 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Vince Coleman" baseball – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Vince Coleman | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Coleman in 2016 | |
| Left fielder | |
| Born: (1961-09-22)September 22, 1961 (age 64) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. | |
Batted: Switch Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 18, 1985, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| April 14, 1997, for the Detroit Tigers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .264 |
| Home runs | 28 |
| Runs batted in | 346 |
| Stolen bases | 752 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Vincent Maurice Coleman (born September 22, 1961) is an American formerMajor League Baseball (MLB) player, best known for his years with theSt. Louis Cardinals. Primarily aleft fielder, Coleman played from1985 to1997 and set a number ofstolen base records. He was aswitch hitter and threw right-handed.
He was a baserunning consultantfor theChicago White Sox during the 2015 season.[1] He was hired by theSan Francisco Giants in 2017 as a minor-league baserunning and outfield coach.[2]
Coleman attendedWilliam M. Raines High School inJacksonville, Florida, and thenFlorida A&M University inTallahassee. In 1981, he set the all-time single-seasonstolen base record at Florida A&M, with seven steals in a single game and 65 steals in a season.[3] He ledNCAA Division I that year in both total steals and stolen base percentage.
While at Florida A&M, Coleman was also akicker andpunter on theFlorida A&M Rattlers football team,[3] where he followed in the footsteps of his cousin,Greg Coleman, who was also a punter at Florida A&M in the 1970s and went on to a 12-year career in theNational Football League.[4] Vince Coleman was a member of the Rattlers team that won the1978 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game. He was named to the all-conference team in both 1980 and 1981 and kicked a game-winning 34-yard field goal in an unlikely 16–13 Rattlers win over theDivision I-AMiami Hurricanes in 1979.[5]
Coleman signed as a free agent with theWashington Redskins in 1982 but quit after a week of training camp because the team wanted to convert him into awide receiver.[3]
Coleman chose to pursue a baseball career when he was drafted in the 10th round of the1982 Major League Baseball draft by theSt. Louis Cardinals. He stole 145 bases in a single season with theMacon Redbirds of theSouth Atlantic League in 1983; Coleman did so despite missing a month of the season with a broken hand. He further demonstrated his speed and base-stealing ability with 101 steals for theLouisville Redbirds of theAmerican Association in 1984, before being called up to the majors.
Coleman stole 110 bases in his rookie season.[6] As of 2025[update], the 110 steals are the ninth-highest in major league history.[7] Coleman stole over 100 bases in 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 and the first player in major league history to steal 100 bases in the first three seasons of their career. By the end of only his second year, his 217 stolen bases were second in Cardinal history behind Lou Brock's 888, just ahead of the 203 byJack Smith.[8] Before signing as a free agent with New York, Coleman led theNational 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 areRickey Henderson,Luis Aparicio, andMaury Wills. Coleman, Henderson, Wills, and Brock are the only players to steal 100 bases in a season. Since 1901, only Coleman and Henderson have three different 100-steal seasons to their credit, and only Coleman reached the total in three consecutive years.[7]
As theleadoff hitter for St. Louis, Coleman helped the team reach the 1985 playoffs. However, he suffered an injury prior to the fourth game of theNational League Championship Series, when the automatic tarpaulin atBusch Stadium rolled over his leg during routine stretching exercises.[9] The injury sidelined him for the rest of the postseason, and the Cardinals eventually lost a seven-gameWorld Series toKansas City.[10] Following the season, Coleman became the fourth-ever unanimous selection for theNL Rookie of the Year Award.
In 1985, Coleman declared, "I don't know nothin' about him. Why are you asking me aboutJackie Robinson?"[11] Responding to Coleman, Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson's widow said, "I hope somehow he'll learn and be embarrassed by his own ignorance."[12]
Coleman compiled the best season of his major league career in1987, 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 stole second and third base in the same inning 13 times that year. Coleman played in theWorld Series that year, the only one he would appear in. He batted .143 while reaching base six times (four hits, two walks) and stealing six bases without being caught. In the field, he made two assists, both coming in Game 7; he was the first outfielder to throw two runners out at the plate in one World Series game.[13] The Cardinals lost the Series in 7 games to theMinnesota Twins.
In 1989, Coleman compiled a streak of 50 successful stolen bases without being caught stealing, before it was broken on July 28 when he was thrown out byMontreal Expos catcherNelson Santovenia in a game atOlympic Stadium.[14]
In June 1990, he recorded his 500th stolen base in just his 804th game, the fewest that any player has needed to reach that milestone.[15] As of the end of the 2025 season[update], he is the last player to steal 100 bases in a single season.
Coleman left for the Mets after the 1990 season via free agency, signing a four-year, $11.95 million contract.[16] However, his career took a quick downward turn. He missed 215 games (out of a possible 486) due to numerous injuries and suspensions.[citation needed] Coleman was one of three Met players named in a sexual assault complaint filed by a 31-year-old woman in Florida, although prosecutors did not pursue charges in the case.[17] His base-stealing strategy became increasingly suspect; he often ignored or misinterpreted his coaches' signs on the basepaths. He was also very difficult to get along with. He got into an argument with coachMike Cubbage at the end of his first season with the Mets, which was a factor in managerBud Harrelson's ouster. In September 1992, he got into a fight with Harrelson's successor,Jeff Torborg, and was suspended without pay for the rest of the season.[citation needed]
The Mets seemingly had enough and tried to trade Coleman, but there were no takers. In April 1993, Coleman injuredDwight Gooden's arm by swinging a golf club in the clubhouse. Three months later, Coleman was charged with endangerment when he threw a lit firecracker into a crowd of baseball fans waiting for autographs in theDodger Stadium parking lot. The explosion injured three children, including a two-year-old, Amanda Santos.[18] He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for the incident while the Mets suspended him with pay. On August 26, the Mets announced that as part of a general house-cleaning of the clubhouse, Coleman would not return in 1994. ManagerDallas Green said that while Coleman had played well, he did not think he had the "head and heart and belly" he wanted to see on the team.[19]
At the end of the season, the Mets traded Coleman, with cash, to theKansas City Royals forKevin McReynolds. He recorded 76 steals in 179 games as a Royal before being traded to theSeattle Mariners in mid-1995.1996 found Coleman with theCincinnati Reds, who released him in June. He signed with theCalifornia Angels but never played a game for the team. Coleman's final season in the major leagues came in 1997 with theDetroit Tigers, where he again received limited playing time and little success on the basepaths or elsewhere.
Coleman attempted a comeback with St. Louis in 1998 and hit over .300 in spring training, but did not earn a spot on the opening day roster. He was assigned to the Triple-AMemphis Redbirds, where he continued to play well, stealing eight bases and hitting .316 with an on-base percentage of .395 in 20 games as the club's regular left fielder and leadoff man. However, after failing to receive a promotion to St. Louis, Coleman elected to retire in May 1998.
Through the 2021 MLB season, Coleman ranks sixth in all-time career stolen bases in the major leagues, with 752. As of October 2025[update], Coleman ranks 74th all-time in career stolen base percentage among all players with at least 80 attempts, at 80.9%.[20]
TheChicago White Sox added Vince Coleman to their staff as a base-running instructor for the 2015 season.[21][22] TheSan Francisco Giants hired him as a roving Minor League baserunning and outfield coach in 2017.[2]
