Major League Baseball kept record of game-winning RBI, or GW RBI, in the years 1980-1988.[1] The game-winning RBI was credited to the batter whose at-bat was responsible for bringing his team ahead for the final time in the game. For example, if a batter on the winning team brought his team ahead 3-2 from a 2-2 tie at some point during the game, his team later led 5-2 as a result of other batters, and then the opposing team scored two more runs before the final score was 5-4, the batter on the winning team who batted in the third run would be credited with the game-winning RBI, even though the losing team scored four runs. The debate over whether the RBI should be credited to the batter who drove in the third run or the batter who drove in the fifth run in such situations led to the statistic being abolished.
ESPN would continue to occasionally show "GW RBI" in their on-screen statistics well into the 1990s.
Game-winning RBI records [edit]
- Keith Hernandez had 129 game-winning RBI while these records were kept, more than any other player.
- Hernandez also had the most in a single season (24 in 1985). Mike Greenwell had the most in the American League (23 in 1988).
- Wally Joyner, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire each had 14 in their rookie years, the rookie record.
- Kirk Gibson had the game-winning RBI in five consecutive games in 1986.
See also [edit]
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References [edit]
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