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This Day In Sports…May 29, 1990:
Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A’s breaks Ty Cobb’s 62-year-old American League stolen bases record when he swipes his 893rd in a 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, and it was a big relief for the legendary Oakland native. According to a story in the Society for American Baseball Research, Henderson was anxious to break the record before his home fans—and his mom—and was feeling the pressure. He had gone 0-for-5 at the plate in the previous game, and the A’s were on the cusp of a seven-game road trip.
Henderson began the game with a fly-out and a foul-out. But in his third at-bat in the sixth inning, he laced a two-out double off Toronto starter David Wells. Three pitches later, Henderson got a great jump and stole third without a throw to break the record. He pulled the base out of the ground and thrust it over his head in triumph as 25,255 fans in the Oakland Coliseum roared.
And this is where a Boise tie enters the picture. Henderson later had the base delivered to Milwaukee Brewers manager Tom Trebelhorn, his manager when he broke into pro ball with the Boise A’s as a 17-year-old in 1976. Henderson credited Trebelhorn with helping him develop into the best leadoff hitter in baseball history, and with otherwise showing him the ropes, both on and off the field. For the record, Henderson played 46 games for Boise that summer, batting .336 with 29 stolen bases.
Henderson would pass Lou Brock’s all-time MLB mark of 938 stolen bases in 1991. In 1982, he had broken Brock’s single-season mark of 118 steals in 1974 (Henderson finished with 130). By the time he retired in 2003, Henderson had piled up 1,406 steals with nine different teams over 25 seasons, a sure entry in the “records that will never be broken” book. Oakland skipper Tony LaRussa, who managed with and against Henderson, said, “For the period of time that I’ve been around, I think the most dangerous player is Rickey. In our time, Rickey worried you in more ways than anyone.”
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
