Major League Baseball is set to unveil its new pace-of-play rules when Opening Day kicks off the 2023 campaign on Thursday afternoon.
One of those rules is the noticeably bigger bases, which gives baserunners less ground to cover when advancing bases, or stealing one.
With stolen base attempts likely to increase in 2023 because of that rule change, along with the restrictions on throws over to first base to check the runner, what does the stolen base king think he would be able to do under these new rules?
The short answer by the great Rickey Henderson: a lot.
“Oh, I’d say 1,600 or 1,700,” Henderson told Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. “I do have 1,406.”
Henderson, a four-time All-Star with the Yankees, led the league in steals 12 times across his career, including swiping 66 bags at the age of 39 in 1998. His league-leading and remarkable 130 steals in 1982 was part of a seven-year run where he led the league in stolen bases, and one of three seasons in that span where he swiped at least 100 bags.
Those numbers would have been even higher in 2023.
“I’d take an even bigger lead,” Henderson told Ghiroli. “And go more…It’s an extra step for sure. And I don’t care if they’re throwing, I’m gone.”
While Henderson knows he would have thrived under the new rules, he isn’t a fan of them being implemented, and joked that he should at least get some career compensation to his stolen base total if the league is going to change things now.
“I wish the game would be just left alone,” Henderson said. “But if they’re going to [make changes] they got to add 50 or 60 on mine. That’s the new rule.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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