Stealing home: a lost art in major league baseball: swiping a run was once a common offensive tool that created excitement for fans, but today it is rarity

Baseball Digest, Sept, 2004 by George Vass

APPARENTLY FEW, IF ANY, HAVE noticed, but present-day fans are being short-changed of what is possibly baseball's most dramatic play, one surpassing even a game-winning home run for heart-pounding excitement.

Sure, a "walk-off" homer undeniably produces an exceptionally sensational and satisfying conclusion. But it wouldn't overstate the case to suggest that a game-winning theft of home could catapult suspense and sensory stimulation to an even higher level.

Not that it's likely to happen these days. Few players steal home any more at any point of a game, let alone in the ninth inning or later. Seldom does a runner on third base make an unexpected dash for the plate, providing the thrill and suspense of the day for the three to four seconds that flash by before the umpire displays the safe or out sign.

Even rarer is the feat of stealing one's way entirely around the bases, something Ty Cobb did a record four times in his career. As the 2004 season kicked into high gear, no player had pulled off the "hat trick" of swiping second, third and home in succession for seven full campaigns (1997-2003).

The last National League grand larceny from first to home in an inning was accomplished by Eric Young, then with Colorado, on June 30, 1996. Chris Stynes, then with Kansas City, was the last to do it in the American League, on May 12, 1996.

The virtual disappearance of the theft of home may be puzzling, but Rickey Henderson, the most proficient base-stealer of all time with 1,406 career larcenies, offered at least a partial explanation. Significantly, less than a half dozen of Henderson's enormous total steals during his lengthy career (1979-2003) were of home.

"Rod Carew stole home 17 times, which is a testimony to Rod's instincts and quickness, but pitchers at that time worked more from the windup than they do now," Henderson noted in his autobiography Off Base. "Now they keep runners closer to third base by working from the stretch.

"Rod wasn't considered the biggest threat around, so every time he stole home it was a surprise. It was easier then."

Maybe so. Pitchers with a big windup, entailing a slower delivery to the plate, obviously benefit runners. But today many starters pitch out of the stretch even with the bases empty, like relievers and unlike Dontrelle Willis, the Florida Marlins' young windmill with his quirky delivery, or Juan Marichal in the distant past.

Not that it ever has been easy to steal home. It's a low percentage play, with the odds heavily weighted against success. It's almost impossible with a left-handed batter at the plate, giving the catcher a clear shot at the runner from third. If the pitcher throws a fastball instead of a pitch that dawdles on its way to the plate that adds to the difficulty.

Then there's the managerial attitude that with less than two outs in an inning there are any number of less risky ways for a runner on third to be brought across the plate. They're seldom tempted with runners on first and third to attempt a double steal, which once accounted for many thefts of home by even less gifted runners.

All these factors combine to help explain why the outstanding thieves of recent decades, such as Henderson, Lou Brock (second with 938 career steals), Vince Coleman, and Maury Wills, seldom dashed for the plate. In fact, Brock never stole home. None of them achieved even nine such thefts, a modest total that wouldn't land them among the top 40 on the all-time list.

The leader with 50 steals of home is Ty Cobb, whose previous modern (since 1900) record of 893 thefts overall has been surpassed by only Henderson and Brock. The others among the top 38 are players whose careers ended before 1950 with the exceptions of Carew, Robinson and Paul Molitor, the last just making it with 10, a figure oddly enough tying him with Babe Ruth. While Cobb performed his thefts in the A.L., the N.L. record of 33 is held by Max Carey, a near contemporary.

(Steals of home have not always been recorded in official statistics, most being uncovered in newspaper accounts. Research continually reveals additional steals of home, which explains the changes in the record books from year to year.)

Cobb also set the major league single season record for steals of home at eight in 1912, a total Carew just missed when he stole seven in 1969 while with the Minnesota Twins, being thrown out on his eighth try. Carew matched the N.L. record set by Pete Reiser of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946.

Carew was egged on by Billy Martin, then managing the Twins, who later was to spur on Henderson with the Oakland A's.

"He (Martin) said I could use my speed to advantage in a game situation in which we needed a run and the guys weren't hitting," Carew recalled in his autobiography Carew. "I had stolen home once before in the minors--I had decided on the spur of the moment, and I could have gotten killed if the batter had swung.

"All I knew about stealing home was that Jackie Robinson had done it so spectacularly. I remember seeing newspaper photos of him, with a big hook slide and a lot of dust around home plate and the catcher (Yogi Berra) lunging at him."