Three seasons ago, a Triple 3 campaign was treated as something of a phenomenon. The feat — finishing a season with at least a .300 average, 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases — had been accomplished before Tetsuto Yamada and Yuki Yanagita both did it in 2015, but that last time had been in 2002, by Kazuo Matsui.
Triple 3 became the new, hot thing in Japanese baseball in 2015 as Yamada and Yanagita each moved closer to it late in the season. Their chase was covered heavily in the media and they were celebrated once the job was done. After the season, Yamada and Yanagita were crowned MVPs of their respective leagues. The phrase itself even won an award, being crowned as the buzzword of the year in Japan.
Which is why there should be more noise about the shot they both have at doing it again this year.