July 1, 2021

By Neil Munro

Canadian Baseball Network

On June 30, Joey Votto collected his 1000th RBI and joined Hall of Famer, Larry Walker as the only other Canadian to reach that milestone.

Votto collected his 1,000th RBI when he homered off of San Diego’s Joe Musgrove in the third inning of a rain-shortened game in Cincinnati. The sparse but vocal crowd gave Votto a rousing standing ovation and he obliged them with a jubilant curtain call in recognition of the event.

His home run gave the Reds the lead in the game at the time, but unfortunately the Padres won the game by a 7-5 score. The elements almost conspired to deny Votto his accomplishment as the teams barely got the required give innings in with the rain really starting to come down hard.

Votto becomes just the sixth batter in the Cincinnati Reds long 150-year history to have reached the 1,000 mark in RBI. The others being Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Bid McPhee, Pete Rose and Frank Robinson. That group consists of four Hall-of-Famers and one who should have been, save for human frailty.

Votto had already surpassed 1,000 runs scored during the 2019 season. He should reach another significant milestone when he collects his 2000th career base hit later this year. As of the game last night, Votto had amassed 1,954 base hits, and barring a serious injury, this plateau should easily be within his reach.

Following below is a list of the significant RBI exploits by Canadian batters.

The record for the most RBI by a Canadian rookie is 112, racked up by Jeff Heath (Fort William, Ont.) playing with Cleveland in 1938. Heath almost certainly would have been named the American League Rookie of the Year for that season, except that the award was only first bestowed in 1947. Heath posted a spectacular rookie campaign in 1938, batting a robust .343 with 21 HR and a league-leading 18 triples. Heath’s best season was in 1941 when he drove in 123 runs, batting .340 with 24 HR and a league-leading 20 triples. That year, Heath placed second in the AL in RBI, just two behind Joe DiMaggio. Heath also had three more RBI than Ted Williams accumulated in 1941, but his fine season garnered little attention in the media because that was the year of DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and William’s .406 batting average (the last of the 400 hitters).

The Canadian record for career RBI amassed by a Montreal Expo is Maple Ridge, B.C., native Larry Walker’s 384. The Canadian record for career RBI collected by a Toronto Blue Jay is the 211 that Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.) accumulated. It should be noted that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.) is closing in on that standard pretty quickly, and now ranks second among Blue Jays batters with 168 runs driven in. Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.) and Rob Ducey (Cambridge, Ont.) are the only Canadian batters to collect at least one RBI playing with both Canadian franchises.

The single season RBI record by a Canadian is actually shared by Walker and New Westminster, B.C., native Justin Morneau (with 130 RBI). Walker accumulated his 130 RBI in his MVP season with Colorado in 1997, while Morneau matched that pace in his MVP season with Minnesota in 2006. Morneau almost exceeded that level of production in 2008 when he had 129 RBI. Perhaps fittingly, Morneau placed second in the American League MVP vote that year. The full list of Canadians who have collected at least 110 RBI in a season is shown in the table below.

Canadian Single Season RBI Leaders

It certainly seems as though Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s name will be added to this list before the end of the 2021 baseball season as he leads the major leagues with 66 RBI just ahead of the midway point of the year. So, it also remains to be seen if he can overhaul the Canadian record of 130 RBI. In total, Canadian batters have had 100-RBI seasons on 28 different occasions. Walker, Morneau and Jason Bay (Trail, B.C.) each had had four 100-RBI campaigns in their careers.

Interestingly, neither Walker nor Morneau was the league leader in RBI in their respective MVP seasons. In fact, to find the last Canadian to have led his league in RBI, we must go all the back to the 1890 season. Playing for the Columbus Solons of the American Association that year, Spud (James) Johnson paced the American Association with 113 RBI, and was the only batter in the league to surpass 100 that year. The only other Canadian batter to lead his league in RBI was Tip O’Neill (Woodstock, Ont.), who did it twice in back-to-back seasons (1886 and 1887). Hopefully Guerrero can end that 130-year drought and lead the American League in 2021.

O’Neill (playing with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association) led the league with 107 RBI in 1886 and then again with 123 RBI in 1887. Of course, 1887 was O’Neill’s truly spectacular season, one in which he won the triple crown while “slugging” 14 HR and batting .435. This was the dead ball era in which .400 batters were almost commonplace and a 30 HR in a season was never achieved. For good measure that year, O’Neill also set the pace in leading the A.A. in runs scored (167), hits (225), doubles (42) and triples (19). Also of note is the fact that the RBI did not become an official batting statistic until the 1920 season, so O’Neill’s league leadership in RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS would have to wait for many decades to be “officially” recognized.

The Canadian career RBI leaders (through June 30, 2021) are shown in the next table.

The leading Canadians in career RBI collected at each position appear next. These RBI totals represent only those accumulated while they played at the position indicated.

Catcher – Russell Martin 747 First base – Joey Votto 980

Second base – Dave McKay 108 * Third base – Corey Koskie 475

Shortstop – Frank O’Rourke 48 * Right field – Larry Walker 1135

Center field – Goody Rosen 132 Left field – Jason Bay 727

Pitcher – Ferguson Jenkins 85 DH – Matt Stairs 250

However, the batting splits by position for RBI are not available for players careers from the 19th century. Pop Smith (Digby, N.S.) played 713 games at second base in his career and is almost certainly the all-time Canadian leader in RBI at that position. In fact, baseball records still list Smith’s 1883 and 1884 RBI totals as missing information. Similarly, Arthur Irwin (Toronto, Ont.) played in 947 at shortstop between 1880 and 1894, far and away, the most by any Canadian. He, too, is undoubtedly the top RBI man among all Canadian shortstops.