Q. It is the 40-year anniversary of the last Triple Crown. Do you think there ever will be another? And if so, who will it be?
— Darryle Boyle, St. Louis

A. I never say never, Darryle. But a Triple Crown sure is a difficult proposition these days, isn’t it? Two huge factors come into play now that weren’t as prevalent back in Carl Yastrzemski’s day. Number one is the media attention and scrutiny that falls on anybody attempting to accomplish such major feat.

When Todd Helton took a .400-plus average into late-August of 2000, he began getting extra attention from a national perspective. And this was with more than five weeks left in the season, on a .500 team in the Mountain time zone. I’m sure the attention would have grown to an unbearable level if it was late-September, and he still was chasing .400. And watch later this season when Barry Bonds is within a home run or two of Hank Aaron. That’s just the world we live in today.

The other thing is, those last two Triple Crowns (Frank Robinson won one in 1966) both came in an era dominated by pitching. So you had two guys who were primarily sluggers in Yaz and Robinson able to win batting titles with averages of .301 and .314 respectively.

Taking nothing away from those two Hall of Fame greats, but those averages aren’t going to win many batting titles — certainly not in the slugging era in which the game currently finds itself.

So what you find more often today is a top-of-the-order guy such as Ichiro or Tony Gwynn hitting .350-plus to win a batting title, while the sluggers capture the other two categories.

I saw Larry Walker come up just in RBIs and batting average for a Triple Crown in his MVP year of 1997, but that was aided by playing half his games at Coors Field, which has had its offense-inflating tendencies mitigated by storing baseballs used there in a humidor.

Walker came within four hits and 11 RBI of winning the Triple Crown in 1997, finishing second in batting average behind Tony Gwynn (.372 to .366) and third in RBI behind Andres Galarraga (140) and Jeff Bagwell (135). He led the NL with 49 homers.

If anybody in today’s game could do it, I’d have to put Albert Pujols at the top of the list. But it’s a long-shot at best.

Q. If you had to pick an MVP in the American League right now, who would it be? Would you give Jorge Posada any props?
— Frank, Brooklyn

A. Posada certainly is off to a fabulous start, Frank, especially considering that some of his lineup mates aren’t hitting up to their usual standard. But as odd as this is going to sound, it’s hard to make a Yankees player an MVP at this point, considering how far down they are in the standings.

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To me, in any MVP voting, you look to the player who is most important to a team winning a division or at least making the playoffs. And at this point, that would be Vladimir Guerrero for me, followed by Magglio Ordonez.

But at this point, Posada is all over the AL leaders categories — ranking in the top 10 in batting average, doubles, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and that merits serious consideration at this point. You certainly can make a case for him being in the top handful of MVP candidates to date.

Q. Do you think the Oakland A’s again will make their annual run into AL West contention?
— Mike Olson, San Jose, Calif.

A. I’m certainly not going to write them off, Mike. I picked the A’s to win the division, and as well as the Angels are going right now, there still are a lot of games left to be played.

What the A’s need most is to get healthy. Center fielder Mark Kotsay is back in their lineup after an extended absence, and that has to help both offensively and defensively.

But Mike Piazza, Huston Street, Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, Esteban Loaiza and Bobby Kielty all currently are on the disabled list, and no team can take that many hits to key players.

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The good news is, even with all those players out, as I write this, the A’s have won four in a row, are three games above .500, and within 2 ½ games of the American League wild card spot. So clearly, there is plenty of time for the A’s to make another run to the playoffs.

Q. A.J. Pierzynski now is in trouble for trying to spike Justin Morneau. Is there any player in baseball more-hated by his fellow players?
— Sally Perkins, Chicago

A. He’s a piece of work isn’t he? He always seems to be involved in some sort of controversy — whether it be for trash talking to opponents, not getting along with his own teammates in San Francisco, and now the latest incident with Morneau. Yet, every time something comes up, Pierzynski tries to give you this ‘who-me?’ look, and explain it away as a coincidence, or worse yet, that he’s been given a bad rap. My question to him is, then why do you keep ending up in controversial situations? 

I happened to have been watching that game on television, and while I’m not totally convinced Pierzynski tried to spike Morneau, it was odd that he came down hard on the first-base bag with his right foot crossing over toward where Morneau’s foot was on the base.

The Twins — again, some of whom were his teammates — obviously believe Pierzynski was trying to take out their slugger, and that indictment tells you a lot, right there, doesn’t it?

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