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 Grand theft Mets' Cedeno making a run at 100 stolen bases
Posted: Monday July 05, 1999 10:03 PM
By Ryan Hunt, CNN/SI Roger Cedeno may have only been a footnote in the three-team offseason trade that sent Todd Hundley to the Dodgers, Charles Johnson to the Orioles and Armando Benitez to the Mets. But little did the Mets realize when they completed the trade that they didn't just get bullpen help and an untested outfielder. They got quite a steal, as well. Cedeno has swiped 43 bases as of July 4, tops in the majors. At that pace, Cedeno would finish the season with 87 stolen bases. However, a look deeper into the numbers indicates that Cedeno has an outside chance to steal 100 bases, something no big leaguer has done since Vince Coleman swiped 109 in 1987.
In his first 24 games of the season, Cedeno swiped only five bases. But since he became a regular in the Mets outfield in early May, he has stolen 38 bases in his last 54 games -- an average of .704 stolen bases a game. If Cedeno maintains that pace for the final 80 games of the season, he is projected to steal 99 bases. Only four players have stolen 100 bases in a season -- Rickey Henderson, Maury Wills, Lou Brock and Coleman. Both Coleman and Henderson, who holds the single-season record of 130 in 1982, accomplished the feat three times. Henderson, who is now Cedeno's teammate, was the last player to steal 90 -- and that was 11 years ago.
But in 1999, Cedeno has managed to even overshadow baseball's all-time steals king. Henderson, who has stolen more than 1,300 bases in his career, would be leading 20 of the 30 major league teams in stolen bases. But even if Henderson, who missed 30 games with an injury, doubled his stolen-base total of 21, it still would be less than Cedeno's 43. Cedeno's ascent to a 100-stolen base run, however, is surprising. He had stolen only 23 bases in 311 games in his first four years of his major league career. He never stole more than 40 bases in a season in the minors. But this year, Cedeno is stealing bases like few others have done in the '90s.
Marquis Grissom stole 78 bases in 1992, the best this decade. Coleman and Kenny Lofton are the only other two players with at least 75 stolen bases in a season in the '90s. Henderson led the majors last year with 66 steals. At the season's midway point, the 24-year-old outfielder is closing in on -- or already has matched -- Mets records. Already, Cedeno has stolen four bases in a game, a record that he now shares with Coleman, who swiped four in a game twice during his stint in New York. And his current total of 43 steals already ranks as the fifth-best total in New York history, only 25 shy of Mookie Wilson's team mark. Cedeno is no longer just a footnote. These days, he's taking steps toward a baseball milestone.
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