3+ Players, Same Team, Same Game, With 2+ SB
Posted by Steve Lombardi on May 5, 2011
Since 1919, how many teams had a game where at least three of the players in their line-up had 2 stolen bases or more in the same game?
Here's the list -
| Rk | Tm | Opp | Date | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FLA | SDP | 2000-05-18 | 4 | |
| 2 | TOR | MON | 2001-07-07 | 3 | |
| 3 | TEX | BOS | 2010-04-20 | 3 | |
| 4 | STL | SFG | 1983-07-27 | 3 | |
| 5 | STL | SFG | 1988-05-11 | 3 | |
| 6 | STL | CHC | 1959-06-30 | 3 | |
| 7 | SDP | MON | 1977-07-26 (2) | 3 | |
| 8 | SDP | ATL | 2001-05-08 | 3 | |
| 9 | PIT | LAD | 1978-05-07 | 3 | |
| 10 | PIT | BSN | 1922-09-13 (1) | 3 | |
| 11 | PIT | BSN | 1944-08-01 | 3 | |
| 12 | PHI | NYG | 1919-07-07 (1) | 3 | |
| 13 | OAK | MIN | 1976-05-17 | 3 | |
| 14 | OAK | MIN | 1976-08-01 (1) | 3 | |
| 15 | NYG | BRO | 1922-04-22 | 3 | |
| 16 | MIL | CAL | 1988-06-24 | 3 | |
| 17 | LAD | OAK | 1997-08-28 | 3 | |
| 18 | KCR | TOR | 1995-05-23 | 3 | |
| 19 | KCA | BAL | 1965-09-27 | 3 | |
| 20 | CHW | KCA | 1966-04-16 | 3 | |
| 21 | BRO | PIT | 1933-06-22 | 3 | |
| 22 | ATL | CIN | 1999-08-23 | 3 | |
| 23 | ATL | NYM | 1988-07-16 | 3 |
.
Wiki Gonzalez may still be having nightmares about that game versus the Marlins.
May 5th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Something I thought about the other day for the PI regarding SB. Would it be possible to put in a drop down to sort them by what base was stolen?
That way you could see who stole for the cycle or stole home...
just an idea....
May 5th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
10 stolen bases and only two runs scored. Wiki can sleep soundly.
May 5th, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Wow, Oakland sure liked to run against the Twins in 1976 9 SB in one game and 12 in the other! Two different catchers, too.
May 5th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
How much of that nightmare can be blamed on Wiki and how much was Stan Spencer at fault?
Play Index shows him as the only pitcher to ever allow 10 SB in a game.
Wakefield and Nomo allowed 9; and 5 pitchers including Randy Johnson and Tommy John each allowed 8 SB in a game
May 5th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
@ 1 I second the idea... I was looking for an easy way to access this exact information just yesterday...
May 5th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Looking for catchers involved in more than one of these games ...
Bob Brenly was victimized all 6 times in the '88 SF-STL game (though there's no shame in not catching Vince Coleman, Ozzie Smith or Willie McGee), and on 2 of the 9 SB in the '83 SF-STL game. Brenly's backup, John Rabb, started the '83 game and was lifted after allowing 7 SB in 4 defensive innings (3 by Lonnie Smith); his overthrow at 3B trying to nail Lonnie at 3B (his 2nd steal of the inning) let in a run. Rabb allowed 34 SB with 7 CS in 31 games that year. (No, I am not absolving pitcher Renie Martin, who was easy to run on.)
The 2 MIN-OAK games in '76 featured 3 different Twins catchers. The '76 A's ran at almost every opportunity, swiping 341 bags with 123 CS, both tops in the majors; the SB were half again more than the #2 club, and 214 more than the MLB average. Bill North had 75, Don Baylor (acquired in the offseason Reggie trade) had 52, Claudell Washington 37, Phil Garner 35, and even Sal Bando swiped 20 with a good percentage. They also had two full-time pinch-runners, Matt Alexander (20/7) and Larry Lintz (30/11). Gaudy SB numbers, and their 73% success rate was way above the league average (the rest of the AL was at 64%). But while I've often heard it said that the '76 A's "damn near ran their way to a 6th straight division," it's not obvious how much it helped them score. The A's were 5th in the AL in scoring (a fine figure, given their park); they were also 5th in OBP, 5th in OPS, and 4th in HRs, even without Reggie.
