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’ 83.1-percent success rate in tops in franchise history.
“A guy that’s a base stealer, he disrupts the crowd, he disrupts the team that he’s playing against, and he can set the tone for the game,” Lopes said in an interview with MASN Sports in 2017 when he coached for the Nationals. “I studied it, from the standpoint of picking up on idiosyncrasies that the pitcher had when he threw to first compared to when he threw to home. The sooner you can pick that up, the quicker you can get out of the box.
“I always talk about quickness, and as soon as I say that most people think of a body movement, but it’s not. It’s what you can recognize with your eyes. The quicker you can recognize a key, the first key that a pitcher is telling you he’s coming over to first or going home, the bigger the jump you’re going to get.”
That wisdom served Lopes well in his three decades of coaching after his playing career ended in 1987. He managed the Brewers from 2000-02, but was otherwise a first base coach from 1988 through 2017 for the Rangers, Orioles, Padres, Nationals, Phillies, and Dodgers, including multiple stints in San Diego and Washington.
In addition to coaching first base, Lopes would often be in charge of coaching baserunning, as he did with the Dodgers from 2011-15, including tutoring a young Dee Gordon. In his first year back in Los Angeles in 2011, the Dodgers stole bases at a 75.9-percent clip, at the time the second-highest clip in franchise history. Three of Lopes’ five years on the Dodgers coaching staff (2011, 2013-14) produced top-14 stolen base success rates in club history.
Lopes was never shy about speaking his mind, both as a player and coach, sometimes in blunt fashion, and suffered no fools. He is the last Dodger to hold official captain status, doing so in 1978 and into 1979, when he resigned from the position midseason as the two-time-defending pennant winners were mired under .500.
“I felt [resigning as captain] was the best thing for myself and the team,” Lopes told Associated Press in June 1979. “This way, we’re all equal. I have no title. Nothing more will be expected of me than anyone else.”
Lopes in 1979 had his best season at the plate, hitting .265/.372/.464, setting career highs in runs scored (109), runs batted in (73), slugging percentage, OPS (.836), and wRC+ (133). His 28 home runs that season were 11 more than he hit in any other year, and coupled with his 44 stolen bases Lopes delivered the first season in Dodgers history with at least 22 home runs and 22 steals.
Those 28 home runs in 1979 still stand as a record by a Dodgers second baseman in a season, tied with Jeff Kent’s 2005 campaign.
In 10 seasons with the Dodgers, Lopes was a part of four pennant-winning teams, and started at second base and batted leadoff in all 45 postseason games for Los Angeles during that stretch. He hit .242/.332/.393 and scored 28 runs in those 45 games, a 101-run pace over a full year. Lopes’ 19 stolen bases still stand as the Dodgers postseason record.
Lopes made four All-Star teams, the last coming in 1981, when the team finally broke through to beat the Yankees in the World Series. But that was his age-36 season, and with second baseman Steve Sax the most ready among the next crop of Dodgers prospects, Lopes was the first member of The Infield to depart. The Dodgers traded Lopes for 20-year-old minor league infielder Lance Hudson in February 1982.
“I think a lot of individuals would like to get through their whole career and stay with one team,” Lopes said after the trade, per the Los Angeles Times. “But there’ll be a time in their careers when everyone is rejected.”
Three quarters of The Infield started their careers at different positions, including Lopes and Russell in the outfield to start their professional careers. Lopes was part of the Dodgers’ legendary 1968 draft hall, long considered the best draft year by a team in major league history. Lopes was taken in the second round of the January draft, and spent the first three-plus seasons in the minors in the outfield before switching to second base.
His 1,150 games at second base are the most in Dodgers franchise history.
Lopes after leaving the Dodgers found new life as a utility man, mixing in time at all three outfield positions in a addition to third base aside from his duties at second. That allowed him to play through his age-42 season for the A’s, Cubs, and Astros. He posted above-average years offensively in each of his last five seasons, and overall hit .265/.348/.410 with a 112 wRC+ after leaving Los Angeles.
In addition to his 30 years of coaching, Lopes played 16 years in the majors, the first 10 of which were with the Dodgers. He hit .263/.349/.388 with 155 home runs, a 111 wRC+, 557 stolen bases, and scored 1,023 runs.
The Dodgers say Lopes is survived by two brothers, Patrick and John, and four sisters, Jean, Judith, Mary and Nina.
