Lopes shares insight on art of stealing bases

Nationals first-base coach Davey Lopes not only had instincts that allowed him to be one of the game’s most successful basestealers as a player, he has also become one of the game’s most respected teachers of the art of stealing bases.

A member of six postseason teams in his career, including the 1981 World Series champion Dodgers, Lopes was a four-time All-Star who finished in the top 10 in stolen bases 10 times, including leading the NL in 1975 and ’76.

Lopes was successful on 557 of 671 regular-season stolen-base attempts, an 83-percent success rate that ranks fifth best since at least 1913. Tim Raines is the all-time leader at 84.7 percent. Lopes was also successful of 19 of 22 attempts in the postseason, succeeding on all 10 attempts in the 1981 playoffs.

Lopes talked about the art of stealing bases in this week’s Q&A.

MLB.com: What was the motivation for you to become a basestealer?

Lopes: I came from an organization, the Dodgers, that loved to run. The main guy at that time was a Dodger, Maury Wills. I never did work with Maury, but through watching him, I think some of that had some kind of impact on how I developed as a basestealer. We had totally different philosophies, but the basics were there. The fact that the organization’s geared to running, and they always had a couple of speed guys, that was such an important aspect of the game.

MLB.com: Was there a particular person who you learned from?

Lopes: Not to sound boastful, but you had to do a lot of things on your own back then. First of all, there weren’t many guys that could teach me because they didn’t know anything about it. It was about trial and error. Some guys can do things with a bat, like a Tony Gwynn or a Rod Carew, all the great hitters. They had a special knack. …

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