Vince Coleman (baseball)

Early life and amateur career

Coleman graduated from William M. Raines High School in Jacksonville, Florida, and attended Florida A&M University. In 1981, he set the all-time single-season stolen base record at Florida A&M with seven steals in a game and 65 in a season, leading NCAA Division I in both total steals and stolen base percentage. He also played as a kicker and punter for the Florida A&M Rattlers football team, following his cousin Greg Coleman. Coleman was part of the 1978 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship team and kicked a game-winning 34-yard field goal against the Miami Hurricanes in 1979. He signed with the Washington Redskins in 1982 but quit after a week when asked to convert to wide receiver.

Professional playing career

The St. Louis Cardinals drafted Coleman in the 10th round of the 1982 MLB draft. In 1983, he stole 145 bases for the Macon Redbirds despite a broken hand costing him a month. He stole 101 bases for the Louisville Redbirds in 1984 before his major league call-up. As a rookie, Coleman stole 110 bases, the ninth-highest single-season total in MLB history.

He stole over 100 bases in each of his next two seasons, making him the only 20th-century player with three consecutive 100-steal seasons and the first to achieve that in his first three years. By the end of his second year, his 217 stolen bases ranked second in Cardinals history behind Lou Brock. Coleman led the National League in stolen bases every season from 1985 through 1990, one of only four players to lead a league in six straight years. He helped the Cardinals reach the 1985 playoffs, but an injury from an automatic tarp at Busch Stadium sidelined him for the rest of the postseason, and the Cardinals lost the World Series to Kansas City.

Coleman was the fourth unanimous NL Rookie of the Year. His best season came in 1987, with a .289 batting average, .363 on-base percentage, 180 hits, 109 stolen bases, and 121 runs scored; that year he stole second and third base in the same inning 13 times.

Accomplishments

Coleman ranks sixth all-time in MLB career stolen bases with 752. He holds three of the top six stolen base seasons: 110 in 1985, 109 in 1987, and 107 in 1986. He is the only MLB player to steal 100 bases in three consecutive seasons and was the last to steal 100 in a season, doing so in 1987. Coleman also holds the MLB record of 50 consecutive stolen bases without being caught, from September 18, 1988, to July 26, 1989.