A challenge to watch: José Canseco vs José Abreu

Abreu could beat an old record of Canseco.

For 14 years, between 1956 and 1970, Minnie Miñoso’s (1949-1956) record of 516 RBIs during its first seven seasons had been an untouchable mark for the 117 Cuban major league players especially for the 31 who had participated during at least seven seasons.

However, at the end of the 1970 season, when Tany Perez produced .990 OPS, with 40 homers and 129 RBIs as a centerpiece in the Cincinnati Reds lineup, the record for the «Comet» Minnie ended: Tany, had registered 532 RBIs in their first seven seasons at the highest level in baseball. In 1992, 21 years later, it was then the Cuban José Canseco who surpassed the mark for the most RBIs for Cuban hitters during his first seven seasons, finishing with 647.

Like Tany Pérez, Canseco also signed the record at age 28 and has been the owner of the brand since then, with 21 seasons of sovereign reign until this Thursday night. However, everything seems to indicate that this record could remain in force for a few hours this Friday. In case you didn’t know why, I’ll remind you: Last night, José Abreu reached 647 RBIs in his Major League career, tying the mark set by Canseco during the first seven years of his career.

Abreu, 33, added three RBIs on Thursday against the Kansas City Royals to rack up 36 RBIs in 38 games for the Chicago White Sox, a mark he leads in all major leagues this season. With his single hitting 99.4 mph in the seventh inning off Royals reliever Jake Newberry slider, Pito Abreu tied Jose Canseco, who produced 647 RBIs in 3,664 home plate appearances over 853 games.