He Doubled the Entire Sport
This story was left in our comments by
Bob Jalving, via Facebook
The gap is the part people forget.
In 1974, Lou Brock stole 118 bases. Davey Lopes finished second in the National League with 59. Billy North led the American League with 54. Brock did not just win a stolen base title that season. He doubled the entire sport.
He was 35 years old. He was also thrown out 33 times, which means he took off 151 times in one summer, at an age when most players have quietly stopped testing catchers at all. Fifty-three of those 118 came in the final two months, with the Cardinals in a pennant race.
On September 10 in St. Louis, he took his 104th and 105th bases to tie and then pass Maury Wills. The Cardinals lost that night, 8-2. He kept running anyway.
Rickey Henderson eventually broke the record with 130 in 1982. He was 23 years old. That is the honest frame for what Brock did in 1974. The man who finally beat the number had to be twelve years younger to get there.
Brock finished with 938 steals, 3,023 hits, and a first-ballot plaque in Cooperstown. The 118 is the number people say out loud. The 35 is the one that should stop them.
