Triple Crown Threats

My money's on Big Brown.

It's pretty much a three-horse race: Josh Hamilton, Lance Berkman and Big Brown.

Both Hamilton (Rangers) and Berkman (Astros) have more than piqued our interest, although there's still a lot of baseball to play.

Can one of them, please, put a merciful end to major-league baseball's four-decade Triple Crown drought?

The last player to lead his league in batting average, home runs and RBI is now pushing 70. Carl Yastrzemski capped Boston's "Impossible Dream" season of 1967 with baseball's elusive trifecta.

Hamilton -- current Sports Illustrated cover boy -- ranks first in RBI, first in HRs and second in batting average among American League hitters. Houston's Berkman, meanwhile, is tattooing NL pitching at the tune of second in home runs, second in batting average and third in RBI. Big Brown has the easier trip. He needs only to win Saturday's Belmont Stakes to become thoroughbred racing's first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.