Rickey Henderson in 1980 October 24, 2023

I'm currently in the middle of listening to the book Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's by Dale Tafoya and a number of things of the A's 1980 season have stood out to me. For this post I'm going to talk about Rickey Henderson's 1980 season.

Under manager Billy Martin, the A's were unleashed on the American League in the form of stolen bases. Double steals, triple steals, bunts, sacrifice bunts, suicide squeezes and outright steals of home became the norm. Leading the way was second year player Rickey Henderson. Keep this in mind, while steals were common from 1900 to to the 1980 season, players to reach the 100 steals plateau was ultra rare. So who were the players to steal more than 100 bases in the modern era up to the 1980 season?

• 118 Lou Brock in 1974 **MLB and NL Record
• 104 Maury Wills in 1962

That's it.

The American League record was held by Hall of Famer Ty Cobb who stole 96 bases for the Detroit Tigers in 1915. The A's franchise record was set by Hall of Famer Eddie Collins with 81 stolen bases for the Philadelphia A's in 1910. Once it would be said and done, Rickey Henderson would shatter all the records and be left standing on top of the stolen base mountain. But back to 1980.

Henderson would steal 33 bases in 44 attempts in his rookie season of 1979 under manager Jim Marshall. The A's would finish with an abysmal record of 54-108. Not surprisingly, Marshall was let go of his managerial duties by A's owner Charley Finley. With Billy Martin without a managerial job of his own, Finley would bring Martin back to his hometown to manage the A's. Under Martin in 1980, the A's would steal a total of 175 bases. Henderson stole 100 bases on his own.

Henderson would swipe 100 bases in 126 attempts for roughly just under 75% successful steal rate. But Rickey wasn't only stolen bases. Henderson would bat .303 with 197 hits (22 2B/4 3B/9 HR) with 117 walks. Henderson would finish his career with 2190 walks for second on the list. A guy named Barry Bonds holds the major league record for walks with 2558 BBs. But I digress.

Henderson would follow up his 100 steals in 1980 with 130 steals in 1982 and 108 steals in 1983. The 1981 season was shortened due to the players strike. Henderson only stole 56 bases in that season. With his three 100 steal seasons, Rickey established himself as the only American League player to steal 100+ bases.

I'll touch upon Rickey's record setting 130 stolen bases in 1982 in a later post. For my next post, I'm going to focus on the Oakland A's five man starting rotation in 1980 and the ridiculous amount of complete games that the quartet amassed that season.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,

Baseball Sisco
#BaseballSisco
#BaseballSiscoKidStyle

Rickey Henderson Passes Lou Brock With His 119th Stolen Base August 27, 1982

On this day in Baseball history August 27, 1982: Oakland A's speedster Rickey Henderson steals second base on a pitchout against Milwaukee Brewers starter Doc Medich to pass Lou Brock on the single season stolen base list. Brock set his career high of 118 stolen bases in 1974. By the time the game was over, Henderson would steal four bases giving him 122 for the season. Rickey would finish the season with 130 stolen bases.

And here is where things get a little murky.

I grew up thinking that with Rickey Henderson's 119th stolen base, he became the single season stolen base leader. Getting a total of 130 steals for the 1982 season would be the benchmark that many players would have a hard time matching let alone eclipsing. Now, I'm going to ask that you go to either the MLB.com page for the Single Season Stolen Base Record or the Baseball Reference.com page for the Single Season Stolen Base Record. Who do you see listed at number 1 on that list. In case you don't want to check out the links, here are a few screenshots

Ok. Still don't believe what you see? Here's one more screenshot, this one from the Baseball Almanac.com Single Season Stolen Base list:

Some of you out there are thinking to yourselves: Who the hell is Hugh Nicol. High Nicol played for the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the old American Association (AA). The AA played alongside the National League from 1882-1891 before merging with the National League. Four National League franchises have roots in the old AA: Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The article American Association remembered: MLB celebrates impact of the 'Beer and Whiskey League' by Mark Sheldon from MLB.com dated May 2, 2007 states the following which might clarify things a bit:

Only the Cubs and Braves have been continuously in the National League since its 1876 founding. The Reds, Cardinals and Pirates remain NL Central Division foes and have one of sport's longest-lasting rivalries. The Dodgers, who were formed in 1884 as the Atlantics, also started in the American Association. Like the Reds, Brooklyn joined the National League for the 1890 season.

"All of these teams have their roots in the American Association," Nemec said. "Really, the National League actually has stronger roots in the American Association in some ways than it does National League roots."

Eventually, the American Association was recognized as a full-fledged Major League and all of its players' statistics and career highlights are counted accordingly in the annals of Major League history.

So there in is the A-HA!!! moment. The AA and their statistics are recognized by MLB as being accumulated as a Major League. In addition to the AA, the Federal League (1914-1915), the Players League (1890) and the Union Association (1884) are all recognized as being a Major League. The question I have is when were the statistics of the AA formally recognized by MLB.

I sent a tweet to Mr. John Thorn who is the official historian for MLB. Here is what he said:

@BaseballSisco 1968-69 Special Baseball Records Committee ruling. But this only affirmed a view of long standing.
— John Thorn (@thorn_john) August 27, 2014

My other question to Mr. Thorn was concerning the treatment of the AA's statistics as being "Pre-Modern" in the context of today's "Modern" stats:

.@BaseballSisco Not a valuable distinction. When does one such period end and the other begin?
— John Thorn (@thorn_john) August 27, 2014

.@BaseballSisco MLB's official position is that its history and its records run seamlessly from 1876 to the present.
— John Thorn (@thorn_john) August 27, 2014

That makes perfect sense. I'm sure there will be fans that will dispute this and say that Rickey Henderson is the single season stolen bases record holder and not Hugh Nicol who played for the American Association back in the 1880's. If so, then what can you do. Based on MLB's position in terms of its history and the fact MLB has Rickey as number two on the list behind Hugh Nicol then who am I to argue that.

Many thanks to Mr. Thorn for his actually getting back to me. There are many Baseball historians and experts on Twitter whom I have asked questions of and never gotten a response, let alone numerous prompt responses. Definitely give him a follow @thorn_john.

On an aside, if you want to know more of the "Beer and Whiskey" league that was the American Association, I recommend you pick up the book: The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game by Edward Achorn. It is quite the entertaining book and provides amazing insight to the early years of organized Baseball. I think you all will like it.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:
- Click Here to access Rickey Henderson's career statistics at Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here to access the article MLB's 200,000th game: How it was determined by John Thorn from MLB.com dated September 23, 2011