Aye caramba! Mickey Mantle of the Tigers just hit for the Triple Crown in 1933, and when the Mick hits for the Triple Crown, he annihilates the field. He won the AL batting title by almost
50 points over Rod Carew with a
.387 average (was exactly at
.400 on September 1st, and
.401 on September 8th - season ended October 1st). Outhomered the second place guy (some dude named Bob O Jones) by
23 HR, with
63 HR. Had
42 more RBI than the runner up Bob O Jones (Mr. Jones had a nice season, but nothing like this), with
161 RBI. He also scored
149 freakin' runs! Criminy! I've never seen anything like this before. He had a freakin' slash line of
.387/.490/.758/1.248 for cryin' out loud!
448 Total Bases! This is still with 1984 for stats output in a season that had a .261 MLB average, a slash line of .261/.324/.385/.709, and slightly below average HR output (RL output was 0.02265 HR/AB, this 1933 season was 0.02215 HR/AB; Mantle had a staggering
0.1066 HR/AB - somebody find this guy another league). Then there was the cartoonish
16.3 WAR, and the outrageous
10.6 WPA. As Ken "Hawk" Harrelson would say "You gotta be bleepin' bleepin' me!!!"
With that, the Mick is now my game's all-time single season leader in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, R, TB, HR, RBI, and WAR, probably WPA too, but the game doesn't seem to keep track of that, and it's all from 1933. Crazy!
Totally outdid the Cardinals' Gene Tenace, who almost won the NL Triple Crown with a .327, 44 HR, 110 RBI (8 RBI short, Graig Nettles (BSN) had 118, Vince DiMaggio (CIN) had 114) season and an incredible (for a catcher) slash line of .327/.436/.669/1.105. His season got completely overshadowed by Mantle and he'll probably win the NL MVP.
The only question that remains is...Can the Tigers win their 2nd World Series in 5 years and 3rd overall? Stay tuned...