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| Greg Luzinski only missed this exclusive club by 42 stolen bases in 1978. |
In this day and age of baseball, what home run number would
you be happy with seeing from your team leader in home runs? I think most baseball fans would have set
that bar at 40+ a decade ago, but in today’s environment, I think I’d be happy
with 30. Maybe not necessarily the team
leader, but if I had a couple of guys on the team with 30 home runs, I’d be
happy. Only two of my National League
Champion St. Louis Cardinals had over 20 last year. Wow, only 14 players hit 30 home runs last
year. But I’m going to stick with 30,
because it fits the narrative for this blog post. Bear with me here.
Let’s pose the same question for stolen bases. What number would you be happy with seeing
from your team leader in stolen bases? I
think that I’d be happy with 30, although with my Cardinals, I would probably
have to set the bar quite a bit lower. I
grew up watching Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman, Kenny Lofton, Marquis
Grissom, etc. Those guys were all fun to
watch. It seems like every year, there
was a ton of guys stealing 50 bases.
That just doesn’t happen anymore.
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| Standard MLB transportation circa 1988. |
While I’m guessing that the move away from Astroturf fields
probably affected that slightly, the increased power from the mid-1990’s to the
mid 2000’s probably had more to do with it.
Why risk the out when the next guy up is just going to hit a
dinger? The last time we had five guys
steal more than 50 bases in a season was 2007.
Before that, it was 1998. And in
doing the research, among the league leaders anyway, you can see where the
stolen base certainly isn’t as prevalent nowadays, but it hasn’t fallen off
like home run totals have. But 50 stolen
bases also fits the narrative for this post, so let’s stick with that.
In major league history, there have been 1205 player seasons
of 30 or more home runs in a season.
There have been 481 player seasons of 50 or more stolen bases in major
league history. There have been TWO
instances where a player has done both in the same season – Eric Davis in 1987,
and Barry Bonds in 1990. Sorry 2012 Mike
Trout, you missed this exclusive club by one stolen base.
Ha, I almost had to change this. I was looking at Hall of Famer Eddie Collins’
stats page, and it showed that in 1926, at the age of 39, he hit 32 home runs
and stole 65 bases. What? Then I noticed he only had one RBI. Oops.
Someone has the numbers shifted over one column. Anyway, back to Davis and Bonds.
G
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
2B
|
3B
|
HR
|
RBI
|
||
'87 Davis
|
129
|
474
|
120
|
139
|
23
|
4
|
37
|
100
|
|
'90 Bonds
|
151
|
519
|
104
|
156
|
32
|
3
|
33
|
114
|
|
SB
|
CS
|
BB
|
SO
|
AVG
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS
|
WAR
|
|
'87 Davis
|
50
|
6
|
84
|
134
|
.293
|
.399
|
.593
|
.991
|
7.9
|
'90 Bonds
|
52
|
13
|
93
|
83
|
.301
|
.406
|
.565
|
.970
|
9.7
|
Those numbers are just tremendous for both players, but note
that Davis did it in just 129 games in 1987.
Let’s examine each month that year and see how they came about these
numbers.
APRIL
You could say Davis’ April in 1987 started off good. In the opening two game series against the
Expos, he went four for six with a home run, two RBIs, FIVE runs scored, three
walks (including one intentional), and three stolen bases. For the entire month, in 20 games he would
hit .364 with five doubles, a triple, seven home runs, 16 RBIs, 20 runs, 10
walks and 19 strikeouts. He had nine
stolen bases vs. two caught stealing.
Bonds was solid if unspectacular in April 1990. In the first nine games of the season, the
Pirates were 4-5, and Bonds was only hitting .200 with no home runs. Even through April 26th, he was
still hitting .208. Then the Pirates
visited San Diego to finish up the month.
Bonds went 9-12 with three home runs, six RBIs, seven runs scored and
two stolen bases. His average jumped
from .208 to .317, and he finished the month with four doubles, a triple, four
home runs, 13 RBIs, 14 runs, eight walks and 10 strikeouts. He had six stolen bases vs. one caught
stealing. The Pirates finished the month
with a nine game winning streak to move to 13-5.
MAY
Davis must have really liked playing in the first series of
the month. On May 1st, he
went three for four with two home runs and five RBIs and an intentional
walk. Two days later in the finale of
the three game series with the Phillies, he went four for five with THREE home
runs and six RBIs. He scored four runs
and stole a base for good measure. Two
home runs in that series were grand slams.
He’d add another one on May 30th. The three grand slams in a month was at the
time an NL record. He’s still tied for
first with Carlos Beltran and Mike Piazza.
For the month, in 22 games he would hit .329 with six doubles, 12 home
runs, 36 RBIs, 23 runs, 11 walks and 21 strikeouts. He stole 11 bases without being caught once.
Bonds’ May that year was pretty similar to his April. He had a really good game here and there, but
for the most part, he just kept plugging away at it. He finished the month hitting .307 with seven
doubles, a triple, six home runs, 24 RBIs, 19 runs, 14 walks and eight
strikeouts. He stole eight bases vs. one
caught stealing.
