Albert Pujols collected an RBI last night, but where he ranks all time is up for debate. He passed Alex Rodriguez, and the article says that Pujols stands second behind Hank Aaron, 2,297 to 2,087. But:

Babe Ruth had 2,214 career RBIs, but he isn’t officially on the career list because RBIs did not become an official stat until 1920, per Elias Sports Bureau research.

ESPN.com

If you look at Baseball-Reference, there is Ruth second with 2,214 RBI.

I have full confidence in the number of RBI credited to Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez. During their careers, multiple organizations tracked their accomplishments. In addition to Elias, STATS Inc. scored every pitch of every game at the ball park, and was in contact with the official scorer when there was a discrepancy. Project Scoresheet kept track of events in games. Eventually Sports Info Solutions joined the team. The organizations fact check each other, making the data more reliable.

( I was once scoring a game for STATS during which a pitch went past the catcher with a man on third. The runner tried to score, but the ball bounded back to the catcher, who threw to the pitcher covering for the out. The official scorer announced that the play was a fielder’s choice, but when the IBM system box score appeared at the end of the game, the play was listed as a caught stealing. I pointed it out to the official scorer, who forced a fix.)

Baseball Reference does not just put up numbers drawn from a hat. Over the years, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) brought together researchers to figure out discrepancies in the old statistical records. In some cases, Elias changed the numbers for some older players. In other instances, like the RBIs above, they stood on tradition that if the stat was not official, it did not exist. So remember the difference when you read an article like this. Elias is only interested in the accuracy of official numbers. The data presented by Baseball-Reference tries to show what actually happened. It’s only been about thirty years that cross checking to improve accuracy was possible. There is probably some number in Aaron’s career that is wrong. That probability is much lower for Pujols and Rodriguez.

All that being said, congratulations to Albert Pujols for reminding us of his greatness.