May 1, 1991: The day two MLB records were broken
Through almost 200 years of baseball, records have been set and records have been broken. But how many times did it happen that two records were set on the same day by two different players? It happened on May 1st, 1991.
May 1st, 1991 was a day on which all eyes were focused on Rickey Henderson. The fleet-footed outfielder of the Oakland Athletics was about to break the stolen base record of Lou Brock, who had stolen 938 bases in his illustrious career.
During a home game vs the New York Yankees, Henderson drew a leadoff walk in the first inning. Immediately he tried to go for glory as he attempted to steal second base, but he was thrown out by catcher Matt Nokes. In his second at-bat, in the third inning, Henderson didn’t get on base as he struck out looking.
Batting leadoff in the fourth, Henderson got on base thanks to an error by Yankee shortstop Alvaro Espinoza. After Dave Henderson singled to third base, Rickey Henderson advanced to second. From there he made a successful stealing attempt as he stole third base, his record-setting 939th stolen base.
After stealing his 939th base, Henderson shouted: “I am the greatest.”
But unexpectedly, Henderson had to share the limelight with someone else that day.
In Arlington, the Texas Rangers took on the Toronto Blue Jays. Coming off a 133 pitch previous outing, Nolan Ryan’s warm-up gave Rangers’ manager Bobby Valentine reason for concerns. “We’ve got to get somebody up quick because Nolan doesn’t have it today,” pitching coach Tom House said to Valentine before the game. The concerns were justified because of Ryan’s age (44) and his balky back. But nevertheless, he took the mound.
Facing a Blue Jays lineup that would win the American League East pennant later that year, Ryan had to work around a two-out walk given up to Kelly Gruber. After the inning, as he returned to the dugout, he said to his teammates: “Give me one run, that’s all I am going to need today” as he found a comfort zone.
After that first inning, Ryan retired the side in each of the next five innings before he gave up a walk in the seventh. But this walk did not hurt him as he retired the three other batters. In the eighth and the ninth, he retired the side again, striking out Roberto Alomar for the final out of this no-hitter.
With this no-hitter, Ryan improved his own record of six no-nos. Besides that he became the oldest pitcher to throw one at the age of 44. Ryan needed 106 pitches to complete this masterpiece.
Ryan would finish his career with 5,714 Ks, most by any pitcher.
Rickey Henderson would play on for many years, playing his last MLB game with the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 19, 2003, spanning a 24-year career in which he played for ten different clubs. He would set the MLB record of stolen bases at 1,406, a number that may be untouched forever.