JUNE
June of ’87 saw the Reds play their first 13 games at
home. Maybe he had some sort of home
improvement disaster or was being bullied by the neighbor kid or something, but
he only hit .122 in those games. He
still stole eight bases, but only had one home run. The rest of the month though, he hit .400 in
nine road games. For the month overall,
in 22 games he hit .250 with three doubles, a triple, four home runs, 11 RBIs,
23 runs, 18 walks and 22 strikeouts. He
stole 13 bases and was only caught once.
For the first three months of the season, in 64 games he’d have 23 home
runs and 33 stolen bases. He also had 63
RBIs and 66 runs.
Bonds turned it up a notch in June ’90. In a nine game stretch from June 11th through June 24th, he went 20-39 for a .556 average with three home runs. Overall that month, he hit .369 with nine doubles, a triple, three home runs, 16 RBIs, 17 runs, 11 walks and 10 strikeouts. He had a down month on the basepaths with seven stolen bases but five caught stealing. Halfway through the season, in 65 games he'd have 13 home runs and 21 stolen bases. If he were to reach Davis' numbers, he'd have to have a strong second half.
JULY
July saw the batting average return for Davis, but his other
numbers weren’t off the charts. For the
month, in 24 games he hit .348 with five doubles, two triples, six home runs,
17 RBIs, 24 runs, 14 walks and 27 strikeouts.
He only had four stolen bases without being caught.
In July, Bonds had another typical month. In 26 games he hit .326 with four doubles,
five home runs, 22 RBIs, 18 runs, 22 walks and 13 strikeouts. He had a much better month on the basepaths
with 14 steals without being caught. Ten
of those stolen bases came in just four games.
On July 16th and 17th, he’d get the Giants’ Terry
Kennedy and Bill Bathe for two steals.
On July 22nd, he’d get the Dodgers’ Mike Scioscia for three
bases, and then did the same two days later to the Expos’ Mike Fitzgerald.
AUGUST
By August, Davis was likely wearing down a bit, and playing
in 29 games in 31 days (including a west coast trip that featured two double
headers with eight games in six days) certainly would do it. For the month, in those 29 games he would hit
.250 with four doubles, six home runs, 15 RBIs, 20 runs, 19 walks and 30
strikeouts. He had 11 stolen bases and
was a caught stealing twice. Like Bonds
in July, he got those stolen bases in bunches.
In those 29 games, he only stole bases in five of them. He had one game with one stolen base, two
games with two steals and two games with three steals. Catchers that fell victim to his three steals
were the Pirates’ Junior Ortiz and the Cubs Jody Davis.
August wasn’t too kind to Bonds either, or at least his
batting average. For the month, he
played in 30 games, including two double headers with six games in four
days. He would hit .248 with five
doubles, seven home runs, 22 RBIs, 21 runs, 20 walks and 17 strikeouts. That RBI total was bolstered by a couple of
five RBI games he had on August 6th and August 29th. He had eight stolen bases vs. two caught
stealing. Four of those steals came on
the same day, in a double header vs. the Reds on August 17th. Bonds would get starting catcher Jeff Reed
for two in the opener, and he’d steal second AND third base off of Reed when he came in
as a replacement in the 9th inning.
And then Bonds was thrown out at home off of a Jeff King sacrifice fly to
center by…Eric Davis.
SEPTEMBER
Davis only played 12 games in September ’87. With nagging injuries, he limped home
(probably literally), hitting .163 with two home runs, five RBIs, 10 runs, 12
walks and 15 strikeouts. He only stole
two bases and was caught once. The Reds
would finish 84-78, six games behind the San Francisco Giants, who would go on
to lose the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals, who in turn would lose the World
Series to the Minnesota Twins in seven games.
Bonds’ September was a lot closer to his August than the
other months that season. He had two
games with two home runs, but by this point, the Pirates were pretty much
cruising to the playoffs. Bonds would
finish the month hitting .260 with three doubles, eight home runs, 17 RBIs, 15
runs, 18 walks and 15 strikeouts in 30 games (including the one game on October
3rd). He’d steal nine bases
and be caught four times. The Pirates
would finish in first place at 95-67, four games ahead the Mets. They would go on to lose to Davis’ Reds as
Cincinnati would go on to sweep the A’s in the World Series.
Davis would finish the 1987 season with a ninth place finish in the MVP voting between Tony Gwynn and Howard Johnson, but well below winner Andre Dawson. He was an All Star, a Gold Glove winner and a Silver Slugger.
Bonds would finish the 1990 season as the National League
MVP, with teammate Bobby Bonilla, Darryl Strawberry, Ryne Sandberg and Eddie
Murray rounding out the top five. He
also was an All Star, a Gold Glove winner and a Silver Slugger.
So, hypothetically, if these two players had these same
numbers in the same season, who would be the MVP? I’m guessing the nod would still go to Bonds
if because of nothing else, games played.
But 1987, the baseball was juiced, so it was a different environment
than 1990. Instead, let’s just sit back
and have a chuckle at this thought – what if we could have had an outfield of
1990 Bonilla in right, 1987 Davis in center, and 1990 Bonds in left? By 1990 though, Davis was already somewhat
declining, so instead, you got Lenny Dykstra in the All Star game that
year. And we all know about Bonds’ and
Dykstra’s criminal activities. At least
the only thing that Bonilla ever did was rob the Mets.
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