Vince Coleman
Vincent Coleman is an American former Major League Baseball player, best known for his years with the St. Louis Cardinals. Primarily a left fielder, Coleman played from 1985 to 1997 and set a number of stolen base records.
He was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed.
Coleman began setting records as a college player. In 1981, he set the all-time single season stolen base record at Florida A&M with 65 steals in 69 attempts. He led NCAA Division I that year in both total steals and stolen base percentage. While at Florida A&M, Coleman was also a member of the football team.
He continued his record breaking ways in the minor leagues. He holds the all-time professional mark for stolen bases in a single season with 145 for Macon of the South Atlantic League in 1983. He was also well known for his speed and ability to steal bases with the Louisville Redbirds of the American Association before being called up to the majors. He stole 110 bases in 1985. He 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.
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 (1985-1990), 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 is also one of only four people (with Henderson, Wills, and Lou Brock) to steal 100 bases in a season, one of only two people (with Henderson) to do it three times, and the only person to do it in three consecutive years.
Coleman compiled the best season of his major league career in 1987, 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 played in the World Series that year, the only one he would appear in. He was with St. Louis in 1985 when they went to the World Series, but did not play due to a freak injury that he suffered when the automatic tarpaulin at Busch Stadium rolled over his leg during stretching exercises prior to a National League Championship Series game. The injury sidelined him for the rest of the postseason, and his Cardinals eventually lost a controversial World Series to Kansas City.