The Birth of the Game Winning RBI

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

At the beginning of 1980, Major League Baseball implemented Rule 1004-a, which established a new batting statistic called Game Winning RBI. A batter would receive credit for a GWRBI if they recorded ”the r.b.i. that gives a club the lead it never relinquishes.”

Introduced during the spring by the Elias Sports Bureau, the intent of the statistic was to quantify something that many people weren’t convinced even existed; the idea of “clutch hitting.” Throughout baseball history, certain players seemingly always delivered when their team needed it most. This would be a way to reward them.

Of course, the biggest clutch hitters come through after the leaves turn and the lights are at their brightest. A single in the 8th inning of a World Series game can get a player branded as a clutch hitter for years despite the fact that they may have struck out the previous ten times in exactly the same situation.

But baseball is a game driven by numbers, both good and bad, and on the surface the GWRBI was a nice idea. If a player drives in a run in the 8th inning of a tie game and his team wins there should be a way to track that and reward those who accomplish this feat more than others. Unfortunately for proponents of the rule its flaws were exposed the very first time the stat was used.

Flawed from the Start

It was April 9th, 1980 and the Cincinnati Reds were hosting the Atlanta Braves on Opening Day at Riverfront Stadium. Phil Niekro started the game for the Braves and got himself in trouble right away. In the bottom of the first, after a Dave Collins groundout, Ken Griffey and Dave Concepcion singled to bring George Foster to the plate. Foster doubled to left to give Cincinnati a 2-0 lead. Two batters later, Johnny Bench also doubled to left as part of a four-run first for the Reds.

Two more runs in the second inning chased Niekro and gave the Reds a 6-0 lead. For Niekro, it was the shortest of his seven Opening Day starts in an Atlanta uniform and continued a string of bad luck/bad pitching in season openers. He was tabbed with the loss as the Reds rolled 9-0. The defeat brought his Opening Day mark to an ugly 0-6 with an ERA of 6.88. Clearly, the knuckleball is a warm-weather pitch.

George Foster earned the first Game Winning RBI in the history of Major League Baseball. His first inning double off Niekro drove in the first two runs for his team in a 9-0 shutout. Not exactly clutch hitting on his part.

The rule faded into obscurity in 1989 and is no longer an official statistic, but if you’re looking to win a bar bet, the all-time leader in Keith Hernandez with 129.