Brian Roberts, doubles hitter extraordinaire

Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts stands a pretty good chance of becoming only the fourth player in major league history, and the first since Stan Musial, to hit 50 or more doubles in three or more different seasons. He hit 50 in 2004 and 51 last year, and leads the majors so far this year with 36 103 games into the season, a pace that should result in about 55 or 56. Besides Musial (who did it in 1944, '46 and '53), the others to do it were Paul Waner (in 1928, '32 and '36) and all-time doubles leader Tris Speaker, who did it an amazing 5 times (1912, '20, '21, '23 and '26), the last 4 times at ages 32 through 38.

Lots of guys (Helton, Garciaparra, Biggio, Edgar Martinez, and Pujols) have done it twice in recent years, but none have done it that elusive third time.