03/04/2026
DAILY BASEBALL FACTS: THE BIRTH OF THE STOLEN BASE 🏃♂️💨
It’s hard to imagine baseball without the stolen base, but before March 4, 1886, it didn’t officially exist.
Sure, players were taking extra bases on wild pitches or passed balls, but there was no way to properly credit the runner's speed and strategy. That all changed exactly on this day in 1886 when the National League officially met and adopted the "Stolen Base" as a recorded, tracked statistic.
Suddenly, speed became a measurable weapon. The game went from a station-to-station slugfest to a chaotic footrace overnight.