October 7, 2001: A Day of Records In Baseball

Rickey Henderson (left) and Tony Gwynn

October 7, 2001: On the last day of the regular season -- delayed a week, due to the 9/11 attacks -- the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres, 14-5 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Rickey Henderson, now with the Padres, bloops a double down the right-field line off John Thomson of the Colorado Rockies. It is the 3,000th hit of his career.

Tony Gwynn, who is playing in his last game, meets him at home plate, 2 members of the 3,000 Hit Club together. Gwynn retires with a .338 lifetime batting average, which remains the highest of any player who debuted after the 1939 season. (That was Ted Williams' rookie year, and he finished his career at .344.) It is also the highest of any black man, whether American or Hispanic.

Also on this day, Barry Bonds extends his major league record for home runs in season to 73*, as he drives a 3-and-2 1st-inning knuckleball off Los Angeles Dodger Dennis Springer over the right field fence at Pacific Bell Park (now named Oracle Park). The blast also secures two more major league records * for the San Francisco Giants' left fielder, as he surpasses Babe Ruth (1920, .847) with a .863* season slugging percentage, and bests Mark McGwire (1998, one homer every 7.27 AB *) by homering in every 6.52 at-bats *. The Giants beat the Dodgers, their arch-rivals, 2-1.

Indeed, it is a day of records. The Chicago Cubs lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4–3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. They become the 1st team in major league history to not allow an opposing pitcher to throw a complete game against them all season. Sammy Sosa closes out 2001 with his 64th * home run in his final at-bat of the game, and sets a new franchise record with 98 * extra base hits, one more than Hack Wilson had in 1930.

Sosa also finishes with another franchise record of 425 total bases (the 7th-best all-time total), 2 ahead of Wilson. His 160 RBI are the highest total in the NL since Wilson set the MLB record with 191 in 1930. Chuck Klein had 170 that year. Sosa's RBI total for the past 4 years also breaks Klein's 4-year mark set in 1929-32. To finish out the record day, 5 Cubs pitchers combine for 12 strikeouts as the staff sets a major league record with 1,246 strikeouts. The Yankees do the same, setting an AL mark with 1,266 strikeouts.

As for the guy with whom Sosa battled for the single-season home run record in 1998, Mark McGwire plays his last game. He pinch-hits for Jim Edmonds in the bottom of the 9th, and flies to center, as the St. Louis Cardinals lose 9-2 to the Houston Astros at Busch Stadium. He finishes with 583 home runs.

It hadn't been all that long since people were thinking he had a shot at breaking Hank Aaron's record of 755. But it would be Bonds that broke it. At 38, McGwire should have had something left. But he battled injury and batted just .187 that season. The steroids caught up to him.

*

October 7, 2001 was a Sunday. These other MLB games were played on this final day of the regular season:

* The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 1-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mike Mussina (4 innings), Orlando "El Duque" Hernández (4 innings and the winning pitcher) and Mariano Rivera (1 inning) combined on a 2-hit shutout. The only run of the game came on a home run by... Clay Bellinger? The Yankees only got 3 hits of their own, the others being by Chuck Knoblauch and David Justice.

* The New York Mets lose to the Montreal Expos, 5-0 at Shea Stadium. Britt Reames (5 2/3rds innings), Scott Stewart (1 1/3rd) and Scott Strickland (2) limit the Mets to 3 hits.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-4 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 15-5 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Anaheim Angels, 6-2 at Edison International Field (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. The Mariners had won 116 games, setting a new American League record and tying the major league record of the 1906 Cubs. But they wouldn't even win the Pennant.

It was also an NFL Sunday:

* The New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 23-9 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 42-36 at Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 21-20 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans, 26-7 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-3 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Green Bay Packers, 14-10 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots, 30-10 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings, 28-15 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers played their 1st game at Heinz Field, it having been postponed after the 9/11 attacks. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals 16-7. (In 2022, the stadium was renamed Acrisure Stadium.)

* The Cleveland Browns beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-16 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now named Huntington Bank Field).

* The Denver Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs, at Invesco Field at Mile High (now Empower Field at Mile High) in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Carolina Panthers, 24-14 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-15 the Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-21 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the St. Louis Rams beat the Detroit Lions, 35-0 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

July 29, 1989: Rickey Henderson Has No At-Bats -- But 5 Stolen Bases

July 29, 1989: Rickey Henderson has one of the strangest statistical lines in baseball history: No hits, no at-bats, but he draws 4 walks, steals 5 bases, and scores 4 runs.

He led off the bottom of the 1st inning with a walk, stole 2nd base, stole 3rd base, and scored when the pitcher, Randy Johnson, mishandled Carney Lansford's ground ball. Henderson led off the 3rd inning with a walk, stole 2nd, and scored on Lansford's double.

