First baseman becomes only the fifth Chicago Cubs player ever to reach 100 RBIs in four consecutive seasons
With his third-inning RBI double in Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo became only the fifth player in the franchise’s 142-year history to reach the 100-RBI plateau for four consecutive seasons.
Rizzo drove in Javier Baez with the Cubs’ third and go-ahead run in their 10-5 victory over St. Louis. The outcome sends them into a Monday playoff for the NL Central title with the Milwaukee Brewers. The loser will host the NL Wild Card game.
Rizzo had 101 RBIs in 2015 and 109 in both 2016 and 2017.
The achievement puts him in elite company since the other four to have accomplished the feat as a Cub represent the franchise’s historical elite. Rizzo remains, however, some distance away from the club record for consecutive 100-RBI seasons, 9 by Sammy Sosa between 1995 and 2003.
Sosa led the National League twice during that stretch, with 158 in 1998 and with 160 – his career best — in 2001. He was the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1998.
The other three Cubs to record 100 RBIs or more in at least four consecutive seasons were Cap Anson, Hack Wilson, and Ernie Banks.
Anson led the National League in RBIs eight times during his 22-season career in Chicago, surpassing 100 seven times, including annually between 1884 and 1887. His high, 147, came in 1886, a pennant-winning season for the Cubs. They finished 90-34 that season, two and one-half games ahead of the Detroit Wolverines.
Anson’s 1886 RBI total is perhaps even more remarkable given that teams only played 124 games that season. The 154-game schedule was not adopted until early in the 20th Century. The RBI runner-up that season was Anson’s teammate, Fred Pfeffer, with 95.
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Wilson was a building block of a strong late 1920s Cub contingent that finished third or higher annually from 1928 through 1938. He drove in 109 runs in his first full season, 1926, led the league in 1929 with 159, and set the still-standing major league record with 191 in 1930.
Banks drove in 155 runs in 1955, dropped to 85 in 1996, then surpassed 100 annually from 1957 through 1960. He led the league in 1958 (129) and 1959 (143), winning the league’s Most Valuable Player Award both seasons. He fell to 80 RBIs in an injury-plagued 1961 season but topped 100 again in 1962 (104), 1965 (106) and 1969 (106).
Rizzo ends 2018 with a career total of 634 RBIs, but he has a long way to go to approach the franchise pinnacle in that category. Eight Chicago Cubs have topped 1,000 career RBIs, led by Anson (1,880), Banks (1,636) and Sosa (1,414).