Time for another edition of Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances or statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. To see past Trivia(l) Tidbits, type Trivia(l) into the search box on the right hand side of the page.
This week’s Trivia(l) Tidbit was inspired by Shohei Ohtani’s recent (September 19) ten-RBI game – which made him one of just 16 Modern Era (post-1900) players with a double-digit RBI contest, as well as one of just 17 Modern Era players with multiple games of eight or more RBI (why I picked eight as the magic number will become clear later). Note: All the records in this post refer to the Modern Era.
I’ll Take a Dozen, Please
When you look at the Modern Era MLB-record 12-RBI games, you find just two – and both are Cardinals.
Jim Bottomley, 1B, Cardinals … September 16, 1924 … Cardinals 17-Dodgers 3 (in Brooklyn)
Photo: The New York Times, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Bottomley, appropriately batting cleanup, enjoyed a six-for-six day, with a double, two home runs, three runs scored and, of course, those 12 RBI. That season, Bottomley went .316-14-111 – notching the first of six consecutive seasons of 100+ RBI. A Hall of Famer, Bottomley played in 16 MLB seasons (1922-37… Cardinals, Reds Browns). He led the NL in hits once, doubles twice, triples once, home runs once, RBI twice and total bases twice. He was the 1928 NL MVP (Cardinals), when he hit .325-31-136, leading the NL in homers, RBI and triples (20).
Mark Whiten, CF, Cardinals … September 7, 1993 …. Cardinal 15-Reds 2 (in Cincinnati)
Whiten, hitting in the six -hole, went four-for-five with an MLB record-tying four home runs in the game. Whiten got off to a good start with a Grand Slam in the first inning. After popping out in the third, he hit a three-run home run in the sixth, another three-run shot in the seventh and a two-run homer in the ninth. It was one of just two multi-homer games for Whiten in 1993 and one of just five in his career. That season, Whiten hit .253-25-99. Whiten played in 11 MLB seasons (1990-2000 … Blue Jays, Indians, Cardinals, Red Sox, Phillies, Braves, Mariners, Yankees). His career stat line was .259-105- 423 in 939 games. His 99 RBI in 1993 were a career high (his only season above 71), as were his 25 home runs. He had just two seasons of 20 or more homers.
Eleven is Heaven
When I moved on to 11-RBI games. Two more players joined the list.
Phil Weintraub, 1B, Giants … April 30, 1944 … Giants 26-Dodgers 8 (in Brooklyn)
Weintraub, playing 1B and batting fifth, enjoyed a four-for-five day, just missing the cycle, with two doubles, a triple and a home run – to go along with, two walks, 11 RBI and five runs scored.
Phil Weintraub – at 36-years/201-days of age is the oldest player to record at least eight RBI in an MLB game.
That season, Weintraub hit .316-13-77 – notching career highs in games played (104), home runs, RBI, hits (114) and runs scored (55). Weintraub played in seven MLB seasons (1933-35, 1937-38, 1944-45 … Giants, Reds, Phillies), hitting .295-32-207 in 444 games.
Tony Lazzeri, 2B, Yankees … May 24, 1936 …. Yankees 25-Atheltics 2 (in Philadelphia)
Lazzeri produced an 11-RBI game (four-for-five, with three homers, a triple, a walk and four runs scored batting out of the eight-hole in a Yankee lineup (remember pitchers batted back then) that included Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey. That season, Lazzeri hit .287-14-109.
Tony Lazzeri holds the Yankee franchise record for RBI in a game.
Lazzeri was a solid RBI man for some powerful Yankee teams. He played for the Yankees from 1926-1937 and then for the Cubs, Dodgers and Giants in 1938-39. The Hall of Famer’s final stat line was .292-178-1,194. He had seven seasons of 100+ RBI and two of 100+ runs. He was a steady – if not spectacular – source of Yankee power, hitting double figures in home runs in seven seasons (reaching high of 18 in four campaigns). He hit .300 or better five times.
Shaking the Magic Eight Ball
Okay, now we’ll do a little skipping ahead. When I dropped down to ten-RBI games – another dozen players joined the list – but still no player’s name appears more than once. Dropping to games of nine or more RBI brings us to 43 players – but still no repeats.
Ah, eight (or more)-RBI seems to be the magic number. Common enough to give us a pretty good list, but rare enough to make looking at players with multiple eight-RBI games both manageable and significant. There have been 163 player games of eight or more RBI in the Modern Era – and, here we find 17 players with multiple such games including three with three such contests.
A few bonus tidbits:
- 91 of the 163 player games of eight or more RBI were recorded by a visiting player;
- Of the 163 eight-RBI games, the player with the eight runs plated played for the losing squad just five times;
- By position, eight RBI-or more games were accomplished by a player at 1B 34 times; RF 31 times; LF 22 times; 3B 21 times; C 14 times; SS ten times; 2B nine times; DH seven times and pitcher once.
