From 1980 to 1988, MLB kept a statistic called the Game Winning RBI, defined as the run driven in by a hitter that put his team ahead to stay - the team never trailed after that run.
Of course this meant if you drove in the first run of the game in the top of the first and your team ended up winning 15-2 or 9-8 and never was tied or behind, you got the stat. Which pretty much made it irrelevant, and they discontinued it in less than a decade.
Sadly, I programmed it into my home grown stats program at that time, and I never took it out. I considered removing it entirely, or changing it to track reached base on error (which is more useful to a team), or some other stat, but being lazy be nature I never modified it. And besides, we had years of tracking it on my teams!
But - once in a while, the original intent of the stat, which was basically to track walk-offs, is actualized in a game and tonight was the perfect example.
Derek strode up to the plate, having gone from down on himself after his first at bat, to mild self-satisfaction when he hit a scorching double in the 5th, to climb the heights in the bottom of the seventh. He came up with the tying run on second, and the winning run on first and blasted a ball off the pole in deep right center and we had our first win of the year, 16-14. I think it was still rising when it hit the pole. It felt real good after going down 6-5 the week before in a game we should have cruised through.
He had plenty of help. Berto hit a three run blast of his own in the first to start our scoring, and went 4-4. Jason was a nuisance on the bases also going 4-4. Jeremy made the most of his ABs, with a double, sac fly and reaching on an error to plate 3 RBIs. Plus he made a great catch in LC filling in for Cage. Heffe ignited our six run catch up inning (with two outs and no one on) and our game winning rally with nine hop singles up the middle.
And you don't come back from down 12-3 after 3 1/2 innings without some stellar defense. We turned three double plays, a 1-6-3, 6-4-3, and 4-6-3. Those guys up the middle are our strength. And Tom pretty much slammed the door on his teammates from another league, another time, after they came out of the chute on fire: Helped by the double plays, he only allowed two runs in the last three innings.
It was a great team win and put us back on the map in the early going. Onward next week.
Milestones:
3/28
Jas 300 r (#6)
Monty 450 h (#6)
4/4
Coop 1450 ab (#1)
D 60 2b (#4)
Chopper 100 rbi (#19)
Of course this meant if you drove in the first run of the game in the top of the first and your team ended up winning 15-2 or 9-8 and never was tied or behind, you got the stat. Which pretty much made it irrelevant, and they discontinued it in less than a decade.
Sadly, I programmed it into my home grown stats program at that time, and I never took it out. I considered removing it entirely, or changing it to track reached base on error (which is more useful to a team), or some other stat, but being lazy be nature I never modified it. And besides, we had years of tracking it on my teams!
But - once in a while, the original intent of the stat, which was basically to track walk-offs, is actualized in a game and tonight was the perfect example.
Derek strode up to the plate, having gone from down on himself after his first at bat, to mild self-satisfaction when he hit a scorching double in the 5th, to climb the heights in the bottom of the seventh. He came up with the tying run on second, and the winning run on first and blasted a ball off the pole in deep right center and we had our first win of the year, 16-14. I think it was still rising when it hit the pole. It felt real good after going down 6-5 the week before in a game we should have cruised through.
He had plenty of help. Berto hit a three run blast of his own in the first to start our scoring, and went 4-4. Jason was a nuisance on the bases also going 4-4. Jeremy made the most of his ABs, with a double, sac fly and reaching on an error to plate 3 RBIs. Plus he made a great catch in LC filling in for Cage. Heffe ignited our six run catch up inning (with two outs and no one on) and our game winning rally with nine hop singles up the middle.
And you don't come back from down 12-3 after 3 1/2 innings without some stellar defense. We turned three double plays, a 1-6-3, 6-4-3, and 4-6-3. Those guys up the middle are our strength. And Tom pretty much slammed the door on his teammates from another league, another time, after they came out of the chute on fire: Helped by the double plays, he only allowed two runs in the last three innings.
It was a great team win and put us back on the map in the early going. Onward next week.
Milestones:
3/28
Jas 300 r (#6)
Monty 450 h (#6)
4/4
Coop 1450 ab (#1)
D 60 2b (#4)
Chopper 100 rbi (#19)
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