Again in the 5th, Henderson was the 1st batter of the inning, and drew a walk, and stole 2nd. Lansford grounded out, and Dave Henderson flew out. But, again, Henderson scored on an error, when 3rd baseman Jim Presley made a bad throw on Mark McGwire's grounder. Henderson came to bat again in the 6th, drew a walk, and was part of a double steal in which Stan Javier stole 3rd base. Lansford doubled both of them home.

In the 9th inning, Tony Phillips was moved from shortstop to left field, taking Henderson out of the game, and Mike Gallego was put at shortstop, taking Henderson's place in the batting order. But Gallego never got to bat, so he didn't have an official at-bat, either.

None of it did much good: Henderson's Oakland Athletics lost to the Seattle Mariners, 14-6 at the Oakland Coliseum. The M's scored 8 runs in the top of the 1st inning, before the A's could even come to bat. They got the runs on 5 singles, a double, 4 walks and a wild pitch. Oddly, no home runs, and no errors: All 8 runs were earned. Storm Davis pitched to 8 batters, and got exactly 1 of them out. Johnson got his 8th career win. He went on to win 303. Nevertheless, the A's went on to win the World Series.

Henderson was baseball's greatest base stealer, with 1,406. He collected over 3,000 hits, 3,055. His lifetime batting average is not very impressive, .279; but all those walks pushed his on-base percentage to .401. His slugging percentage is .419, and his OPS+ is 127. He had a surprising amount of power, with 297 home runs despite spending the majority of his career in the pitching-friendly Coliseum. And he is baseball's all-time leader in runs scored, with 2,295; and is 2nd (and formerly 1st) all-time in walks, with 2,190.

Baseball statistician Bill James once said, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall-of-Famers."

In the 19th Century, 2 players were credited with 7 stolen bases in a game, but the definition of "stolen base" was different then. By today's definition, the record is 6, and it's been done 5 times: Eddie Collins of the Philadelphia Athletics did it twice, quickly, on September 11 and 22, 1912; Otis Nixon of the Atlanta Braves did it on June 16, 1991; Eric Young Sr. of the Colorado Rockies did it on June 30, 1996; and Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Rays did it on May 3, 2009.

*

July 29, 1989 was a Saturday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees traded for Henderson in the 1984-85 off-season, but he didn't help them reach the Playoffs, and they traded him back to the A's earlier in 1989.

In this game, Chuck Cary, who didn't do much else for the Yankees, pitched a complete game; while Jimmy Key, who would go on to help the Yankees re-establish themselves, didn't get out of the 4th inning. Don Mattingly went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Bob Geren also had 3 hits, while Jesse Barfield, Steve Sax and Alvaro Espinoza each had 2.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 10-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. On the same exact day as Henderson's unusual achievement, there was an even more bizarre occurrence: Vince Coleman of the St. Louis Cardinals, the closest thing the National League then had to a Rickey Henderson, was called out twice for interference on the base paths. Dennis Martínez pitched an 8-hit shutout.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Barry Bonds, who would eventually decide that he needed to use steroids, appeared as a pinch-hitter for the Pirates, and did not reach base. Mike Schmidt, who never decided that he needed to use steroids, had recently retired after hitting 548 home runs for the Phillies.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Mike Smithson pitched 8 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and Rob Murphy pitched a perfect 9th.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Gary Pettis singled Doug Strange home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Luis Aquino pitched a 3-hit shutout. George Brett went 0-for-4. Cal Ripken went 2-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Texas Rangers, 8-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Robin Yount went 3-for-4. Paul Molitor went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 9-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* And the California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

May 1, 1991: Nolan Ryan's Lightning Steals Rickey Henderson's Thunder

May 1, 1991: A new all-time record for stolen bases is set -- and it's not the biggest thing to happen in baseball on the day.

The Oakland Athletics defeat the New York Yankees, 7-4 at the Oakland Coliseum. For a few years now, A's manager Tony La Russa had been taking the "Captain Hook" approach of Sparky Anderson (then with the Detroit Tigers after leading the Cincinnati Reds to glory), replacing pitchers after the slightest slip. In this game, both teams used 5 pitchers.

La Russa started with Mike Moore, who was named the winning pitcher, and ended with Dennis Eckersley, whom La Russa turned from a seemingly washed-up former really good starter into a Hall of Fame closer. 

Yankee manager Carl "Stump" Merrill started Tim Leary, but he was knocked out of the box in the 4th inning. Leary had gone 9-19 the year before. This game dropped him to 2-1, and he would finish 4-10. He went 17-11 with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988, when they upset the A's to win the World Series. Other than that season, he went 61-94. He was not related to Dr. Timothy Leary, the psychologist who became the world's leading advocate for LSD; but you'd have to be on drugs to want him to pitch for your team.

Dave Henderson hit a home run for the A's, while Matt Nokes hit one for the Yankees. 3rd baseman Ernie Riles went 4-for-5 with a stolen base and 5 RBIs. He only had 27 other RBIs that season.

