For 69 years, Hack Wilson’s single season RBI record was thought to have been the 190 that he hit in 1930. It later tuned out that in the second game of a July 28, 1930 Chicago-Cincinnati doubleheader at Wrigley Field, Wilson had singled in Kiki Cuyler during a decisive four-run Chicago rally in the third inning. For some reason this RBI was credited to Cub first baseman Charlie Grimm on the official scorecard.
This mistake was first noticed by Chicagoan named James Braswell in a letter he wrote to The Sporting News in 1977. This letter was forwarded to the historian for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, who checked old microfilm for the newspaper reports of every Chicago Cubs game that year and counted Hack Wilson’s RBI one by one. It turned out that Braswell was right and Hack should have been credited with 191 RBI that season.
It was at this time that for some reason, baseball decided to disband their official Records Committee, and the matter ended up being forgotten.
Finally, in 1999 a member of the Elias Sports Bureau, baseball’s main statistical body, did another study and discovered the missing RBI. 69 years after the fact, baseball’s official record book was changed and Hack Wilson’s old record became a little tougher to break.