Crawford Ties MLB Record With Six Stolen Bases in a Single Game

This afternoon I watched the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Boston Red Sox.

I amend that statement. I watched Carl Crawford take on the Boston Red Sox.

The Rays left fielder went 4 for 4 with a walk and a RBI. A pretty good day on its own. But Crawford tied a modern major league record by stealing six bases. He stole second five times and stole third once en route to a 5-3 victory.

The last time anyone stole six bases in a game was Eric Young when he played with the Colorado Rockies on June 30, 1996 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Five years earlier, Otis Nixon of the Atlanta Braves stole six bases in a game against the Montreal Expos.

Prior to Otis Nixon the last time anyone stole six bases in a game had been nearly eight decades earlier. In 1912 when Eddie Collins of the Philadelphia Athletics pulled off the feat twice in September of that year. He stole six bases in a game against the Detroit Tigers on September 11, 1912 and eleven days later did the same against the St. Louis Browns. The future Hall of Famer stole 63 bases that season but finished a distant second to Clyde Milan of the Washington Senators who stole 88 bases that season.

With Crawford's six stolen bases today, Boston Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury's steal of home against the Yankees a week ago and the induction of all time stolen bases leader Rickey Henderson into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the summer perhaps the 2009 season will become the Year of the Stolen Base.