But the big story in this game was Rickey Henderson. (No relation to Dave.) He had set a still-standing record of 130 stolen bases in the 1982 season. The Yankees had traded for him in 1985, but, despite being one of baseball's greatest all-around talents -- of his 3,055 career hits, 297 of them were home runs, despite spending most of his career in the Oakland Coliseum, which was a pitcher's park, and Yankee Stadium, which was hard on righthanded hitters -- he never really fit in. They traded him back to the A's in 1989, and he helped them win the World Series, and a 3rd straight Pennant in 1990.

In the 3rd inning, he singled, and was singled over to 2nd base by Dave Henderson. He then stole 3rd base. It was the 939th stolen base of his career, breaking the record held by St. Louis Cardinals legend Lou Brock, who was on hand for the occasion.

A microphone was set up, and Henderson thanked, in turn, God, the Haas family (owners of the A's), the A's organization, the City of Oakland (where he grew up, although he was born in Chicago), the fans in the Coliseum, his mother, his friends, his loved ones, and former managers Tom Trebelhorn and Billy Martin (who had died in 1989).

Then he said, in words that another of his heroes, Muhammad Ali, might have appreciated, "Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But, today, I'm the greatest of all time. Thank you."

Brock took no offense, saying, "He spoke from his heart." But Henderson knew he had gone too far, later saying, "As soon as I said it, it ruined everything. Everybody thought it was the worst thing you could ever say. Those words haunt me to this day, and will continue to haunt me. They overshadow what I've accomplished in this game."

There is a difference between having a healthy ego, which is necessary to succeed in just about any endeavor, including professional sports; and having an excessive ego. Henderson certainly gave the impression of having the latter, not helping himself by being an illeist, a person who tended refer to himself in the third person, often calling himself "Rickey" instead of "I."

Henderson did go on to collect over 3,000 hits, become the major league's all-time leader in runs scored (2,295, a record he still holds) and walks (2,190), since surpassed by Barry Bonds, although he still holds the record for unintentional walks with 2,129). And he raised the record for career stolen bases to 1,406. To put that in perspective: As of May 1, 2022, the active leader is Elvis Andrus, with 318. Add his total to Brock's former record of 938, and that's 1,256 -- 150 short of Henderson's record.

*

Just a few hours later, Henderson's thunder was stolen by Nolan Ryan's lightning. At Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas, Ryan pitched the 7th no-hitter of his career, against the Toronto Blue Jays. To this day, no other pitcher has more than 4. And, at age 44, he broke the record he set the year before, with his 6th, becoming the oldest pitcher ever to throw one.

The Rangers beat the Jays, 3-0. Ryan struck out 16 batters. He fell short of a perfect game, which none of his 7 no-hitters was, by walking 2 batters: Kelly Gruber in the 1st inning and Joe Carter in the 7th. The last out was a strikeout of Roberto Alomar. Rubén Sierra hit a home run for the Rangers.

His 6th no-hitter was pitched against the A's, at the Oakland Coliseum. The year before that, on August 22, 1989, at Arlington, Ryan had struck Henderson out for his 5,000th career strikeout. Like Henderson with stolen bases, and himself with no-hitters, he raised that record so high that it is incredibly unlikely that it will ever be broken: 5,714.

He finished his career with 324 wins, but also 297 losses, the most in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era. Ryan was a dominant pitcher, but, when he wasn't on his game, which was often, he was far from unhittable.

In 1999, Ryan was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Henderson was still active, and therefore ineligible for the Hall. That same year, fan balloting named Ryan to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, and did not name Henderson.

Henderson kept playing for as long as he thought he could, but probably should have retired after the 2001 season, shortly after getting his 3,000th hit and breaking the walks and runs records. He hung on for 2 more years at the major league level, and 2 more years in "independent" minor leagues. He did get elected to the Hall in his 1st year of eligibility, 2009.

*

May 1, 1991 was a Wednesday. These other MLB games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the San Diego Padres, 8-7 at Shea Stadium. Fred McGriff went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-5. Bruce Hurst outpitched Frank Viola.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 9-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Cal Ripken Jr. went 0-for-3, but did draw a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Prates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Bobby Bonilla and Jay Bell hit home runs for the Buccos, while Barry Bonds went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 11-8 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-9 at Milwaukee County Stadium. This one went 19 innings. The Brewers scored 5 runs in the 5th inning. Each team scored 3 runs in the 15th. Former Yankee 2nd baseman Willie Randolph singled home the winning run in the 19th. Robin Yount went 0-for-7, although he did draw 2 walks. Paul Molitor went 1-for-6 -- with 4 walks.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Scott Erickson pitched a 2-hit shutout. The only run came in the 8th inning, on a home run by Dan Gladden.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. A David Justice groundout got the winning run home in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett did not play.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 5-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

Football was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA Playoffs. The Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers, 112-105 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. And the Golden State Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs, 109-106 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There was 1 game played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3 at the Boston Garden. But the Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Also, Marcus Stroman, an All-Star pitcher for the Blue Jays, was born on this day.