As we mentioned last week, the stat police have figured out that Roger Maris was credited with one too many RBIs in 1961, thus putting him back into a tie with the Orioles’ Jim Gentile for the league lead with 141. In a nice gesture, the Orioles will honor Gentile -- who is still alive and kicking at age 76 -- before tonight’s game against the White Sox.
According to MLB.com, Gentile had a clause in his contract for that year which would have paid him $5000 for winning the RBI title. Can anyone do a quick interest calculation for me on that? Does the discovery rule or some legal concept I’ve forgotten allow him to make a claim on this despite it being 49 years ago? These are the things I think about.