Lately, it seems a number of baseball radio / tv announcers do this --------

If a player has driven in, say three runs in a game, why do announcers say that he has '3 RBI' (singular), instead of '3 RBIs' (plural) ?

RR

3 run's batted in's ??

"Rs B I" would make them sound drunk.

My question is really, why the change?

For years, it has always been RBIs.

RR

In a professional broadcast?

Same thing as "brother-in-law" and "brothers-in-law." Though most people say brother-in-laws, it is improper.

It's generally the same people who think they are being clever by calling the foul pole a "fair pole."

...or sacrifice hit

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Same thing as "brother-in-law" and "brothers-in-law." Though most people say brother-in-laws, it is improper.

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EDIT:

CORRECTION - I read this incorrectly. You are right. I totally missed what you were meaning. You are correct, at least in my mind.

So, did you ever hit a 3 RBIs double?

I know your history, but I can confidently correct you on this one.

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Same thing as "brother-in-law" and "brothers-in-law." Though most people say brother-in-laws, it is improper.

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Actually it is not the case at all. You are wrong about the reference to Brother-In-law.

If some on said my BIL or SIL, than yes it should be BILs or SILs but if you are saying the words out you are wrong.

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If you want to write BILs or SILs, fine. "My BILs" needs the 's' because that is the only way to know you're speaking of multiple people without a number in front of 'BIL'.

But I would say you're wrong if you said or wrote "brother-in-laws."


And on that note, I say and write 'RBI', and I know plenty of baseball people that do. The only time I would write "RBIs" is if it isn't otherwise clear we are talking about multiple. And that's an exception for a special case, and only in writing. In most circumstances, the plurality is evident. "RBI" is what you see in the stats, its how you would say it, etc. and for those reasons I use "RBI."

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Same thing as "brother-in-law" and "brothers-in-law." Though most people say brother-in-laws, it is improper.

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Actually it is not the case at all. You are wrong about the reference to Brother-In-law.

If some on said my BIL or SIL, than yes it should be BILs or SILs but if you are saying the words out you are wrong.

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If you want to write BILs or SILs, fine. "My BILs" needs the 's' because that is the only way to know you're speaking of multiple people without a number in front of 'BIL'.

But I would say you're wrong if you said or wrote "brother-in-laws."

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I totally miss read the other response. I am wrong on the Brother-in-Laws and knew that. I thought he was meaning the opposite. Idiot response by me, please ignore.

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And on that note, I say and write 'RBI', and I know plenty of baseball people that do. The only time I would write "RBIs" is if it isn't otherwise clear we are talking about multiple. And that's an exception for a special case, and only in writing. In most circumstances, the plurality is evident. "RBI" is what you see in the stats, its how you would say it, etc. and for those reasons I use "RBI."

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The Definition of RBI is "Run Batted In". If it stood for Runs Batted In, then using RBI as a singular or plural would work, but the official stat definition is RBI for "Run Batted In". So the acronym is a singular term and you would add an S to it for a plural term.

All stats in baseball are plural.

1B
2B
3B
HR
H
BB
K
...

I prefer to use RBI for plural references because I think it makes more sense and it looks and sounds better. But the Stylebook says the plural is indeed RBIs.

Pluralize moose.

Up until a few years ago, it was always RBIs, plural.

What / who caused it to change, i.e., to using RBI for all situations?

RR

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Up until a few years ago, it was always RBIs, plural.

What / who caused it to change, i.e., to using RBI for all situations?

RR

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I blame guys like Mike & Mike on ESPN radio that did not fully understand that Stat and wanted to try and sound more intelligent by saying RBI as the plural.

Except RBI has always been its own plural.

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Pluralize moose.

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I agree.

I know. I was just arguing with the AP tweet in your post.

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Except RBI has always been its own plural.

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Except it hasn't.

A two RBI double has never been called a two RBIs double.

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A two RBI double has never been called a two RBIs double.

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Because it's one double--the RBI number is an adjective that applies to the noun.

The adjectival noun is still plural: two RBI.

MooseHerd,

Agree completely, I think there's a few 'announcers' here in B/CS that fall into that same Mike and Mike category.

RR

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A two RBI double has never been called a two RBIs double.

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Because it's one double--the RBI number is an adjective that applies to the noun.

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But the 's' doesn't have anything to do with what is around "RBI."

Its a "two runs batted in double" just the same as he "had two runs batted in."


The only exception would be if you said something like "but thanks to his RBI..." where it is ambiguous how many runs batted in he had.

On your boxscore or stat sheet, you do put RBI or RBIs? Surely RBI. Because its not ambiguous how many a player has.



Do you say "I was going 70 MPHs down the highway this morning." or "my resting heartrate is 60 BPMs"???

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I blame guys like Mike & Mike on ESPN radio that did not fully understand that Stat and wanted to try and sound more intelligent by saying RBI as the plural.

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Instead of insulting a bunch of folks that actually know a lot about the game, can we just agree its a stylistic choice and let it go?

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A two RBI double has never been called a two RBIs double.

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Because it's one double--the RBI number is an adjective that applies to the noun.

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But the 's' doesn't have anything to do with what is around "RBI."

Its a "two runs batted in double" just the same as he "had two runs batted in."


The only exception would be if you said something like "but thanks to his RBI..." where it is ambiguous how many runs batted in he had.

On your boxscore or stat sheet, you do put RBI or RBIs? Surely RBI. Because its not ambiguous how many a player has.



Do you say "I was going 70 MPHs down the highway this morning." or "my resting heartrate is 60 BPMs"???

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I don't say "M. P. H." nor does anyone I know. I would say "70 miles per hour" or just "70." I would say that my car was doing "3000 RPMs," however.

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I blame guys like Mike & Mike on ESPN radio that did not fully understand that Stat and wanted to try and sound more intelligent by saying RBI as the plural.

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Instead of insulting a bunch of folks that actually know a lot about the game, can we just agree its a stylistic choice and let it go?

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Yes, it's a stylistic choice. But there is a right choice and a wrong choice. This wouldn't be Texags if we didn't beat this dead horse a little bit.

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I blame guys like Mike & Mike on ESPN radio that did not fully understand that Stat and wanted to try and sound more intelligent by saying RBI as the plural.

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Instead of insulting a bunch of folks that actually know a lot about the game, can we just agree its a stylistic choice and let it go?

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It's the off season. What else are we going to do?

Ew!
Why?
RPM is also inherently plural.

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I blame guys like Mike & Mike on ESPN radio that did not fully understand that Stat and wanted to try and sound more intelligent by saying RBI as the plural.

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Instead of insulting a bunch of folks that actually know a lot about the game, can we just agree its a stylistic choice and let it go?

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Yes, it's a stylistic choice. But there is a right choice and a wrong choice. This wouldn't be Texags if we didn't beat this dead horse a little bit.

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Why would you choose the wrong one then?