33 Responses to “Runs and RBI equal”

1. AndrewJ Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 8:35 am

   And Stan Musial, of course, retired with 1,949 runs scored and 1,951 RBI.

2. fredsbank Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 9:08 am

   i scrolled down, saw bob feller 99-99 and 1956 and was like holy shit...

   then i saw it was career numbers and the fever left

3. Stu Baron Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 9:41 am

   Only on such a list would Jeff Manto be mentioned in the same breath as Bob Feller, lol!

4. Brian Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 10:00 am

   And Bert Haas just missed with his batting average, too....

5. PhilsPhan Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 11:49 am

   Saw Cliff Lee and thought wow he's the active leader

   Then I realized that he played half a season in the NL, so it couldn't be him

6. PhilsPhan Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 11:49 am

   Different CLiff lee apparently

7. dukeofflatbush Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 12:46 pm

   Equally frivolous:
   H = BB > 100
   Eddie Stanky 127 BB/H 1951
   Adam Dunn 122 BB/H 2008
   Jack Cust 111 BB/H 2008

8. illdonk Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 1:11 pm

   George August "Hooks" Dauss (September 22, 1889 – July 27, 1963) was a Major League pitcher who played his entire career with the Detroit Tigers. Nicknamed 'Hooks' or 'Hookey' because of his hard-to-hit curveball.

   I had imagined a much more interesting origin of his nickname...

9. Pageup Says:
   March 27th, 2011 at 2:28 pm

   Ott did 1859 runs 1860 ribbies

10. Pageup Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    since you mentioned it for Frank Robby, I wonder who had the most black ink for one year?

11. Thomas Court Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    I like little statistical coincidences like this.

    One of my favorite statistical coincidences is that in 1997 and 1997 Vinny Castilla had duplicat triple crown stats:

    40 hr 113 rbi .304 avg

12. Thomas Court Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    duh... I meant 1996 and 1997....

    I know Castilla was consistent, but not enough to make the YEARS duplicate.

13. Andy Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    #10 my first thought is Babe Ruth in 1923. He has 10 black numbers that year...R, HR, RBI, BB, SO, OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, and TB. I doubt anybody can beat that unless it is in a year prior to 1923.

14. Thomas Court Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    @ 13

    Robinson actually tied Ruth with 10 black numbers in 1966. The differences are that Robinson achieved black numbers in AVG and SF instead of BB and SO. Both players won MVP awards in their respective seasons, but Robinson won the triple crown; something Ruth never did but came very close to on many occasions.

    Ruth followed 1923 with another 10 black category season in 1924. That year he traded the RBI crown for his only career batting title. Ruth had 3 other season in which he blackened nine categories (1921, 1926, 1928) and 3 seasons of 8 (1919, 1929, 1927).

15. Thomas Court Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    dang it... Ruth switch 1929 for 1920 in my previous comment about Ruth. I really need to proof-read these things before I post.

16. DoubleDiamond Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    Both Clifford Walker Lee (the righthanded throwing and hitting position player) and Clifton Phifer Lee (the pitcher) played for both the Phillies and the Cleveland Indians. The Oracle path from the first to the second Cliff Lee goes through three other lefthanded pitchers who spent significant time with the Phillies:

    Cliff Lee played with Carmen Hill for the 1919 Pittsburgh Pirates

    Carmen Hill played with Rollie Hemsley for the 1928 Pittsburgh Pirates

    Rollie Hemsley played with Curt Simmons for the 1947 Philadelphia Phillies

    Curt Simmons played with Steve Carlton for the 1965 St. Louis Cardinals

    Steve Carlton played with Terry Mulholland for the 1986 San Francisco Giants

    Terry Mulholland played with Cliff Lee for the 2003 Cleveland Indians

    Rollie Hemsley, a righthanded hitting and throwing catcher, also was both a Phillie and an Indian. And so were Carlton and, as shown above, Mulholland.

17. Raphy Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    @14 I don't know which categories we're including, but Musial has 1 season with 12 and 2 more with 11.

    Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
    1943	22	STL	NL	157	701	617	108	220	48	20	13	81	9		72	18	.357	.425	.562	.988	177	347	17	2	10			*O	AS,MVP-1
    1946	25	STL	NL	156	702	624	124	228	50	20	16	103	7		73	31	.365	.434	.587	1.021	183	366	7	3	2			*3O	AS,MVP-1
    1948	27	STL	NL	155	694	611	135	230	46	18	39	131	7		79	34	.376	.450	.702	1.152	200	429	18	3	1			*O/3	AS,MVP-1

    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
    Generated 3/27/2011.
18. DavidRF Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    @17
    Hornsby had 12 in 1921 and 11 in 1922.

19. Raphy Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    Ted Williams had 12 in 1949.

20. DavidRF Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    Cobb had 11 in 09,11,17
    Wagner had 11 in 08
    Lajoie had 11 in 01
    Barnes had 11 in 76 and a whopping 14 in 73!!!

    Ross had a few tricks up his sleeve besides the fair-foul bunt trick I guess. 🙂

21. Musial Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    The Man ended his career with exactly the same number of Hits at home vs. on the road with 1,815 each of his 3,630 total. Anybody else in MLB do something like that?

22. Pageup Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    I wasn't thinking of games, which is like leading the league in attendance, and plate appearances naturally would be high with a lot of black ink? But then again, why not count those? Funny thing about Musial, he still seems somewhat underrated to me, but that career is out of this world...

23. Pageup Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 6:03 pm

    in '48 Musial came 1 home run away from leading the league in 2b, 3b, and hrs, which would have been pretty cool...

24. Gerry Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    Note Val Picinich, #5 on the career R = RBI chart. In 18 seasons he only played 1037 games. I once made a list of career leaders in Games Missed (if your team plays 162 games, and you only get into, say, 42 of them, you get credit for 120 Games Missed), not counting pitchers, and Picinich was near the top of the list.

25. Richard Chester Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    @17

    George Stirnweiss led in 12 categories in 1945 but one was CS.

26. Pageup Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 9:41 pm

    on the pitcher's side I see W. Johnson had 15 in '13, whoa

27. Charles Saeger Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 10:12 pm

    F. Robby: An old 30.

28. Jimbo Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    3 Franks in the top 6.

29. brett kiser Says:
    March 27th, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    In an unrelated post, I read on this site that Charlie Metro passed away. I'm currently reading his autobiography. He tells a humorous yarn about managing in the PCL against the great Lefty O'Doul. O'Doul asked some teenage kids sitting back of third base to ride Metro all game while he was in the coaching box. These teens accosted Metro for several innings until he had enough.

    Charlie casually walked over to the kids and said, "You'd better watch out. I played in this city seventeen years ago and I just might be your daddy." I thought that was classic.

30. Lawrence Azrin Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @1, @9 - Honus Wagner (1733/ 1739) and George Brett (1583/ 1595) also had very even career Runs/ RBI totals. Other (retired) all-time greats with balanced totals include Frank Robinson, Ted Williams and Yaz.

    Bill James wrote a while ago (the NBJHA?) that Brett was probably the player with the most balanced offensive skills of the all-time greats; that also applies to the other players mentioned here.

31. ari Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    Manto also has a third matching number- 97 career walks.

32. Dr. Doom Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    @30-

    It was in the NBJHBA. He pointed that out because he said that, in general, players end their careers with approximately an even number of R+RBI, H, and secondary bases (which is 2B+3B+3B+HR+HR+HR+SB+BB, or TB+SB+BB-H). Brett is remarkably close to all of those things being even. Of course, it probably only worked that way because James loves the Royals. 🙂

33. Lawrence Azrin Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 6:05 pm

    @32 - Thanks Dr. Doom, I thought that it was in the NBJHA write up of Brett under the 3rd basemen section. Of course, a lot of the Runs/ RBI totals depends on a player's team mates, but most of the all-time greats bat 3rd/4th most of their career.

    Cobb, Speaker, Mays, and Mantle are notable for having somewhat more career Runs than RBI.