Giving up more triples than homers

Jamey Carroll tripling against the Phillies,
while wearing a retro uni, no less
Icon SMI

These days, triples are pretty rare while homers are fairly common. For example, in 2011, teams averaged 0.18 triples and 0.94 homers per game, or about 5 homers for every triple hit.

It follows, then that most pitchers give up more homers than triples, and that has been the case for many, many years.

However, it used to be the case that about once per year, a pitcher would give up at least 10 triples, but fewer homers than triples. It hasn't been done in a long time now, but click through for the list of guys to do it since 1950.

Rk	Player	Year	3B	HR	IP	Tm
1	Danny Jackson	1985	10	7	208.0	KCR
2	Bob Shirley	1984	12	8	114.1	NYY
3	John Denny	1983	10	9	242.2	PHI
4	Rich Gale	1982	13	9	170.1	SFG
5	Juan Eichelberger	1981	12	5	141.1	SDP
6	Ed Whitson	1980	12	7	211.2	SFG
7	Luis Tiant	1980	11	10	136.1	NYY
8	Dick Ruthven	1980	13	9	223.1	PHI
9	David Clyde	1978	10	4	153.1	CLE
10	Randy Jones	1978	11	6	253.0	SDP
11	Tom Underwood	1976	10	9	155.2	PHI
12	Larry Christenson	1976	17	8	168.2	PHI
13	Charlie Williams	1975	11	2	98.0	SFG
14	John Montefusco	1975	12	11	243.2	SFG
15	Bruce Dal Canton	1970	11	7	84.2	PIT
16	Blue Moon Odom	1968	10	9	231.1	OAK
17	Larry Jackson	1968	10	9	243.2	PHI
18	Chris Short	1967	10	9	199.1	PHI
19	Chris Short	1963	16	12	198.0	PHI
20	Bob Bruce	1963	10	7	170.1	HOU
21	Joe Nuxhall	1961	13	12	128.0	KCA
22	Curt Simmons	1958	12	11	168.1	PHI
23	Curt Simmons	1957	14	11	212.0	PHI
24	Ted Abernathy	1957	10	9	85.0	WSH
25	Erv Palica	1955	12	10	169.2	BAL
26	Camilo Pascual	1955	10	5	129.0	WSH
27	Saul Rogovin	1955	11	8	144.0	TOT
28	Bob Turley	1954	12	7	247.1	BAL
29	Alex Kellner	1953	10	8	201.2	PHA
30	Bob Cain	1953	10	8	99.2	SLB
31	Mike Blyzka	1953	10	6	94.1	SLB
32	Marv Grissom	1952	10	6	166.0	CHW

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/27/2011.

I would imagine that most of these guys did it either because of the dimensions of the ballpark they pitched in primarily or by being a fairly extreme ground ball pitcher.