Tony Cloninger of the Braves is the only pitcher to record a game of eight or more RBI, with nine RBI in a July 3, 1966, 17-3 Braves’ win over the Giants. In that contest, he became the first National Leaguer (any position) to hit two Grand Slams in a game. He also pitched a seven-hit complete game.
Three Is (pretty darn good) Company
Here’s a look at the three Modern-Era players with three games with eight of more RBI.
Lou Gehrig, 1B, Yankees:
- May 22, 1930 – eight RBI in a Yankees’ 20-13 win over the Athletics in Philadelphia;
- July 31, 1930 – eight RBI in a Yankees’ 14-13 win at Boston;
- September 9, 1932 – eight RBI in a Yankees’ 14-13 loss at Detroit.
Lou Gehrig (Yankees); Jason Bay (Pirates); Mike Epstein (Senators); Shohei Ohtani (Angels); and Lee Thomas (Angels) share the MLB Modern Era record for RBI in a loss.
Finding Gehrig on this list is no surprise, the Hall of Famer played in 17 MLB seasons (1923-39), all for the Yankees. His career stat line was .340-493-1,995. He led the AL in RBI five times and had 13 seasons of 100+ runs driven in (seven of 150 or more). A two-time MVP and seven-time All Star, Gehrig also led the AL in runs scored four times; hits once; doubles twice; total bases four times; and batting average once
Jimmie Foxx, 1B, Athletics and Red Sox:
- July 10, 1932 – nine RBI in an 18-inning Athletics’ 18-17 win over the Indians in Cleveland;
- August 14, 1933 – eight RBI in a 11-5 Athletics’ win over the Indians in Cleveland;
- September 7, 1938 – eight RBI in a 11-4, five-inning Red Sox win over the Yankees (in Boston).
Jimmie Foxx holds the record for the shortest (five innings) and longest (18 innings) games in which which a player drove in at least eight runs.
Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx played in 20 MLB seasons (1925-42, 1944-45 … Athletics, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies). He was a nine-time All Star and three-time MVP. His career stat line was .325-534-1,922. Foxx led his league in home runs four times (topping 40 five times); RBI twice (topping 100 13 times); average two times; and total bases three times.
Dave Kingman, RF/LF/DH, Mets, Cubs, A’s:
- June 4, 1976 – eight RBI for the Mets in an 11-0 win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles;
- May 14, 1978 – eight RBI for the Cubs in a 15-inning 10-0 win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles;
- April 16, 1984 – eight RBI in an A’s 9-6 win over the Mariners in Seattle.
Dave Kingman is the only player to have a game of eight of more RBI for three different teams.
The free-swinging Kingman played in 16 MLB seasons (1971-86 … Giants, Mets, Padres, Angels, Yankees, Cubs, A’s). He hit .236-442-1,210 in 1,941 games. The three-time All Star twice led the league in home runs, seven times hitting 30 or more in a season.
Step Aside, I Got This
On September 2, 1996, Red Sox’ LF Mike Greenwell (batting eighth) set the record for the most runs driven in by a player in a game in which that player drove in all his teams runs. Greenwell drove in nine tallies in the Red Sox’ 9-8, ten-inning win over the Mariners in Seattle.
Here’s a list of the other MLB players with multiple games of eight or more RBI (each has two).
Jason Bay, Pirates – eight RBI in games on September 19, 2003 and July 2, 2004.
Mookie Betts, Red Sox – eight RBI in games on August 14, 2016 and July 2, 2017
Nelson Cruz, Rangers – eight RBI in games on July 22, 2011 and May 25, 2012.
Joe DiMaggio, Yankees – eight RBI in games on August 28, 1939 and August 13, 1940.
Nomar Garciaparra, Red Sox – ten RBI on May 10, 1999 and eight RBI on July 23, 2002.
Yasmani Grandal, White Sox/Dodgers – eight RBI for the Dodgers on May 7, 2015 eight RBI for the White Sox on August 27, 2021.
The youngest player with a game of eight or more RBI in a game is the Giants’ Travis Jackson (19 years-275 days). The ribbies came in a Giants’ 14-4 win over the Reds (in Cincinnati) on August 4, 1923. It was Travis’ first full MLB season (he played in three games for the Giants in 1922) and his 60th MLB game.
Gil Hodges, Dodgers – eight RBI on June 12, 1949 and nine RBI on August 31, 1950.
Jim Northrup, Tigers – eight RBI on June 24, 1968 and eight RBI on July 11, 1973.
Shohei Ohtani, Angels/Dodgers – eight RBI for the Angels on June 21, 22 and ten RBI for the Dodgers on September 19, 2024.
George Selkirk, Athletics – eight RBI on August 10, 1935 and eight RBI August 12, 1938.
Jim Spencer, White Sox – eight RBI on May 14, 1977 and eight RBI on July 2, 1977
Jim Spencer and Lou Gehrig, are the only MLB players with two games of eight or more RBI in one season.
Primary Resource: Baseball-Reference.com
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