This Vince Coleman Story Has A Good Ending

Vince Coleman photo above courtesy of Todd Bacile/flickr

By Greg Echlin

With Vince Coleman’s entry into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame, he finally has an opportunity to relish the moment at the end. Too many other times, he didn’t.

When Coleman broke in as a 23-year old speedster with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985, he fit in with the style of ball that Baseball Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog liked with the Cardinals playing on the artificial turf at the old Busch Stadium. Coleman, the ’85 National League Rookie of the Year, stole 110 bases. In ’86, he swiped 107 and in ’87 he had 109 thefts.

Cardinals radio commentator Rick Horton, who broke in as a rookie pitcher with the Cardinals in ’84, recalls hearing about Coleman’s speed while coming up through the Cardinals system, “The first word I heard about him was he was stealing second base standing up. Regularly, and I thought, ‘Wow, what in the world kind of speed does this guy possess?’”

For Macon (Class A in the Sally League) in 1983, Coleman had 145 stolen bases in 113 games.

Then Horton rememebers thinking what everyone else was also thinking at the time, “The question was, ‘Could he hit at the big league level? Could he play defense? Could he do all the other things?’ We just didn’t know what this certain Vince Coleman guy would become. We certainly were pleasantly surprised.”

The Cardinals already had Willie McGee, a major factor in the 1982 World Series championship, in the outfield. So what better way to make an impact than having your first big league homer an inside-the-park round-tripper?

“Now you’ve got Vince Coleman, the electric version of (Willie McGee) with a boisterous style of play,” said Horton who registered a save in that game.

But Coleman never had a chance to play in the World Series because the automatic tarp at Busch Stadium that came up from the ground and rolled over his left leg. Just like that, his season was over in one of the most bizarre injury situations in baseball history.

In the World Series, the Royals beat the Cardinals in seven games.

“We lost that energy. We lost that excitement and our offense came to a grinding halt,” said Horton.

After signing as a free agent with the New York Mets, Coleman’s image took a hit in his last year with the Mets in 1993 when he was charged with a felony for a firecracker-tossing incident outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles that injured three fans.

Coleman played with the Kansas City Royals in 1994, then was designated for assignment in Aug., 1995, when the Royals wanted to bring up Johnny Damon from their system. Veterans Coleman, Pat Borders and Chris James were DFA’d the same day. Coleman was batting .287 with 26 stolen bases when the Royals made their move.

“He (Coleman) has been a solid citizen,” said Royals GM Herk Robinson at the time. “But quite honestly he didn’t figure into our plans for 1996.”

The Royals ended up trading Coleman to Seattle where he played the rest of the season. His best days were behind him.

That is, until his return to where it all started in St. Louis.