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Sunday is the 25th anniversary of a memorable day in baseball. On May 1, 1991, Rickey Henderson stole his 939th career base, breaking Lou Brock’s record, and Nolan Ryan pitched his seventh career no-hitter, striking out 16 in a win over the Blue Jays. Steals king
After stealing third base in the fourth inning against the Yankees, Henderson was given a microphone, thanked his family, fans, friends and former managers, than closed with words that are most-often quoted: “Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But today, I am the greatest of all time.” Henderson was great. He’s the career leader in both runs scored and steals, is second of all time in walks (2,190) and finished with a .401 on-base percentage. He was a 10-time All-Star, the 1990 AL MVP and a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 2009. Henderson finished his career with 1,406 stolen bases. Only nine others have half that many. The active leader is 42-year-old Ichiro Suzuki, who has 500. Only four players (Suzuki, Carl Crawford, Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins) are even within 1,000 of Henderson’s total. Among players in their 20s, Elvis Andrus leads with 217 stolen bases. Andrus could average 100 steals for the next 11 seasons, but he’d still be short of Henderson’s total. And by the way, Andrus doesn’t have a stolen base in 2016. The final no-hitter
Nolan Ryan’s last no-hitter was arguably his best. His 16 strikeouts were one shy of his most in a no-hitter. He had 17 in one against the Tigers in 1973, but walked four in that game and only two in this one. This one came against a Blue Jays team that won the AL East.
The 44-year-old Ryan became the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Ryan ranks 1-2 on that list, as no-hitter No. 6 came against the Athletics the year before. The oldest pitcher not named Nolan Ryan to throw one is Cy Young, who did so at age 41 in 1908. Ryan has the most no-hitters with seven; Sandy Koufax ranks second with four. The 1991 season was a rich one for no-hitters. There were seven, matching the most in the modern era (there were also seven in 1990, 2012 and 2015). Ryan’s greatness is a match for Henderson’s. He struck out a major league record 5,714 batters (his 2,795 walks are also the most all time), won 324 games and was on the 1969 World Series champion Mets. He received 98.8 percent of the Hall Of Fame vote when elected in 1999.
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