10 down. 1,396 to go.

In our last installment of Chasing Henderson, the Phillies fleet-of-foot first baseman stole his 7th base of the 2009 season without getting caught. In fact, during his 5+ years in the majors, the only time Howard has been erased from the base paths by way of a CS has been from two pickoff moves by the opposing pitcher. However, on September 18th vs. Atlanta, Howard was thrown out attempting to steal 3rd base by the duo of Manny Acosta and Brian McCann.

I know, if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes I wouldn’t believe it either. I guess we must now come to the realization that nobody is perfect on the bases — not even Ryan Howard. We just had to cross our fingers and hope that this small blemish on Howard’s quest for all-time greatness wouldn’t stop him from getting back to his base thieving ways ASAP.

Well don’t worry about it, kiddo. Cause he came through again last night.

Unfortunately for the Phillies, Ryan’s 10th career SB and 8th of 2009 didn’t end up mattering in the game, but it was still an impressive swipe at a key moment nonetheless.  In the bottom of the sixth, shortly after Shane Victorino scored on a balk by Yorman Bizardo to cut the lead to one run,  Ryan Howard walked, and then Sammy Gervacio come into the game for the ‘Stros to face Jayson Werth with 2 outs.

Sensing that the Phillies needed a runner in scoring position to tie the game on a base hit, Howard broke on the first move by Gervacio and beat the suspect arm of JR Towles by a good 7 feet.  Werth wound up flying out to right field and it was all for naught, but at least the big fella gets one step closer to…

CHASING HENDERSON.

9 down. 1,397 to go.

It sure didn’t take long for the game-changing speed of Ryan Howard to make an impact last night. In the first inning of a scoreless game vs. the Nats, following back-to-back 2-out singles by Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez stepped to the plate with runners at the corners looking to give the Phillies an early lead.  After working the count to 2-2 against crafty veteran (that’s what you call old guys who suck, right?) Livan Hernandez, Raul laid off the next pitch as he was distracted by a giant red blur galloping towards second base.

Nats catcher Wil Nieves caught the ball and immediately threw down to second not even thinking about Chase Utley representing the potential go-ahead run at third, I guess figuring it can’t be too hard to throw out a 6′4″, 255 lb. behemoth and the inning would be over.

Well, I guess you could say that Wil was being a bit naive.  (Get it? Nieves and naive are almost spelled the same and have similar pronunciations?) Because not only did Howard slide in safely for his 7th stolen base of the year without being caught (my math is suspect, but I believe that’s a 100% success rate), but the heady Chase Utley (not to be confused with Chase Headley) broke for home as soon as Wil threw to second and scored the game’s first run.

1-0 Phillies.  All thanks to the pure, unadulterated speed of Ryan Howard.

And I can’t remember what we calculated the last time, but I think Howard (barring injury) should break Rickey Henderson’s all-time steals record in like a year or two.

8 down. 1,398 to go.

The Phillies speedster Ryan Howard was at it again last night.

For the first time in nearly a month, most likely because a high percentage of his hits lately have been leaving the yard, Ryan Howard stole 2nd base off of the intimidating duo of Sean Burnett and Josh Bard during the seventh inning of last night’s win over the Nationals.

With Jimmy Rollins on 3rd with 2 outs in the top half of the seventh, Nationals reliever Sean Burnett intentionally walked Ryan Howard so he couldn’t get an RBI, and so (they thought!) there would be a force out at 2nd in case Raul Ibanez put the ball in play.  But on a 1-2 count to Raul, Ryan Howard — while taking the slimmest of leads off of 1st base — took off and accelerated toward 2nd. By the time Josh Bard handled Burnett’s slider in the dirt and threw down to Cristian Guzman, Howard beat the tag and slid in safely for his 6th steal of the year(!) and 8th of his young career.

In 2009, Ryan Howad came into the season with only two career steals, this year alone, he has six. Now if you’re as good at math as I am, you will quickly (with the help of a calculator, of course) notice that six is 3X as many as two.  If Howard keeps the weight off and remains a cot damn demon on the base paths, I see no reason why he can’t triple his career production each year until he decides to hang up the cleats.   That means next year he would have 24 steals, in 2011 he would have 72, in 2012 (barring injury) would have 216, etc.  If that’s the case — and again I see no reason why it can’t be — he would break Rickey Henderson’s all-time steals mark in the first month of the season in 2014.

7 down, 1,399 to go.

I gotta be honest with you. When I penned my very first post in the ‘Chasing Henderson’ series, it had a completely sarcastic tone meant solely to mock ESPN’s ridiculous ‘Chasing Aaron’ bit when Barry Bonds was trying to break the all-time HR record.

But now? I’m starting to think he actually has a chance at this thing!

In yesterday’s brooming of the hapless Cubs, Ryan Howard stood on first base with 2 outs in the 6th inning and Pedro Feliz at-bat. The crafty big fella must’ve been studying the awkward pitching motion of Ryan Dempster the whole game, and decided he was gonna try and steal a bag on the second pitch. So he took a healthy lead off first, and before Ryan Dempster could even finish wiggling his glove, Big Brown was gone.

Renowned pothead Geovany Soto tried throwing him out, but to no avail.

