Jump to content

Dumb Things in MLB Recordkeeping, Part 298

DrungoHazewood

By DrungoHazewood
in MLB

Recommended Posts

DrungoHazewood Hangout Grand Counsel

DrungoHazewood

Posted
Posted

Somehow I missed this in early June, probably because I try to block out all things that have to do with ARod and the Yanks. But MLB made a small point about ARod moving into 2nd place on the all-time RBI list, passing Barry Bonds.

"So what?", you might say. The problem is the inconvenient fact that Alex Rodriguez is actually Fourth on the all-time RBI list, behind Hank Aaron, Cap Anson, and Babe Ruth.

What's going on here? Well, it seems that RBI weren't "officially" tracked by MLB until 1920. The league and their statkeepers the Elias Bureau, for whatever reason, sees all RBI prior to 1920 as not really existing. Babe Ruth played from 1914-1919 in this historical black hole, so MLB says he had zero RBI for that period. This is despite the fact that the good folks at Retrosheet and others have meticulously scanned pretty much every box score from 1871-present to verify the actual RBI totals. MLB and Elias ignores that. Cap Anson played his entire career before MLB officially sanctioned the writing down of RBI, so by the so-called official book he has a grand total of zero.

The next time MLB says something is an all-time whatever, take it with a grain of salt and look it up on an unofficial site with complete records of what actually happened like Retrosheet.org, bb-ref, or Fangraphs, or the Baseball Cube, or really anywhere except MLB.com.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Billy F-Face3
      Jackson Holliday 2024

      By Billy F-Face3 · Posted

      What I'd like to see in the next game Holliday plays, is for him to keep his eyes following through on the ball when he swings. In the last game I saw, he was yanking his head off the zone when he swung and couldn't see the bat to the ball. He was missing wildly and it wasn't even competitive. So, keep your eye on the ball! Follow all the way through! If your swing is so violent that it's yanking your head off the sight of the ball, then adjust your mechanics because you can't hit what you can't see!
    • Ohfan67
      Some 9x stats

      By Ohfan67 · Posted

      What a great example of pedantic! Please tell us you meant to do that. I honestly can’t tell these days. 
    • OsFanSinceThe80s
      Some 9x stats

      By OsFanSinceThe80s · Posted

    • Rojo13
      Jackson Holliday 2024

      By Rojo13 · Posted

      Well it certainly doesn't look like he'll be winning Rookie of Year award. And if we send him down for like the tiniest amount of time, we get him for another year, right? I think if this poor hitting continues it's financial mismanagement not to send him back down. Grayson got sent down and came back way better.
    • Can_of_corn
      Draft Day Bloopers

      By Can_of_corn · Posted

      He certainly isn't a bust but I wasn't happy with the pick at the time and I don't love using the second overall pick for that type of player profile. Westburg signed for slot so he's irrelevant but Mayo was a great use of the money saved.
    • ChuckS
      Norfolk 2024

      By ChuckS · Posted

      Think Heston will be the next call up. Mayo’s K/BB ratio is poor and I think they’ll want to see that even out. Stowers and Norby have seen their numbers slip a bit.  It will likely take an injury to an outfielder or first baseman, but I think we see HK next. 
    • Jammer7
      Draft Day Bloopers

      By Jammer7 · Posted

      I have to laugh at some of my pre-draft thoughts as well as others. I will say on behalf of myself and some others is that what we did not understand then was what the Orioles brain trust knew to be their model, and what they best developed. What traits they were looking for is an important thing to know, in hindsight anyway. And really, the Jackson Holliday leap in development was not something most of us heard anything about until about a month before the draft. I saw him the previous summer and I cannot say he was all that impressive, but it was only one look. His physicality took a big jump after that.  I will also add that we’re never going to know what would have happened if they drafted Austin Martin, Jones, Lawler, Lacy, etc. Their development could well have been different as O’s. The funny part of this board, in general, is the absolute certainty some have in their opinions and how eager they are to trash Elias and staff. There is plenty of humility to go around, now that things have played out. It’s fun to finally have a truly great front office and ownership group, and a stacked stable of horses. 

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...