Big Boppers: most games with 3+ RBI
Posted by Andy on December 12, 2007
This is pretty straightforward, but I found the results interesting. This is a simple PI Batting Game Finder search for most games with 3 or more RBI.
First, the leaders for 2007:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Alex Rodriguez 24 Ind. Games Matt Holliday 18 Ind. Games Ryan Howard 16 Ind. Games Magglio Ordonez 15 Ind. Games Vladimir Guerrero 15 Ind. Games Ryan Braun 15 Ind. Games Garrett Atkins 14 Ind. Games Brad Hawpe 13 Ind. Games Adrian Gonzalez 13 Ind. Games Mark Ellis 13 Ind. Games Jim Thome 12 Ind. Games Carlos Pena 12 Ind. Games Justin Morneau 12 Ind. Games Prince Fielder 12 Ind. Games Chris Duncan 12 Ind. Games
Most named you'd expect (guy with lots of homers, as that's the easiest way to get 3 RBI in a game) but a couple of surprising ones: Mark Ellis and Chris Duncan. They are productive players, but don't have a ton of HRs or RBIs. A-rod's huge lead in this stat is also notable, though I guess 54 HRs and 156 RBI really helps with that.
Now here are the leaders for the last 5 seasons (2003-2007):
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ David Ortiz 72 Ind. Games Mark Teixeira 68 Ind. Games Manny Ramirez 64 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 63 Ind. Games Albert Pujols 61 Ind. Games Andruw Jones 58 Ind. Games Vladimir Guerrero 56 Ind. Games Vernon Wells 55 Ind. Games Carlos Delgado 55 Ind. Games Miguel Cabrera 55 Ind. Games Carlos Beltran 54 Ind. Games Travis Hafner 53 Ind. Games Lance Berkman 53 Ind. Games Carlos Lee 52 Ind. Games Chipper Jones 52 Ind. Games Richie Sexson 51 Ind. Games Bobby Abreu 51 Ind. Games Adrian Beltre 50 Ind. Games
Wow, Ortiz must have ranked pretty high 2003 to 2006 to leapfrog into the lead here, considering he didn't even make the leaderboard in 2007. Same can be said for Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira.
Now, here are the leaders, 1957 to 2007:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Hank Aaron 213 Ind. Games Barry Bonds 201 Ind. Games Sammy Sosa 182 Ind. Games Manny Ramirez 179 Ind. Games Eddie Murray 179 Ind. Games Ken Griffey 175 Ind. Games Frank Thomas 172 Ind. Games Rafael Palmeiro 171 Ind. Games Dave Winfield 168 Ind. Games Mike Schmidt 166 Ind. Games Frank Robinson 166 Ind. Games Reggie Jackson 164 Ind. Games Willie Stargell 162 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 159 Ind. Games Juan Gonzalez 157 Ind. Games Jose Canseco 155 Ind. Games Carl Yastrzemski 153 Ind. Games Mark McGwire 153 Ind. Games Gary Sheffield 152 Ind. Games
It's truly staggering to me that Aaron leads the pack. I realize that he's the career RBI leader, but keep in mind that he played 3 full (and productive) seasons prior to 1957 that aren't even included in this search! It's not surprising that many current and recent players are high on the list, with so many more runs being scored these days. Of these top 19 guys, 8 are already in the HOF (Aaron, Murray, Winfield, Schmidt, Robinson, Jackson, Stargell, and Yastrzemski.) All of the rest will get a lot of votes, although exactly how many is tough to know because so many of them have been implicated in alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs (Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, Gonzalez, Canseco, McGwire, and Sheffield.) The only guys here who are not already in the HOF and whose names haven't been linked to PEDs (at least so far) are Ramirez, Griffey, Thomas, and Rodriguez.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Simply put, Hammerin' Hank rules. The strange irony may be that by breaking Ruth's 714 mark, Aaron is only remembered for that. When actually, he should be remembered for his terrific all-around play and amazing consistency. Lest we forget his 3 Gold Gloves. Lest we forget his two batting titles, and his two streaks of five-straight years finishing in the top five in batting. Lest we forget 19 consecutive years with at least one MVP vote! Lest we forget his 6 post-season HRs, and his 1.115 OPS in 74 post season PAs.
Lest we forget the following math: Aaron is the all-time leader in Total Bases with 6856. Musial is 2nd all-time with 6134. (6856-6134)*90/5280=12.3 miles more Total Bases than any other player.