May 5th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Mea culpa -- How could I omit Bert Campaneris with 54 SB for those '76 A's? They had 3 of the AL's top 4 thieves. They were the last AL team with three 50-SB players; the 1980 Padres were the last NL team (Jerry Mumphrey, Gene Richard and Ozzie).
May 5th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Gold Glove alert: Bob Boone, 1988, victimized by Paul Molitor, Jeffrey Gantner and Jim Gantner. The 40-year-old Boone threw out an even 40% that year (60 SB, 40 CS), his 7th straight year at 40% or better. He would carry that streak one more year, his last as a regular. Five of the 6 SB in that '88 game were against LHP Chuck Finley, who had some ups and downs at holding runners.
Steve -- fun theme!
May 5th, 2011 at 9:57 pm
In the Florida game, all SB from the first four batters. And they still lost the game.
Interesting that the '83 Cardinals got 8 SB in that game without Vince Coleman on the scene yet.
May 5th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
In that 1976-5-17 OAK-MIN game (11 innings), the A's went 9 for 9 in SB, led by Don Baylor's 4. Six of the 9 came in 3.2 IP by SP Joe Decker.
That was also the only one of these games that featured 2+ SB by a player on the other side: Rod Carew went 3 for 4, including a steal of home in the 1st inning; he was cut down at 2B in the 9th as the potential winning run. Carew had a career-high 49 SB that year.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN197605170.shtml
May 5th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Taking Steve's concept and running with it....
-- The 23 teams on his list went 12-11; the only team with 4 such players lost convincingly, 6-2 in regulation, as Eelz and Neil L. noted.
-- On the other hand, teams went 12-2 when 2 teammates have had 3+ SB. (List below.) Both losses overlapped with Steve's list. Surely just an oddity.
-- No team since 1919 has had more than 2 players with 3+ SB.
-- In that 2000-5-18 game, despite the 10 SB and no CS, the Marlins had just 12 AB with RISP; they got 3 hits, but only 2 of those produced runs. All 10 SB came in the first 5 innings -- 4 in the 1st, 3 in the 3rd and 3 in the 5th. All were separate events -- no double-steals.
2 teammates with 3+ SB in the same game, 1919-present:
Rk Tm Opp Date #Matching
1 TEX BOS 2009-08-15 2
2 TEX BOS 2010-04-20 2
3 STL CHC 1990-06-03 2
4 STL SDP 1985-07-11 2
5 STL HOU 1991-05-10 2
6 SLB CLE 1922-04-19 2
7 SLB PHA 1948-07-21 2
8 SLB DET 1921-10-02 2
9 NYY CHW 1931-06-23(2) 2
10 MIL MIN 1992-04-14 2
11 LAD ATL 1986-09-09 2
12 FLA SDP 2000-05-18 2
13 BOS CHW 1934-05-21 2
14 ATL SFG 1982-09-28 2
May 5th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Neil L, as you alluded to, the Cards were already the NL's leading base-stealing team for 3 years before Coleman arrived, 1982-84, reaching 200 SB each year when no other NL team did so.
With Coleman, they took it to a whole new level, with 314 SB in 1985, up by 94 from the year before. The gains weren't all from Coleman, though; he netted 60 more than the LF he replaced (Lonnie Smith). Most of the rest of the gains came from Tom Herr (+18 from 13 to 31) and Willie McGee (+13 from 40 to 53).
