Hendersons SBs

[Cubsfan97]

How was Henderson able to steal so many bases and get caught so few times? It seems just unrealistic.

[SABR Matt]

a) He was on base a LOT (more chances to steal)
b) He was very fast (more natural ability to steal bases)
c) He took advantage of game-situations that do not normally call for stolen bases (many people accuse him of selfish acts here...they say he stole bases when they didn't matter just to rack up personal stats...which may indeed be true...)

[Cubsfan97]

(many people accuse him of selfish acts here...they say he stole bases when they didn't matter just to rack up personal stats...which may indeed be true...)
Hey, there ain't nothing wrong with doing that, I do that on my baseball game, I make a contest of how many I can steal in a game. Im at 8 right now.

[SABR Matt]

LOL...yeah...if you can get away with stealing a lot of bases, it certainly increases your odds of scoring more runs...those runs have slightly lower value than they would if you were only stealing bases in situations where every run is critical however, because if you're loading up on extra steals in game situations where stealing becomes easier...chances are the score is lopsided and the extra runs won't add up to many extra wins.

[Mike D.]

Henderson's stolen base percentage was an impressive 80.8%. Even more impressive was that of Tim Raines, who stole 808 bases at an 84.7% success rate. That's the highest percentage for anyone with over 300 ATTEMPTs.

Both were incredible base stealers...and Henderson was so great he stole an incredible 598 bases MORE than even Raines.

[Mad Guru]

Visualization. He pictured all the catchers as Matt LeCroy.

[Ubiquitous]

Rickey Henderson was not very fast. His speed was at best above average but he did not have blazing speed or anything close to it. What Rickey did have was extremely fast reflexes and could get great jumps on pitchers. He was a master at stealing second base but was pretty mediocre on stealing third which is more about speed then anything else. Also Rickey really didn't rack up meaningless SB's, for the most part with the way scoring works that is kind of impossible to do. He would get yelled at from time to time for stealing in situations in which the normal player wouldn't steal but it doesn't really change the amount of steals he had or the % of success.

Rickey kept himself in shape, kept himself up to date on pitchers, there deliveries, the catcher and his arm and was abele to translate that into a massive amount of steals.

[west coast orange and black]

Rickey kept himself in shape, kept himself up to date on pitchers, their deliveries, the catcher and his arm...

let me just add that rickey had extraordinary basestealing technique. his first two steps gave him the yardage that faster runners get over the course of 90'.
it is amazing to me to see that so many of today's baserunners do not know the proper way to head to second. so many of the start of on the wrong foot (literally).

[SABR Matt]

Ichiro included.

One of the most frustrating things about an otherwise outstanding player is that with his blazing speed, he should be stealing 80 bases a year but his SB% isn't all that great and he only attempts to steal maybe 40-45 times a year because he can't read pitchers like he shuold and he doesn't have proper baserunning mechanics.

[Ubiquitous]

stealing a base (and by getting known for stealing) is probably one of the most taxing plays on a positional players body outside of catching. A base stealer might actually take off running 3 or 4 times before they ever actually steal a base or get caught stealing. Then they might have to dive back 5 or 6 times while they are on base, and then throw in all the false starts, hit and runs, jammed fingers, pulled muscles, broken toes and who knows what else. It puts a lot of strain on a body which is why it is so remarkable that Rickey stole so many and lasted so long. I think the biggest reason he lasted so long was that he was very finicky about his injuries. If he wasn't 100% or close to it he wouldn't play. He gets knocked for that but I think that allowed Rickey to play for decades and avoid for the most part serious season ending or career ending injuries. It also has the side benefit of keeping you SB % high since you are always runing at top speed or close to it and not getting your jumped sacrificed because of a tweaked muscle or something like that.

[SABR Matt]

Interesting point Ubi...

I hadn't thought of that before.

[Ubiquitous]

By the way if one is interested in a breakdown of Henderson's steals they can use Ray Kerby's ASS to do it for 18 of Henderson's 25 seasons with all of his prime years available to look at. Only 1993 to 1998 and his final year 2003 missing. Everything else is available to study.

[soberdennis]

He was a smart baserunner. Great basestealers know how to read pitchers and Rickey was possibly the best at that.
he defineitely benefitted from getting on base a lot. Among his records is walks in a career.

[west coast orange and black]

among his records is walks in a career.

uh, bonds, then rickey. no problem with the rest of it, though, man.

[Ubiquitous]

in 1982 Rickey stole 130 bases. Of that total 94 were of second base. Now then ignoring outs and inning 74 of those 94 stolen bases happened with a score differential of +/- 2 runs with the highest majority being when the score was tied. 32 stolen bases out of 74 with the scored tied. He was caught 20 times in the +/- 2 runs scenarios. His 74 stolen bases of second with the score +/- 2 would have been could for first place 20 stolen bases if that was all the bases he stole that year.

