
Last week, Corry and I had a little debate over which is the more important of baseball’s offensive stats: RBI (runs batted in) or OBP (on-base percentage)? While Corry contends that the out is baseball’s scarcest commodity and, therefore, a batter’s primary objective should be to avoid getting out, I argue that it does not matter how many players a team puts (and leaves) on base if a clutch hitter is not bringing them home. Sure, outs are a prized commodity; but, the team with the most runs scored wins the game.
As baseball fans are prone to do, I went to the record books to support my claim. To my surprise, the list of top-ten RBI men and top-ten OBP players is quite similar. The most formulaic of baseball card stats, OBP (=H+BB+HBP/ AB+BB+HBP+SF) claims the likes of Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Barry Bonds and Ty Cobb, all of which, with the exception of Williams (replaced by Hank Aaron in the top spot), are in the top-ten for RBIs as well. What is astonishing is that these four players (Ruth, Gehrig, Bonds and Cobb) would find themselves on both lists. We could continue to argue
ad infinitum which is more important, fewest outs or most runs, but I think this comparison of greatest players says a lot for these players, who did both. (*Steroids had little to do with Bonds OBP—unless you argue that his fly balls sailed ten feet farther. Even as a Dodgers fan, I accept that Bonds was an all-time great.)
This also raises the question as to baseball’s glory stats: batting average (Williams) and home runs (Aaron). Of course, it’s impressive to see a player knock the ball 450 feet and it puts fans in the stands; however, the home run is overrated. The same is true for pitching, where a strike-out pitcher is preferred over a ground-ball pitcher. Again, the name of the game is scoring more runs than one’s opponent; thus, ERA is much more important. As fans, we like the grandeur and intimidation of larger-than-life players (remember, athletes are gods). Still, as far as efficiency is concerned, the acronym stats—RBI, OBP and ERA—are far-and-away the most important.
To answer the question posed in this post’s title, I stick with one of baseball’s most underrated superstars and most clutch players, Hank Greenberg (the Manny Ramirez of his day; above), who lived for RBI and told teammates: “Just get on base and I’ll do the rest.”