A-Rod picks up 1995th RBI, passes Lou Gehrig for most in AL history – CBSSports.com
NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez climbed another leaderboard Wednesday afternoon, this time the all-time RBI leaderboard. The Yankees slugger hit a three-run home run off Chris Young of the Royals in the third inning and passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time RBI list.
Here’s the milestone RBI:
RBI did not become an official stat until 1920 and MLB does not recognize any pre-1920 RBI. Pre-1920 RBI have been calculated retroactively, however, and can be found on sites like Baseball-Reference.com. The discrepancy comes from MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau, the league’s official statistician, not acknowledging any RBI until it became an official stat.
Here is the updated official all-time RBI list:
- Hank Aaron — 2,297
- Barry Bonds — 1,996
- A-Rod — 1,995
- Lou Gehrig — 1,993
- Babe Ruth — 1,990
By passing Gehrig, A-Rod now has the most RBI in AL history, officially. He’ll soon pass Bonds and then become only the second player in history with 2,000 career RBI. He is under contract through 2017 and, as good as he has been this year, it’ll be very tough to catch Aaron. Not impossible, but tough.
“It’s definitely an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. That’s any player’s dream,” A-Rod said following the game. “I’m a kid that came out of Miami. I learned how to play baseball. When I was 9, and my dream was to be like Keith Hernandez.”
A-Rod moved into third place on the all-time RBI list Wednesday. (USATSI)
Earlier this season A-Rod moved into fourth place on the all-time home run list, passing Willie Mays when he hit his 661st career homer. Rodriguez is now only 19 hits away from 3,000 as well. He’s going to reach a lot of milestones this season.
Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season due to his ties to Biogenesis and performance-enhancing drugs. A-Rod said the year away from baseball has helped him because it allowed him to recharge his batteries and get healthy. “In a weird way, the time off was a blessing in disguise,” he said.
Rodriguez is hitting .276/.374/.566 with 11 home runs and 26 RBI on the season after going 2 for 4 on Wednesday. His three-run homer helped the Yanks beat the Royals (NY 4, KC 2).
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