This blog entry is dedicated to setting the record straight regarding Lou Brock and his two steals of home.
Unfortunately, some reports, including a book produced by ESPN and an article in the digital archives of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), state Brock never stole home during his big-league career. Those reports are inaccurate.
Brock stole home twice on the front end of double steals. He did it first with the Cubs on May 24, 1964, against the Reds at Cincinnati. He repeated the feat with the Cardinals on Aug. 6, 1970, against the Mets at St. Louis.
But the incorrect reports about Brock never stealing home are prevalent on Internet search engines such as Google.
“ESPN: The Mighty Book of Sports Knowledge” (2009, Ballantine) has an item about Lou Gehrig stealing home 15 times during his career with the Yankees. The book, edited by Steve Wulf, incorrectly concludes, “Although that’s nowhere near the record of 54 set by Ty Cobb, it is 15 more than the total of Lou Brock.”
A research article on the same topic by Raymond J. Gonzalez in the SABR archives incorrectly reports, “The recent disclosure that Lou Brock had never stolen home … came as quite a surprise. Modern players are still stealing home … but Brock … has never done it.”
Possibly adding to the misinformation is a 2009 Sports Illustrated article. Ted Keith of SI.com wrote, “Only four of the 1,406 steals by career leader Rickey Henderson were straight steals of home, and that’s four more than Lou Brock (938), the man whose record Henderson broke, had in his Hall of Fame career.”
It’s true that neither of Brock’s steals of home were so-called “straight steals,” meaning his wasn’t the lone steal on the play. But the Sports Illustrated piece leaves the false impression Brock never stole home. The fact those thefts were on double steals (each time, a runner swiped second while Brock stole home) doesn’t diminish or erase the accomplishment.
Repoz
Posted: November 29, 2012 at 06:47 AM |
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1. Bhaakon Posted: November 29, 2012 at 07:01 AM (#4312137)Yes, yes it does. It's not a particularly important stat, nor a slander against Brock, but taking home on a double steal is closer to scoring on a sacrifice fly or bunt than to a straight steal of home. In my admittedly subjective opinion, the two plays aren't even comparable.
Not sure that is true - see:
Stealing a Run - Hardball Times
As to then versus now, back in the day pitchers (as I recall) practically always pitched from a full windup with a runner on third base (except if there was also a runner on first with second base empty). Once it became the norm for pitchers to throw from the stretch with a man on third, attempted straight steals of home became much more scarce.
At least, that's how it seems to me, without the benefit of research.
DB
EDIT: Here's the image
The unbelievably awesome part of that image is the ump signaling safe while in the pileup.
Well, it's not the same aesthetically or in degree of difficulty as the straight steal of home, which I think is what you're getting at. But I wouldn't really call it akin to those other plays since you're trading an out for a base in those examples.
It was super awesome when Bryce Harper did it...but the Nats still lost that game like 7-1
It's very hard to pull off in today's game anyway, because so few pitchers will go from the windup with a runner on third (hell, most relievers don't throw from the windup at all), so there are few situations where you can get an adequate jump.
Orlando Cabrera stole home off of Chad Billingsley who was in the windup and got so confused when Cabrera went for it he nearly balked. I think the pitch was a ball also. Very memorable play if you were there.
EDIT:
Description from http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/stealing-a-run/
Orlando Cabrera
Date: July 2, 2006
Opposing pitcher: Chad Billingsley
Base state: Runner on third
Outs: 2
Leverage index: 1.28
Win value: 0.08
Break-even point: 31 percent
The situation: Cabrera reached third after his double and an error by J.D. Drew in right field allowed the Angels to take a 1-0 lead. With Vladimir Guerrero at the plate, Cabrera recognized that Billingsley was pitching from the windup and not paying him enough attention. On the second pitch, Cabrera stole home without a throw.
The reactions:
"After the first pitch, Orlando openly told me, 'This guy's doing something that's giving me a chance, so please get out of the way. I always look to the third base coach. I saw Orlando, he said a word or two in Spanish. His hand gesture was really enough."
—Vladimir Guerrero
"When he goes into his windup, he has this routine where he steps back and looks down. I guess Cabrera picked it up because as soon as he put his head down, Cabrera took off. And by the time he picked his head up, Cabrera was already starting to slide. So we didn't really have a chance."
—Russell Martin
Both quotes courtesy of ESPN
DOUBLE EDIT: According to Martin there wasn't a pitch.
Except that the ump blew the call. There were two strikes on the batter (David Green), and the pitch upon which Brummer stole home was a strike, right down the middle, before Brummer touched the plate, inning over, no run scores. But the ever-incompetent Dave Pallone, looking at Brummer instead of the pitch, failed to register any call on the pitch.
This is true of any steal of home. I was at Fenway when Billy Hatcher stole home and I remember seeing him break from third and realizing what was happening it all was incredibly exciting. My friends I was with and I pretty much missed the next inning and a half because we kept looking at each other saying "Billy Hatcher stole home, holy crap".
That is how they call a ball, eh.
Yes, except that a ball doesn't customarily pass directly through the strike zone.
The conditions just aren't there to try it very often. You can't go with a righthanded pitcher on the mound who throws from the stretch. You can possibly go with a lefty in the stretch who's paying attention to the guy at first, though you're probably just as likely to get him to balk than to beat a throw to the plate. It generally requires someone throwing from the windup (ideally, a lefty), and that situation doesn't come up nearly as much as it once did (with more guys throwing from the stretch in that situation, and more innings being worked by perma-stretch throwing relievers).
Yeah, but he wasn't going on the pitch (and it sounds like Billingsley was set to go into the windup). He was stealing on Billingsley having his head in his ass.
You can straight steal on a righthanded pitcher who's throwing from the windup, but it's slightly easier to do it against a lefty because he'll have his back to you as you make your break. A righty should see it earlier, and be able to adjust a little (speed up his release, fastball isntead of curve, inside rather than outside, etc.)
Scoring on a hit and run, then. Like you say, my point is more about degree of difficulty and sheer brazenness of the play than any kind of statistical measure of run value.
I've seen clips of Ty Cobb doing it. It is quite exciting!
BB-Ref has Brock stealing third successfully 79 times, against 42 CS.
Rickey Henderson (the only other person I looked at) was 322-69. Jeepers, as my grandpa would say.
He was thinking "I bet this will make RJ in TO's head explode".
He was very nearly right.
There's video online (with a Mike Shannon call!). Pallone did forget to call the pitch, jumping into position to call the tag play before the ball arrived. But the Giants' catcher also jumped out of position before the ball arrived. The pitch to me looks outside anyway, although it was close, but it would have been tough to call it a strike with the catcher jumping out like that.
That was Earl Torgeson of the Tigers stealing home on the Yanks' Bob Turley, and everyone in Briggs Stadium knew it was coming. Turley was still using his slow and belabored double pump windup, and the play at the plate wasn't even particularly close. About a year after that, Turley joined Don Larsen in switching to the no-windup pitch, and until injuries derailed him in 1959, he became one of their best pitchers of the 50's.
This is the one I remember, 2009? or so.. It's played quite prominently on an ESPN ad for baseball telecasts in Aus. Not sure you get the same ad over there. This was a straight steal right?
Traditionally too, you need a RHB at the plate, to screen the catcher as much as possible. Though IIRC the steal of home by Cecil Espy, which I saw on TV, featured a LHB. But that's indicative: if I can remember "somebody's famous steal of home," it's reached almost the status of a dropkick field goal :)
Yes straight steal. JD Drew was the batter and looked on as if he was watching his accountant prepare his tax return.
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