Some records are made to never be broken. Rickey Henderson picked up his 1000th stolen base on May 1, 1992, exactly a year to the day after he broke Lou Brock‘s record of 938 swipes.
Henderson still had more than 400 more left in him, finishing his Hall of Fame career with 1,406. Even though Henderson started to slow just a tiny bit as he approached 30 years old, he actually was a better, more selective base stealer as he got older, as evidenced by his never leading the league in caught stealing after the age of 27 despite winning 5 more SB titles in his career.
It seems highly improbable to us – despite players on a whole being even stronger and faster than they were a generation ago – that anyone will again approach Henderson’s career numbers, given that the last time anyone even stole 100 bases was 37 years ago (Vince Coleman, 1987), and Coleman and Henderson were the last to even break 80 SBs in 1988.
The stolen base, like the sac fly and moving runners into scoring position, simply isn’t as popular in this era of swinging for the fences every time you step to the plate. What other prominent sports records do you think will stand for all time?
On September 19, 1984, Pete Rose added another chapter to his legendary career. In a 4–2 win over the Atlanta Braves, Rose notched his 100th
Anyone else remember the wild hype around the 1990 Score Traded Eric Lindros baseball card?We weren’t even into hockey—but for a hot minute, Lindros’ Blue Jays
