Chase Utley hit his league leading 21st home run last night, and with his ridiculous power streak has powered the Phillies over the Marlins to first in the NL East. He's now first in HR's, second in RBI's, and a 11th in AVG, with only .005 separating him from 6th. It looks like he can't be stopped, and as long as he's rolling like this neither can the Phillies - they've won 7 of the last 8, including games where they scored 12, 15, or 20 runs!
While he makes his case for an MVP season following MVP seasons by Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard in the last two seasons consecutively, it made me wonder what kind of historical significance this might have. It turns out MLB.com provides a nice little list showing that a potential Phillies trifecta wouldn't be anything too unique: Cincinnati did it with Ernie Lombardi, Bucky Walters, and Frank McCormick from 1938 - 1940; St. Louis did it with Mort Cooper, Stan Musial, and Marty Marion; The Yankees did it with Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, and Spud Chandler from 1941-1943, and again with Roger Maris, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, and Elston Howard from 1960-1963. If you include lists where one player wins twice or more and another teammate wins in a connecting year, the list has several more groupings, including the Giants having a Jeff Kent, Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds series from 2000-2004; with exception to the giants, though, all of the streaks have been over 30 years ago, when there were less teams (and any streaks 60 years ago happened when there were significantly less teams), so a Ryan Howard - Jimmy Rollins - Chase Utley three-peat would still be very impressive, and highly unusual.
