when he was in his prime, it seemed like if he got on first, you may as well give him third. I never remember any other player that I’ve seen in my time that was like that.

Disclosure: Vince Coleman was my favorite Cardinal growing up. I actually went as Vince Coleman for Halloween. I had a Sand Knit replica Cardinals jersey upon which I made my mom buy iron-on letters and numbers for “Coleman” and “29.” I still have a binder full of Vince Coleman baseball cards, including his traded series rookie cards.

You are forgetting one of Coleman’s most incredible feats, of which I have a collection of newspaper clippings documenting. That feat is setting the Major League record for most consecutive steals at 50. I remeber him losing it against the Expos. My mom, being a wonderful, loving, and dutiful mother, cut the article documenting this earth-shattering moment out of the following morning’s Register. Being all of 7 years old, I erupted into a rage at the thought of Vince Coleman being caught stealing. He was Hermes to me, an untouchable god. In a tantrum, I crumpled up the clipping and threw it away, only to sheepishly return from “timeout” in my room to salvage the clipping from the trash and add it to my scrapbook of Vince Coleman’s Major League record.

The catcher who threw Coleman out was Nelson Santovenia, a player I have never heard of since.

...Nelson Santovenia – great arm, no hit.

But unfortunately, my moost vivid VC mooment was that darned tarp. The baseball gods were just against us that year. And ‘87 too. Stupid baseball gods…
:=8P

He was my favorite when I grew up, too. Can you imagine a player stealing 80 bases and your heart being broken? That was me in 1988. I remember that Whitey was always trying to get him to focus. He used to flutter his fingers on base, then you knew he was going. Can you imagine how much pitchers used to hate him?
There is a stat that Coleman single-handedly raised the amount of balks in the NL in 1986 to crazy numbers. He was also the reason I hated Rickey Henderson so much.

since i’m kind of a youngin’ (born in may 1984) i don’t have that many memories of him as a player in real life, though i vaguely feel i saw him play at busch II in the late 80’s and 90’s.
however, i love the nintendo game “rbi baseball”, and coleman is a speedy god in that game. the cardinals in that game are basically a bunch of fast guys who can take loads of bases when other wouldn’t be able to, combined with the power of jack clark (and to a lesser extent willie mcgee) and good pitching. putting up a ton of runs with that lineup is always fun.

instead of going to New York in 1991, I think he would have had much more success. Not to mention he would have stayed out of trouble…anyone remember the fireworks incident? New York was just a bad situation all around for Vince.

Thing was though the Cards weren’t going to give Vince a big contract back in the Dal Maxville days and Lankford and Gilkey were ready to come up and were cheaper options to take Vince and Willie’s spots. But it would have been nice if Vince could have stayed with the Cards for a few more seasons in the early 90’s.

I remember going to a game, I think it was this one, where I recall seeing four stolen bases on one pitch (though that doesn’t seem to be the way the game was scored – or I have the wrong game). In the bottom of the fourth Vince bunts his way on and steals second. Then Willie walks and they execute a double steal. The throw goes to third, but Vince doesn’t slide and goes past the bag. Instead of trying to lunge back to third and get tagged out, he keeps going. He is caught in a rundown between third and home, but the pitcher doesn’t back up the catcher at home, and Vince sprints home safely. In the confusion, Willie takes third base.

That’s the way my teenaged mind remembers the play, which I have recounted to others several times as seeing four stolen bases on one pitch. Can anybody else remember this, or verify it? I tried looking through box scores for a while, but nothing quite matches exactly. In either case, the game I linked to above had 8 (EIGHT!) stolen bases by the Cards that day. Man, those were fun games to watch….even if just to watch the opposing pitchers go insane trying to stop all the running.

I got interested in the Cardinals, and baseball in general, during the 82 season when I was 7 years old. I became obsessed with the Cardinals in 85’. I guess it was just having those few years of experience to draw on and realizing that the team was going to be special early on. Vince Coleman was a big part of that for me.

By my recollections at least, he was not a guy that they necessarily had long term plans for. He was a callup on April 18 (Thanks, Baseball Reference). I don’t recall who got hurt to clear the spot, but I’m sure someone here can fill us in on that. Never a great hitter, and that’s why people thought he might end up being sent back down eventually. At least by my recollection. People knew if he got on base he would rack up the steals, but people weren’t sure he’d get on base. But Coleman seized his moment with flair. He stole 12 bases in his first 12 games, reached 20 steals by May 7 (18 games), and 25 by May 15 (23 games). Gotta love a guy that makes the most of his chance, and that was Vince Coleman for you.

When you talk about the players from the 80’s, it pulls more of the sentimental strings to me. Vince Coleman reminds me of playing games of “hotbox” in the yard – where we had 2 bases and tried to steal while the ball was being thrown to the base we were on. In our minds, that’s who we were out there – Coleman, McGee, Smith, Herr. Playing wiffle ball in the back yard with the game turned on. Heading to the batting cages to try to become a better hitter.

85’ was where the love of baseball really blossomed with me. It’s been something I have had passion for ever since. And Vince Coleman is a big part of that.

I like the idea KYCards. I may not always comment, if you choose to continue, but I’ll always read it.

and man, oh man, do i love those 1980’s BP jerseys.

... my father purchased a family membership to the South County YMCA. there was a regular pick-up basketball game there on M-W-F at about 10 a.m., and my dad would often play while i watched and shot at an adjacent hoop. Vince would also play fairly frequently, especially in the off-season (IIRC), and it was the thrill of my life seeing him there. he wasn’t very skilled at basketball and his jump shot was terrible, but his sheer speed and athleticism gave him an advantage over many of the other regular players.

occasionally Coleman brought a couple of other Cardinals to play with him. one of them was middle relief pitcher Scott Terry who (i swear) was just as fast as Coleman in a dead sprint from one end of the court to the other. but Terry didn’t have a jump shot either. i believe that Whitey occasionally used Terry as a pinch-runner. anyway, he signed a t-shirt of mine. Coleman also brought Oquendo a few times. Jose was horrible at basketball. i mean, totally horrible. and he wore cheetah-print sweat pants as well. i mean, it was the 1980s.

anyway, these are some of the best memories of my life. these guys, who were my idols… could do no wrong on the baseball field, but flailed pretty miserably on the basketball court.

Among the hail of nostalgia that the ‘80s Runnin’ Redbirds conjures for me is watching Coleman creep out on to the astroturf on his leads off of first base. Remember the dirt sliding pits the cookie-cutter turf parks had?

From my occasional perch in the thin-air outfield upper-deck seats at the top of that cavernous stadium, I could barely pick up on cues like the twitch of Coleman’s fingers (great detail, OrlandoCard). But once his right foot started to inch out on to the turf - beyond the sliding pit - off of first base, that’s when even the folks in the upper deck knew he was about to go off. Good times.

It really is fun to think back about some of these guys. I just wanted to post another comment to give you an even 20 to make sure you’ll do another one.