Did Albert Pujols Pass Eddie Collins in Hits?

The Elias number is the official one — hence St. Louis’s celebrating the feat Wednesday — but because Elias does not have a searchable website, the total is all but hidden from fans and journalists who are doing their own research.

Baseball Reference, which collects its statistics from numerous sources, often differs from the official Elias numbers, but both agree on Collins’s hit total in 24 of his 25 seasons. Where they differ is in 1920: Elias credits him with 222 hits that year, while Baseball Reference has him at 224. (Either way, it was Collins’s single-season career high.)

The difference, as noted in the past by Alan Schwarz and others, is explained in research done by Retrosheet, an archive of every box score since 1906. In a doubleheader on Sept. 4, 1920, the official record book has Collins 0 for 3 in the second game. But box scores from the time indicate he actually was 2 for 4. Retrosheet attributes the error to a “swap,” in which the totals for one player are accidentally recorded for another. The veracity of that box score, as of Thursday morning, was the difference between Collins’s being in 10th place on the career list or 11th.

There does not appear to be as simple an explanation for MLB.com crediting Collins with 10 hits from 1906 to 1907, while Baseball Reference and Elias credit him with 11.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/sports/baseball/eddie-collins-albert-pujols-hits.html