Rickey Henderson captivated a generation of baseball players with his blazing speed and impeccable aura running the bases. He blew Major League Baseball records out of the water with a staggering 130 stolen bases on 172 attempts in 1982, the most ever in the modern era.
He finished his illustrious 25-year career with 2,295 runs scored and 1,406 steals, both of which are almost undoubtedly unbreakable records. Lou Brock and Billy Hamilton are the only other players with at least 900 swipes stateside, but across the Pacific, another legend reached the century mark: Yutaka Fukumoto.
A three-time Japan Series champion, Fukumoto was a star center fielder and leadoff man for the Hankyu Braves from 1969 to 1988. He amassed 2,543 hits, 449 doubles, 115 triples, 208 home runs, and, of course, 1,065 stolen bases over his illustrious 20-year career. No other player in Nippon Professional Baseball history has even reached 600 steals.
He won the 1972 Pacific League MVP after posting a .301 AVG and .852 OPS with 106 swipes in 122 games — an astronomical 140-steal pace over a 162-game MLB season. Fukumoto had a career 78.1% success rate on stolen base attempts and, like Henderson, comfortably ranks as the top baserunner in his league’s history according to advanced metrics.
With his 939th swipe at Nishinomiya Stadium on June 3, 1983, Fukumoto surpassed Brock on the world stolen base leaderboard. That record stood for almost exactly a decade when Henderson’s 1,066th steal on June 3, 1993, made him the new stolen base king.
Before the game, Fukumoto presented Henderson with golden cleats as a congratulations for tying his record. After the game, Henderson returned the favor by giving Fukumoto the record-setting base and credited him as “The World’s Greatest Base Stealer of Japan.”
Six years earlier, Henderson, alongside fellow speedster Vince Coleman, had visited Japan to view a Chunichi Dragons fall camp in Hamamatsu. The event was made possible by Henderson’s contract with the manufacturer Mizuno.
In 1987, thanks in part to his contract with Mizuno, Rickey Henderson visited Chunichi Dragons fall camp in Hamamatsu
He was only supposed to show up, give something like a 10 minute speech, and then leave, but he ended up hanging out, talking to the Dragons about stealing bases pic.twitter.com/Euwmx266ev
— Gaijin Baseball/外国人野球 (@GaijinBaseball) December 22, 2024
The plan was for him to give a 10-minute speech, but the Dragons players were so interested in his wisdom that the visit turned into a 40-minute practice session where Henderson taught base running techniques and advised on how to round the first base bag most efficiently. “Everyone asked a lot of questions. It was a good atmosphere,” said then-Dragons manager Senichi Hoshino. The team would go on to win the Central League pennant the following season.
Henderson passed away on December 20, 2024, five days before his 66th birthday. Fukumoto, now 77 years old, commented on his death: “When I saw the news, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was only 65. I’m in shock. He was a really nice guy, and I didn’t feel bad about him breaking my record.”
Though he didn’t have an opportunity to speak to him in his later years, the Japanese Hall of Famer praised Henderson’s baseball legacy and humanity off the field. “I’m proud to have been his rival and friend,” he said. “I hope speedy players like Shohei Ohtani and Elly De La Cruz continue to honor him by stealing more bases. May he rest in peace.”
