Vince Coleman (baseball)

Vincent Maurice Coleman (born September 22, 1961) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player, best known for his years with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Primarily a left fielder, Coleman played from to and set a number of stolen base records.

He was a switch hitter and threw right-handed.

He was a baserunning consultant

While at Florida A&M, Coleman was also a kicker and punter on the Florida A&M Rattlers football team, where he followed in the footsteps of his cousin, Greg Coleman, who was also a punter at Florida A&M in the 1970s and went on to a 12-year career in the National Football League.

Vince Coleman was a member of the Rattlers team that won the 1978 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game.

He was named to the all-conference team in both 1980 and 1981 and kicked a game-winning 34-yard field goal in an unlikely 16–13 Rattlers win over the Division I-A Miami Hurricanes in 1979.

In 1981, he set the all-time single-season stolen base record at Florida A&M, with seven steals in a single game and 65 steals in a season.

He led NCAA Division I that year in both total steals and stolen base percentage.

Coleman signed as a free agent with the Washington Redskins in 1982 but quit after a week of training camp because the team wanted to convert him into a wide receiver.

Coleman chose to pursue a baseball career when he was drafted in the 10th round of the 1982 Major League Baseball draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.

He stole 145 bases in a single season with the Macon Redbirds of the South Atlantic League in 1983; Coleman did so despite missing a month of the season with a broken hand.

He further demonstrated his speed and base-stealing ability with 101 steals for the Louisville Redbirds of the American Association in 1984, before being called up to the majors.

Coleman stole 110 bases in his rookie season.

As of 2022, the 110 steals are the ninth-highest in Major League history.

As the leadoff hitter for St. Louis, Coleman helped the team reach the 1985 playoffs.

However, he suffered an injury prior to the fourth game of the National League Championship Series, when the automatic tarpaulin at Busch Stadium rolled over his leg during routine stretching exercises.

The injury sidelined him for the rest of the postseason, and the Cardinals eventually lost a seven-game World Series to Kansas City.

Following the season, Coleman became the fourth-ever unanimous selection for the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

In 1985, Coleman declared, "I don't know nothin' about him. Why are you asking me about Jackie Robinson?"

Responding to Coleman, Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson's widow said, "I hope somehow he'll learn and be embarrassed by his own ignorance."

Coleman compiled the best season of his major league career in, when he posted a .289 batting average and a .363 on-base percentage while totaling 180 hits, 109 stolen bases, and 121 runs scored.

He stole second and third base in the same inning 13 times that year.

Coleman played in the World Series that year, the only one he would appear in.

He batted .143 while reaching base six times (four hits, two walks) and stealing six bases without being caught.

In the field, he made two assists (i.e. throws to home from left field for outs), both coming in Game 7; he was the first outfielder to throw two runners out at the plate in one World Series game.

The Cardinals lost the Series in 7 games to the Minnesota Twins.

In 1989, Coleman compiled a streak of 50 successful stolen bases without being caught stealing, before it was broken on July 28 when he was thrown out by Montreal Expos catcher Nelson Santovenia in a game at Olympic Stadium.

In June 1990, he recorded his 500th stolen base in just his 804th game, the fewest that any player has needed to reach that milestone.

As of the end of the 2022 MLB season, he is the last player to steal 100 bases in a single season.

Coleman left for the Mets after the 1990 season via free agency, signing a four-year, $11.95 million contract.

Coleman stole over 100 bases in each of the following two seasons as well, making him the only player in the 20th century to post three consecutive seasons of 100 or more steals and the first player in Major League history to steal 100 bases in the first three seasons of their career.

By the end of only his second year, his 217 stolen bases were second in Cardinal history behind Lou Brock's 888, just ahead of the 203 by Jack Smith.

Before signing as a free agent with New York, Coleman led the National League in stolen bases in every season he played with the Cardinals (–), becoming one of just four players ever to lead his league in six consecutive seasons.

The other players to accomplish this feat are Rickey Henderson, Luis Aparicio, and Maury Wills.

Coleman, Henderson, Wills, and Brock are the only players to steal 100 bases in a season.

Only Coleman and Henderson have three different 100-steal seasons to their credit, and only Coleman reached the total in three consecutive years.

for the Chicago White Sox during the 2015 season.

He was hired by the San Francisco Giants in 2017 as a minor-league baserunning and outfield coach.

Coleman attended William M. Raines High School in Jacksonville, Florida, and then Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.