[Willie Bee]

Since 1901, only one batter (minimum 200 AB) has repeated his 'Triple Crown' stats in successive seasons. In other words, this batter recorded the same batting average, home runs and RBI for consecutive seasons. Who is it?

HINT: The player in question never actually won the Triple Crown in his league for either season.

[Mudcat]

Oh man. That could be anyone. Doesn't even have to be someone good. I'll throw out my usual wild guess but the odds must be, like, one in ten thousand I'd get it right.

But okay. Howzabout . . . man I dunno . . .

Arky Vaughan

[Willie Bee]

Arky came close back in 1937-38. Batted .322 each year, but hit 5 and 7 HR and had 72 and 68 RBI those seasons.

It's only happened once since 1901. But the answer lies in fairly recent times, say the last 20 years.

[tacomax]

Is it Rusty Kuntz?

[Mudcat]

It seriously could be anyone and we don't even have a triple crown winner in the last 20 years to eliminate.

How bout . . .

Edgar Renteria.

I'm sure I could just do a quick look-up and see that I'm wrong. The reason I thought of Edgar Renteria is I know a guy whose dog will start barking if you say "Edgar Renteria" with a little bit of enthusiasm to it. You can say almost anything else and the dog will just sit there and look at you sideways but as soon as you start saying, "Edgar Renteria," the dog gets all worked up.

Maybe other people with dogs could try it.

My cat doesn't give a crap about Edgar Renteria.

[Willie Bee]

The dog must be a Red Sox fan

Not Renteria.

Player in question batted at least .300, hit at least 30 homers and drove in at least 100 runs in the back-to-back identical seasons.

[Mudcat]

The dog must be a Red Sox fan

Actually - to go even deeper with this absurd topic - the dog's reaction to Edgar Renteria was discovered in 1997 during the Marlins' run to the World Series. So maybe the dog is a Marlins fan. He could also be an Injuns fan. It's hard to say whether the dog is for or against Edgar Renteria - but he clearly has feelings of some kind.

So another guess:

Frank Thomas

[Willie Bee]

Missed your answer, taco. But old Rusty Kuntz is not correct.

That is one crazy ass dog.

Big Hurt is not the answer. Thomas did repeat exact 40 HR seasons (1995-96), but wasn't really close to the same AVG and RBI figures.

The player did it while playing in the National League.

[Mudcat]

What about a Houston connection:

Jeff Bagwell

[Willie Bee]

Nope, not Baggy. But the right answer is an infielder and, in fact, plays the position Bagwell did in the minors for Boston before Houston converted him to a first baseman.

[Mudcat]

I'm thinking that's 3rd base - and I'm thinking of the launching pad in Colorado.

Vinny Castilla?

[Willie Bee]

In 1996, Vinny Castilla hit batted .304, hit 40 HR and drove home 113 runs. He repeated those exact same figures the following season, 1997.