It’s been quite a summer in Cincinnati, St. Louis and Denver as the cities three superstars vie for baseball’s first Triple Crown since 1967.

It would be rather modest to say the battle between Joey Votto, Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzalez has been an anomaly. There have only been 11 players since 1900 that have ever accomplished the sport’s most celebrated feat. It’s almost impossible to put into words the historical significance of three players seriously contending for the honor this late in the season, because the fact of the matter is that we have NEVER seen anything like this before.

Yet as the hype for baseball immortality begins to intensify, there is a dark smoke cloud that is rising up from the city of Atlanta and slowly and unknowingly making its way across the country.

In the middle of Downtown Atlanta stands a man tens of feet in the air on a platform above an enormous fire with flames intensifying like hurricane waves.

The silhouette stands alone amongst a shadowy backdrop like a 1940’s European dictator throwing dozens of books into the raging inferno every minute.

As the mystifying figure turns his back to grab another bushel of texts you notice he is no tyrant, but rather a major league baseball player. What he is throwing is not contentious literature, but actually infinite amounts of baseball almanacs that will never be written.

Who is this man that is trying to erase the traces of this potentially legendary race to the crown?

Well, he only stands at a relatively generous six-foot, 175 pounds. Not exactly the giant you would expect to shoulder the responsibility of destroying something so beautiful. He’s a nine-year veteran from Venezuela who has only averaged 85 games played per season. He’s a career .276 hitter, he’s never hit more than 16 home runs in year, he’s never knocked in more 60 runs, and most people in Atlanta probably don’t even know who this guy is.

Drum roll please?

The mystery player about throw the biggest wrench into the Triple Crown race the likes baseball has never seen before is?

Omar Infante.

Ring a bell? I didn’t think so.

About to be the most well-known player in baseball that you don’t actually know, Infante will soon be haunting the minds of Pujols, Votto, and Gonzalez like the boogie man under the bed.

Unfortunately for the threesome at the top of every National League hitting category, Infante is actually real.

One of the reasons 99% of America has never heard of this name before is because Infante’s name doesn’t appear on any list of league leaders. Infante’s .343 batting average as of September 3, 2010 would lead all National League hitters as Pujols, Gonzalez and Votto all stand around at .320. But none of baseball’s official lists of statistics would ever tell you that. Conspiracy?

Well, not quite. To be qualified for a batting title in a respective league, a hitter must register 502 plate appearances in a given season, or what Major League baseball calls the number of team games (162) multiplied by 3.1.

Infante’s current total of 378 plate appearances would put him 37 under the minimum number of plate appearances of 415 he would need at the moment to have his name considered for the batting title.

As the race to 502 starts to heat up with a month left in the season, it’s important to take note that Infante registered 133 plate appearances in the month of August, playing in 29 games.

If Infante were to stay on his August pace of just over 4.5 plate appearances a game and play in every one of Atlanta's remaining 28 games, he would get to the magical number of 502 on the last game of the season.

Talk about cutting it close.

However, even if Infante cannot get exactly to 502 plate appearances, their still remains a small loop hole in baseball’s rulebook that can get a player qualified for the batting title even without the minimum number of plate appearances.

If a player fails to reach the minimum number of plate appearances, baseball will than count the remaining number of at bats the player needed to get to 502 as “hitless” at bats. If than the player still has the highest batting average in the league after the hitless at bats have been administered to his average, than he can take claim to the batting title. For instance, if Infante finished with only 490 plate appearances, baseball would than add 12 hitless at bats to his statistics to attain 502. If that final batting average, with the 0/12 added on to his batting average, still led the league, than Infante would officially be the champion.

This kind of action was the reason why Tony Gwynn won the batting title over Ellis Burks in 1996, when Gwynn finished with only 498 plate appearances. However, the 0/4 major league baseball added to Gwynn’s batting average to deem him qualified still topped the league.

You have to give Omar a lot of credit for even putting his name into the conversation for National League batting crown. Fighting to get at bats in the crowded Braves infield earlier in the year, Infante was used primarily as a utility defensive specialist, able to play second base, shortstop, third base and even outfield.

It wasn’t until the injuries to second baseman Martin Prado and Chipper Jones did Infante start to receive every day attention in Braves Manager Bobby Cox’s lineup card.

Just a couple of months ago, National League All-Star team manager Charlie Manuel received much flak for choosing Infante to play in the All-Star game. Many people agreed that a utility man with a knack for playing defense represented much importance in the game of baseball, but not in any sort of All-Star game amongst some of the games most well known superstars.

That argument just seems silly now after Infante hit .344 in the month of August keeping his average hovering at .340 for most of the month.

Before people in St. Louis, Denver, and Cincinnati start to plan out “Triple Crown watch parties” in their back yards and patios on the third of October about to party like it 1999, don’t be surprised if Omar Infante shows up at their door attempting to crash the party.