The '85 Cards led the majors with 314 SB with a fine 77% success rate. And they led the league in scoring. How much connection? Not for me to say; but they were also #1 in OBP (tops in both BA and walks) and OPS. The following year, they still led the NL easily with 262 SB, but they fell to last in scoring; perhaps not coincidentally, they were last in both OBP and SLG. In '87, their SB were down a bit to 248, but they were 2nd in scoring ... and in OBP.
I do love base-stealing, but it's not hard to see that it rarely has a strong correlation with scoring.
May 5th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Self-correction @12 -- The '87 Cards were 1st in OBP (not 2nd).
May 5th, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Plenty of Good Seats Available Dept: Kansas City at Baltimore, September 27, 1965-attendance: 703.
May 6th, 2011 at 12:22 am
@14, Steven -- Nice eye there. At first I thought it must be an error: While the host Orioles were not a big draw (averaging just under 10,000 per home game), still, no other home game that year drew less than 3,000. It was a Monday, so no competition from the Colts, the dominant team in town. (Monday Night Football debuted in 1970.) And while it was late in the year and the O's were on the brink of elimination, they had a very good season, finishing 94-68, and were on a 7-game win streak going into the game.
But perhaps I see what happened. It was a makeup of a rainout, against the last-place KC A's. Fans who had tickets for the original game probably would have long since traded them for other dates, since there were usually plenty of seats available. The O's drew over 5,000 on Sunday for the last game of a series with the Angels, and over 5,000 on Tuesday to open a series with Minnesota. But those A's had no name players. And fans would not have been used to going to the stadium on a Monday; Baltimore played only 5 other home dates on Monday that year, one of which was a holiday doubleheader on Memorial Day. And maybe it was a cold or rainy day.
No matter how I rationalize it, though -- 703 is a pretty sorry number!
May 6th, 2011 at 1:23 am
I can't remember the year, but I distinctly remember the SFGs taking advantage of the NYM catcher - Mackey Sasser's throwing hiccup.
I don't know if anyone remembers, but Mackey could not throw it back to the pitcher, without double, triple and quadruple clutching.
Both Kevin Mitchel and Wil Clark delayed stole 3rd off Mackey...
can any one help me find this game?
May 6th, 2011 at 2:10 am
@15.
A game at Yankee Stadium on Sep 22, 1966 drew just 413 fans under similar circumstances - late season, make-up game, mid-week day game, drizzling. Also, a mean-nothing game as the Yankees were in last place and their opponents (the ChiSox) were fourth.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196609220.shtml
I recall reading that the Yankees announcer lost his job because during this game he asked a cameraman to pan the empty stands to show what 413 fans looked like. Yankees brass apparently didn't appreciate that. Don't know if the story's true - were Yankees games really televised locally in 1966, on a Thursday afternoon? Or, maybe it was just the cameraman filming some clips for the evening sports report?
May 6th, 2011 at 2:28 am
@17.
Apropos of this thread's topic, Tommie Agee stole a base for the White Sox in the game mentioned, AND had an inside-the-park homer. Agee finished the year with 33 steals, his career high and good for 3rd in the AL that year. Agee won the RoY award in '66 and posted an OPS+ of 127, the highest of his career.
May 6th, 2011 at 2:30 am
Make that 44 steals, not 33 (fat fingers).
May 6th, 2011 at 3:27 am
The Senators stole 13 bases against the Yankees on 28 June 1907. The catcher who gave up all 13 went on to have some impact on the game - you may have heard of him - Branch Rickey.
I don't know how many of the Senators had 2, or 3, or more steals.
May 6th, 2011 at 3:30 am
@16 and Mackey Sasser.
Joseph, I found this game with Clark stealing 3rd off Sasser.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN198909030.shtml
May 6th, 2011 at 3:33 am
Red Barber was the Yankees broadcaster who was allegedly fired for showing all the empty seats. I say allegedly because I haven't found convincing confirmation. The story is told here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/194884-the-yankees-didnt-like-the-truth and here: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/52846/Red-Barber and here: http://en.allexperts.com/q/New-York-Yankees-258/Sept-22nd-1966.htm and probably lots of other places, just type Red Barber fired into the web and see what turns up.
