolling around on the warning track, only about one-third of all doubles would be stretched into a triple. Wilson's Pirates finished in second place, ten games out, but his manager (Fred Clarke) must have tolerated Wilson running him out of a lot of innings. He must have dedicated himself to triples only in that (and the less successful following) season, since the year before, he had 34 doubles, but only 12 triples. He wasn't much of a base-stealer, averaging about ten in an era when dozens of players would steal 30.

Extrapolating from that, one could conclude that a 15-triple player hits most of them with one out, and with disregard for the game situation, might easily reach the 30 mark. I do not know the inning-outs distribution of the triples being hit by recent players with 20---if anybody knows, that would be interesting data. It would also be interesting to see the field configurations of the ballparks that Wilson hit most of his triples in.

Athletes are faster now than in Wilson's time, they wear better designed shoes, and their uniform offers less wind resistance, and they run on a better-maintained base track. (On the other hand, outfield bounces are true on symmetrical fields.) We passed recently through an era when players would steal bases at will, irrespective of strategic benefit. Is it only a matter of time before somebody decides to hit 36 triples? That would require an average of 6 a month, and nobody yet this April has more than 3.

In 1949, Dale Mitchell (Don Larsen's last out) hit 23 triples and only 16 doubles. Was he the last to try to stretch 'em all? In the next half century, only two players (Mays and Willie Wilson) hit 20. Three have done it since 2000.