You’re officially on notice, Rickey.

6 down. 1,400 to go, and Ryan Howard has officially mastered the art of the double-steal.

In the first inning of Saturday night’s HEIST of a ballgame, Ryan stood on first with two outs, Rollins at second, and Ibañez at the plate.  As Ibañez watched the second pitch from Ross Ohlendorf, Jimmy took off for third with Howard trailing him (like a cot damn shadow!) and catcher Ryan Doumit didn’t even bother with the throw.

It was the third time this year Big Brown was on the back end of a perfectly executed double-steal (fourth SB overall) — all three of them happening with a different SB partner.  Jayson Werth the first time, Victorino the second, and now Jimmy Rollins.

Howard is still on pace for eight steals in 2009 and should break Rickey Henderson’s MLB record sometime during the 2184 season.

5 down.  1,401 to go.

During the Phils whoopin of the Red Sox today, Ryan Howard was back to his usual RBI getting, base-stealing self.  Shortly after Big Brown SCORCHED a 2-run double to right off of überdouche Josh Beckett, he stood on second base and decided right then be an opportune time to steal 3rd base.  And so he did.

It’s not like it was too difficult — Mike Lowell wasn’t even covering 3rd and Red Sox backup catcher George Kottaras has whatever the complete opposite of a cannon is, but I doubt even Ray Schalk in his prime could’ve thrown Howard out on this play.  That jump he got was off Beckett was just too good.

That theft marked the first time Howard has ever swiped third, and a career-best third steal of the year.  He’s still on pace for eight in 2009 and should break Rickey Henderson’s MLB record sometime during the 2184 season.

4 down.  1,402 to go.

With a steal in the 8th inning of the Phillies 4-3 win over the New York Yankees on Sunday, Ryan Howard has already set a career high for stolen bases in a season (two) and is now on pace for an unimaginable EIGHT steals in 2009.

As John Mayberry, Jr. stood at the dish with two away and Shane Victorino on second, two of the speedier Phillies executed the double-steal to perfection.  But unlike the last time Howard was involved in the double-steal, the catcher actually disregarded the runner going to third in order to try and gun down Howard.  Obviously, Yankee backup Francisco Cervelli made the wrong decsion as Howard beat the throw and the tag with relative ease to move into scoring position.

If Ryan continues thieving bags at this clip, Rickey Henderson’s stolen base mark will be broken sometime during the 2184 season.

Believe it or not, Jayson Werth wasn’t the only base-swiping speed demon on the loose at The Bank last night. As part of a double-steal with the aforementioned Werth in the fourth inning, Ryan Howard slid safely into second base to record his 3rd career stolen base, and 1st on the young season.

Sensing that he had zero chance to throw out the fleet-footed Howard, Dodgers catcher Russell Martin didn’t even bother throwing down there; instead he (unsuccessfully) took the short route and threw to third to try for Werth.

Oddly enough, two of Howard’s three career SB’s came against the Dodgers — more specifically Russell Martin — and exactly ZERO were contested with a throw. Once again proving that Howard’s underrated speed on the base paths is one of the most dangerous facets of his game.

Big Brown is currently on pace for a career best 5 steals in 2009, and if he keeps that pace up for the rest of his career, he should break Rickey Henderson’s all-time SB mark sometime during the 2290 season.

We’ll be counting down, Ryan!

ATJ — watch it.

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Being an impressionable youth growing up in Oakland, Jimmy Rollins was exposed to the subtleties in Rickey Henderson’s game on a daily basis. Before he known as J-Roll, the Phillies current leadoff hitter was busy studying one of the all-time greats.

When you watch Rollins play now, the influence is obvious. The swagger, the approach at the plate, the textbook baserunning — he got all that from Rickey. I’ll bet you he even wore those fluorescent green Mizuno batting gloves during his little league games, too.

Now, some fifteen years later, the news came out that his idol made the Hall of Fame. So in honor of the occasion, Jimmy paid a visit to the John Marzano studios in Secaucus, NJ to film a segment for MLB Network and talk some Rickey with former MLBers Harold Reynolds, Al Leiter, and Barry Larkin. After the crew wax poetic about their playing days with the legend, Rollins grabs the lumber and humorously mimics an entire Rickey Henderson at-bat.

If your attention span is deficient, fast-forward to about the 1:50 mark for the best part. It’s rather entertaining.

That’s Rickey.

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Lost amongst the Brett Myers homer-fest, Bruntlett’s horrid baserunning, and the near-paralyzation of Yadier Molina yesterday was the continued maturation of Ryan Howard’s stolen base game.

In the 7th inning, with the Phillies down two runs to the hometown Cardinals, Ryan Howard realized he needed to do something to get into scoring position. So he decided to try and swipe second base for only the second time in his MLB career. While Geoff Jenkins was at the dish facing a 1-2 count, the man known more for his power than speed took off from first, turned on the after-burners and stole 2nd base without a throw.

If you remember his last steal against the Dodgers, you would recall that one also came minus the throw to second. It seems that Howard’s underrated speed and the element of surprise often confuse catchers to the point they don’t even bother throwing.

After the jump, watch the big man run. He’ll be the gray and red blur rocketing towards second.
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