May 6th, 2011 at 7:01 am
I grew up in Southern NJ, but, during 'those days' (god am I getting older, lol) WPIX televised Yankees games, over basic cable.......so, I remember, the Pine Tar Game. However, the part that I am unsure of, is, didn't Steinbrenner, make Yanks fans pay, a second time, to attend the unfinished part, of the game, when it resumed......in the ninth inning? (Really.) I believe this to be so, and I think, that I remember the paid attendance of that 'game', to be, 37. And, the camera, was panning Yankee Stadium, showing THAT, um, crowd.....on a cloudy day, no less.
If any of this is inaccurate, please forgive, my recollection is, that this game was in '83, and I was young, at the time....:-p
May 6th, 2011 at 9:36 am
@ 20 - From the New York Times account there were 5 Senators with 2+ SB (Bob Ganley 3, Dave Altizer 2, Jim Delahanty 2, John Anderson 2, Charlie Jones 2...Mike Heydon 1, Otis Clymer 1). Senators won 16-5.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:38 am
@17,23
WPIX (Channel 11) broadcast pretty much every home game and lots of away games back then. It was 1 of 7 channels on your dial...2 (CBS, 4 (NBC), 5 (WNEW), 7 (ABC), 9 (WOR, home of the Mets), 11 and 13 (PBS). That was it back then.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:46 am
And now the Mets are shown on PIX and the Yankees on WOR. It's a travesty.
The Yankees had another game like this just a few years ago. I can't remember the exact circumstances but it was some kind of last-minute makeup game. I'm sure they drew more than 1000 but it wasn't many, especially in comparison to the 50,000 they packed in for almost every other game.
May 6th, 2011 at 10:13 am
I think I still have a Pirates program from their "Lumber and Lightning" days of the mid-late 70s. It was always more fun going to the park when stolen bases were a huge part of what the team was trying to do and when they didn't have any dominating pitchers, instead relying on balanced contributions from everyone.
May 6th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Do you want to see a shorter list?
Look up for players with 2+ HR and 2+ SB in the same game.
May 6th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
@28, Cesar -- Thanks for the suggestion, which led me to this trivia question: What do Kirk Gibson and Braggo Roth have in common?
-- They're the only players with a game of 2+ HRs, 2+ SB, and another extra-base hit (each had a double).
Oddly, both their teams lost. So did Gary Sheffield's Marlins when he pulled off the 2-HR/2-SB feat on 1995-09-18; he drove in 7 of FLA's 10 runs in a 13-10 loss.
White Sox rookie Don Kolloway had a great game on 1941-06-28. He went 3 for 5 with 2 HRs, 4 SB, and 4 of Chicago's 6 runs. Kolloway had just 3 HRs and 11 SB in 71 games that year. In that same game, Luke Appling had 2 triples and 1 double.
May 6th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Twisto -
On 6/25/06 the Yanks played a day-night doubleheader against the Marlins because of a rainout the day before. For the night game only 6800 were in attendance to see Anibal Sanchez make his ML debut -- a 5-0 win. I vaguely remember a more recent game (White Sox?) with an even smaller crowd but this is the one that came to mind first.
May 6th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
@17 When I was a kid in the late 60s, baseball, of course was one of my loves; and the broadcasting industry was another.
One of my favorite annual features in The Sporting News was a page published once every spring that listed all the TV coverage for all 20 and later 24 AL and NL teams including the announcers, # of games televised, and best of all the list of affiliates.
I remember the Mets and the Cubs televised about 80 per cent of their games, and the Yankees were close behind. The other teams varied dramatically from as amny about 120 (IIRC) to the Dodgers who televised 0 count them zero home games, and only road games from SF thru 1968. In 1969 when SD joined the league, the Dodgers televised those games .
.
May 6th, 2011 at 7:01 pm
@31
Spartan, how could the Dodgers be so arrogant about their television coverage back then? Did the fan base accept it?
Well they still had Vin to fall back on on the radio dial.