Baseball: What is an RBI?

A run batted in, or RBI, is a statistic that is counted in baseball. This is used to tally the amount of times a player's at bat results in a run being scored. The RBI is also called 'Ribby' or 'Rib'. The official Major League Baseball rules state that an RBI will be given for every run scored from the result in a sacrifice hit or out, walk, a safe hit, infielder's or outfielder's choice, passed, ball, or error occurs in which the player from third would have scored.

While the RBI does carry the knowledge of talent with it, many people criticize it due to the meaning behind it. Some people feel an RBI is a better reflection of the a manager's ability to order a lineup to maximize the amount of runs scored. This is because the facts that a player has to be in scoring position in order to another player to even have a chance at an RBI. This may also mean the players that precede the batters may have a much lower RBI count than normal, due to the high amount of RBI's that the player before them may 'steal'. In any case, a team that has the highest on base percentage will give the lineup the best opportunity to have the most RBI's.

Hank Aaron has the most RBI's in the history of Major League Baseball. He has 2,297. Babe Ruth is second with 2,217, and Cap Anson is third with 2,076. These are the only players to have over 2,000 RBI's in their career. Hack Wilson had 191 RBI's in 1930, which is a record for most in one season. The highest amount of RBI's in one game is twelve, which has happened on two different occasions. Only seventeen times in Major League Baseball history has a player had a double-digit amount of RBI's in one game. Fernando Tatis had two grand slams in one inning, resulting in a record eight RBI's in one inning.

For a short time, the Major League Baseball also counted game winning RBI's. This was credited to a player that brought home a run that eventually would result in the winning run, whether it was occurring in the first inning or the ninth. This RBI was demolished due to debates over whether the last run scored should be credited with the RBI or the run that gave the team the lead for good. In the short history of this statistic, Keith Hernandez had 129 game winning RBI's. Kirk Gibson was able to record five straight in five games.

Wikipedia, Run Batted in