Okay OOTB peeps, let's tackle a baseball-related thread that takes our mind off of the Diamond Heels' unfortunate season.
In general, sports have always organically grown their own esoteric terms, slogans, abbreviations, liberties with math and grammar, etc., that evolve as that sport evolves. Example: a pitcher's innings pitched is often written as 8.2 IP. It's understood that, within the context of baseball and the 3-out inning, that this indicates the pitcher lasted 8 2/3 innings, not 8 2/10's innings. Technically, the math is wrong, but it's accepted because 8.2 is easier to write on a box score than 8 2/3.
One of the annoying parts of modern sports journalism -- let's not even get started on the fact vs. fiction vs. sensationalism of modern sports journalism -- is that modern sportswriters are trained in proper grammar, syntax, diction, etc., and feel the need to bring 100% of this knowledge to their writing. Generally, that would be fine, but certain things just "work" when it comes to sports. Is it wrong, grammatically, to say "The Indians over the Red Sox, 8-5" ? Yes, it is. It's a misused preposition. But everyone accepts this as meaning "The Indians beat the Red Sox 8-5."
With this in mind, I give you the RBI/RBI's debate. Specifically, how do you make the word a plural? I've always heard sports broadcasters say "RBIs" i.e. putting an 's' on the end of it. But recently, as newer journalists (written) and broadcasters make their way into baseball jobs, I've started seeing it written simply as "8 RBI" and spoken as "three RBI on the night." To me, this is wrong and I don't like. I'll give my reasons if you'd like, but to me an 's' needs to be added to make it plural. Whether you want to write it as RBIs or RBI's, I'm emphatic that in baseball, it just works better if you say RBI's rather than RBI.
EDITED TO ADD: In the interest of fairness, I would like to disclose that my degree from UNC was in journalism, and my editor on the DTH as well as a boss at a summer job where I wrote baseball recaps both insisted that the 'proper' way to write the plural was simply RBI with no 's' on the end. Definitely something I've always had an issue with, even if may technically be grammatically correct (which I'd still argue with).
In general, sports have always organically grown their own esoteric terms, slogans, abbreviations, liberties with math and grammar, etc., that evolve as that sport evolves. Example: a pitcher's innings pitched is often written as 8.2 IP. It's understood that, within the context of baseball and the 3-out inning, that this indicates the pitcher lasted 8 2/3 innings, not 8 2/10's innings. Technically, the math is wrong, but it's accepted because 8.2 is easier to write on a box score than 8 2/3.
One of the annoying parts of modern sports journalism -- let's not even get started on the fact vs. fiction vs. sensationalism of modern sports journalism -- is that modern sportswriters are trained in proper grammar, syntax, diction, etc., and feel the need to bring 100% of this knowledge to their writing. Generally, that would be fine, but certain things just "work" when it comes to sports. Is it wrong, grammatically, to say "The Indians over the Red Sox, 8-5" ? Yes, it is. It's a misused preposition. But everyone accepts this as meaning "The Indians beat the Red Sox 8-5."
With this in mind, I give you the RBI/RBI's debate. Specifically, how do you make the word a plural? I've always heard sports broadcasters say "RBIs" i.e. putting an 's' on the end of it. But recently, as newer journalists (written) and broadcasters make their way into baseball jobs, I've started seeing it written simply as "8 RBI" and spoken as "three RBI on the night." To me, this is wrong and I don't like. I'll give my reasons if you'd like, but to me an 's' needs to be added to make it plural. Whether you want to write it as RBIs or RBI's, I'm emphatic that in baseball, it just works better if you say RBI's rather than RBI.
EDITED TO ADD: In the interest of fairness, I would like to disclose that my degree from UNC was in journalism, and my editor on the DTH as well as a boss at a summer job where I wrote baseball recaps both insisted that the 'proper' way to write the plural was simply RBI with no 's' on the end. Definitely something I've always had an issue with, even if may technically be grammatically correct (which I'd still argue with).
Last edited:
