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
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
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