Davey Lopes, longtime Dodgers second baseman and coach, dies at age 80

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 1981: Davey Lopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers slides into third base during the 1981 NLCS playoffs1981 at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) | Getty Images Davey Lopes, the best second baseman in Los Angeles Dodgers history, died on Wednesday at age 80, the team announced. Lopes was the oldest member of the Dodgers’ famed infield — the quartet of Lopes, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, and Bill Russell were regulars for 8 1/2 years, the longest-running infield in major league history — and the latest of the four to debut, but Lopes remained a force atop the Dodgers lineup and one of the best leadoff men in the sport during the 1970s.

“If we weren’t the best infield of all time, we were the most successful,” Cey wrote in his autobiography ‘Penguin Power,’ written with Ken Gurnick . “Every member was a multi-year All-Star, we appeared in more World Series than any infield, and we won a world championship. ” In Lopes’ first seven seasons, from 1973-79, he ranked sixth in the majors in runs scored (639, averaging 91 per season) and was second in stolen bases (371, only two behind Lou Brock; averaging 53 steals per year).

He led the majors with 77 steals in 1975, and paced the National League with 63 steals in 1976. Lopes even stole 47 bases in 1985 with the Astros in the year he turned 40, still the record for any major league player that old in one season , 10 more than Rickey Henderson. Lopes and Henderson are the only players to steal more than 26 bases in a season at age 40 or older.

And when Lopes stole 47 bases in 1985, he was only caught four times. Efficiency was the name of the game for Lopes, too, stealing bases at an 83-percent clip throughout his career, the 12th-best in MLB history for anyone with at least 200 attempts . His 418 stolen bases with the Dodgers are second only to Maury Wills, and Lopes’ 83.