January 27, 2011
18 days until pitchers and catchers
62 days until Opening Day
Trivia: Of the top fifty career stolen bases leaders, only five are current players. Who are they? (answer at the bottom)
While you ponder that, get this. Rickey Henderson holds the single season stolen bases with an absurd 130 bases in 1982. That’s more than ten entire teams had that season and tied with one other. He also led the league in walks that season. The guy was obviously a supernatural base stealer and he only hit .267 that season – throw him strikes and make him hit!
He also stole more than the average American League team that year. The average number of stolen bases per team in the AL in 1982 was 100; the average in the NL was 149. Big disparity between the leagues. No NL team had fewer than 128; only six AL teams had over 100.
In case you’re wondering, the averages in 2010 were 108 for the AL and 91 for the NL (Nationals in third place with 110!). So much for NL small ball.
Yogi maintains to this day that he got Jackie.
Answer: Juan Pierre (527 bases – 19th place), Carl Crawford (409 – 37th), Omar Vizquel (400 – 41st), Johnny Damon (385 – 46th), and Ichiro (383 American bases – 48th).
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