Now then he stole third 34 times that year. Of that he stole third 27 times with a run differential of +/- 2 runs with again the highest total by coming from tied game scenario. 14 steals in a tied game. In all he went 27-11 with a run differential of 2. Going 7-2 in all other run differentials.

[SABR Matt]

Sounds like he was leveraging his foot speed very well indeed in his prime. I think most of his reputation for being slefish and his steals being wasted comes from the last 10 years of his career.

[flash143817]

Henderson's stolen base percentage was an impressive 80.8%. Even more impressive was that of Tim Raines, who stole 808 bases at an 84.7% success rate. That's the highest percentage for anyone with over 300 ATTEMPTs.

Both were incredible base stealers...and Henderson was so great he stole an incredible 598 bases MORE than even Raines.

Carlos Beltran is on pace to break that. He is currently 216/246 stealing bases for a 87.8% success rate. And he is showing no signs of slowing in that respect as he is 7 for 8 stealing this season. Not sure if any other active players are close to breaking that but Beltran was the best I could think of off the top of my head. Tony Womack is close at 83.2% for 362 steals.

[BaseballHistoryNut]

Carlos Beltran is on pace to break that. He is currently 216/246 stealing bases for a 87.8% success rate. And he is showing no signs of slowing in that respect as he is 7 for 8 stealing this season. Not sure if any other active players are close to breaking that but Beltran was the best I could think of off the top of my head. Tony Womack is close at 83.2% for 362 steals.


Good lord. Thank you for this post. It shows me how lost I can get in baseball's HISTORY.

I had no clue that Carlos Beltran was a tremendous base stealer. I wouldn't have known he was over 70%, much less that he was off in a SB% world akin to the Adjusted ERA world Pedro is in.

Roflmao at myself. How did I know absolutely NOTHING about this?

[soberdennis]

among his records is walks in a career.

uh, bonds, then rickey. no problem with the rest of it, though, man.
Ok , I did not realize Bonds had passed Rickey, though it does not surprise me with all the intentional walks he got.
I bet you if you eliminated IBB's Rickey would have a sizable lead on Barry.

[soberdennis]

among his records is walks in a career.

uh, bonds, then rickey. no problem with the rest of it, though, man.
Barry had over 600 IBBs

[SABR Matt]

of those 600 IBBs, over 400 have occured from 2000 on.

Yowch.

[Tango Tiger]

Eric Davis is at 84.1%. He was also a high % stealer. But age hit him, just like it will to Beltran. The only way Beltran will keep that high base stealing rate is if he decides to stop running in his 30s.

[BaseballHistoryNut]

Ok , I did not realize Bonds had passed Rickey, though it does not surprise me with all the intentional walks he got.
I bet you if you eliminated IBB's Rickey would have a sizable lead on Barry.

If you eliminated both intentional walks per se, and walks which were obvious cases of pitching around the hitter without giving him an OFFICIAL intentional walk, the top 2 career walk leaders would be: (1) Rickey Henderson; and (2) Joe Morgan. Almost nobody ever wanted to walk them, given their enormous numbers of SB's and how hard it was to throw them out or pick them off.

But until Bonds and Rickey came along, Morgan was #3 all time, behind only Ruth and Ted Williams, both of whom got pitched around and intentionally walked a ton. Now Rickey is #2 and Morgan is #5, with only Bonds (#1), Ruth (#3) and Williams (#4) in their company. For those who care, Yaz is #6.

[cup2006sensrule]

If you eliminated both intentional walks per se, and walks which were obvious cases of pitching around the hitter without giving him an OFFICIAL intentional walk, the top 2 career walk leaders would be: (1) Rickey Henderson; and (2) Joe Morgan. Almost nobody ever wanted to walk them, given their enormous numbers of SB's and how hard it was to throw them out or pick them off.

But until Bonds and Rickey came along, Morgan was #3 all time, behind only Ruth and Ted Williams, both of whom got pitched around and intentionally walked a ton. Now Rickey is #2 and Morgan is #5, with only Bonds (#1), Ruth (#3) and Williams (#4) in their company. For those who care, Yaz is #6.

Bonds worked tons of walks earlier in his career. And it wasn't like people wanted to walk a guy that could steal 30-50 bases especially with good hitter behind him in the batting order in Pittsburgh. He worked his way to 93 walks with a .248 average 19 home runs and 32 SBs. Surely he was working those early walks through patience and a good eye not pitchers trying to pitch around him. He got up to 127 walks in 140 games in his last year in Pittsburgh. And he may have been intentionally walked some and pitched around some but it mostly was from being able to earn the walks.

But Morgan and Henderson especially were better at earning the walks, though Bonds is far more similar to Morgan and Henderson in the walks earned before he became the ultimate slugger the last 6 years.

[BaseballHistoryNut]

Just don't put the words "ultimate slugger" in my mouth.