Gary Matthews Jr., Jacoby Ellsbury Bring Back the Exhilirating Steal of Home

se-stealers in the major leagues. In 2007, he jumped onto the scene after a mid-season call-up. During his stint, he made a name for himself by scoring from second base on a wild pitch against the Texas Rangers. He continued to electrify the Fenway crowds, and because of his energy, started all four World Series games. In 2008, he stole 50 bases–good for a Red Sox rookie record–and nearly broke the record for any Red Sox player, a title that is held by Tommy Harper’s 54 set in 1973. There is no doubt that he will surpass the mark this year, as he already has swiped 33 bags this season.

Now, after he slid past Jorge Posada’s tag, the opposition not only has to pay attention to him at first and second base, but third as well. Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston echoed this, saying “I’m sure the whole league will be careful with him [on third].” Stealing home is an art: to succeed, you have to focus on both the pitcher and the catcher, know their tendencies, then “have the courage to go”, in the words of Ellsbury. As Gaston says, “If it were that easy, teams would be doing it a lot.” Ellsbury made it look easy, as did Hill and Matthews, but “there is more risk than reward.”

Rod Carew, the former Minnesota Twins great, stole home seven times during the 1969 season alone. Most times, he would stretch his lead off third with the hard-hitting Harmon Killebrew at the plate. Killebrew, appropriately nicknamed “The Killer”, hit 573 career homers, and was a free-swinger. Carew took the chance anyway, knowing that Killebrew could swing, coinciding  with his slide. A Public Relations representative for the Twins cleverly thought up a poem signifying the possibility of a resulting injury: “Here lies Rod Carew, lined to left by Killebrew.”

Long gone are the days of the priceless one-liners and the regularity of the “dangerous, but fun”–as Carew described–steals of home. Yet, more base-runners are catching on. There’s Philadelphia Phillies’ Jayson Werth, who noticed Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Russell Martin was paying him no mind, so he sped down the line as Martin lobbed the pitch back to the pitcher, then beat the return throw. Then there’s Hill’s steal that depressed Pettitte for long after, Ellsbury’s that gave the Yankees pitcher more nightmares,and, most recently, Matthews that, like his predecessors, caught everyone but himself off guard.

 

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