All Time Top Five Best Players in RBI Baseball

RBI Baseball is pretty much the best video game ever made. I still play it a couple of teams a week online (here, if you're interested). While I tend to play with my beloved Boston Red Sox, every team has at least a couple of players that make them worth playing as. So, with that in mind, today we'll look at the All Time Top Five Best Players in RBI Baseball. While there's no Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson-types in RBI Baseball, there are definitely some players who are better than others.

5) Tony Armas, Boston - Tony Armas is one of the best hitters on the Red Sox squad in that game, which is ironic since you have to go to the bench to use him. I sub him for Marty Barrett, who is a good player in his own right, but I want to get Armas and his 43 homeruns as many at bats as possible. Another popular move is subbing him for Spike Owen and his putrid .231 average and 1 homerun. Either way, Armas guarantees you at least one light tower shot a game.

4) Mark McGwire, AL All Star - Another hidden gem of power, this time located on the American League All-Star team. For some reason he didn't make the starting lineup (Don Mattingly took his spot), but plug him in in place of the flawed Willie Randolph and watch the homeruns fly. 49 dingers don't grow on trees.

3) Vince Coleman, St. Louis - The fastest player in the game. Coleman (and, to a lesser extent, the #2 hitter in the St. Louis lineup, Ozzie Smith) will drive you crazy legging out infield singles, stealing the base every time, and rounding the bases on a gapper for an inside the park homerun. While he's a blast to play with, you need every ounce of his speed, as the St. Louis lineup lacks thunder, with only Jack Clark as a legit homerun threat every time up. Then again, with Vince's speed, you don't really need it.

2) Reggie Jackson, California - The best hitter in the game, bar none. Jackson hit in every game like it was the '77 World Series. What's strange about it though, is that, while most batters statistics seem to come from either 1986 or 1987 (the years before the game debuted), Jackson's .275 average and 39 homeruns were amassed in 1982. Obviously someone at Tengen was a big Mr. October fan.

1) Bret Saberhagen, AL All-Stars - Saberhagen's unique side armed delivery (which I don't think he threw like in real life, strangely enough) gave him devestating command of breaking pitches, making him the best pitcher in the game. While most pitchers in the game are only able to last 3 innings or so at peak performance, seemingly disqualifying Sabes from being the best player in the game, if you could amass the needed 10 run lead for a forfeit (a pretty easy task with the thunder found in the AL All-Star lineup), Sabes was capable of throwing you a no-hitter every time out. And that's all you could ask for from a pitcher. Sabes is my favorite player to use in the game, and the most dominant. Therefore, he's the All Time Best Player in RBI Baseball, by a hair.

The truth is though, you can make a case for most anybody. But since Sabes was the most unique, I think it makes sense that he get the title. Man, that game was awesome.

All Time Top Five Best Players in RBI Baseball That Didn't Quite Make the Cut: Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden, and every other hard throwing overhanded starting pitcher (They were all nasty, but all pretty much the same. How do you distinguish?), Don Baylor (this guy was awesome and a guaranteed homer every game, but I didn't want to go too Red Sox heavy, even though they were clearly the best team), Juan Berenguer (who? The hard-throwing set up man in the Minnesota bullpen, that's who. Do yourself a favor and close games out with this guy instead of Reardon--you'll be glad you did.), and Lenny Dykstra (an underrated source of speed who could poke one out for you as well. Him and Mookie Wilson were kind of a poor man's version of Vince Coleman and Ozzie Smith, but with more pop).

And One All Time Top Five Best Players in RBI Baseball Who Wasn't Even Close to Making the Cut: Al Pedrique - Somehow this guy made the NL All-Star team on the game, single-handedly bringing down the whole team. The guy only spent 3 years in the bigs with 3 different teams. Clearly Pedrique has some incriminating photos of someone at Tengen, or maybe it was an inside joke. Either way, this lovable loser would go down in history as the worst player in the game, making him a bizarro household name to millions of young men across the country. Way to go Al!