August 10, 2001: Rickey Henderson hits go-ahead homer for Padres, nears milestones in first-ever PNC Park appearance

Rickey Henderson spent 2001 in pursuit of long-established records and exclusive hitting clubs. In his second tour with the San Diego Padres and 23rd major-league season, the 42-year-old Henderson broke Babe Ruth’s lifetime big-league walks record, then neared all-time marks for runs scored and games played in left field, as well as his 3,000th career hit and 300th home run. He made progress on all fronts in his first appearance at Pittsburgh’s newly opened PNC Park on August 10, a two-hit night that included the go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth inning of the Padres’ 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In March 2001, Henderson signed a minor-league contract with the Padres, his fifth club since San Diego traded him to the Anaheim Angels in 1997.1 Already baseball’s all-time steals leader, he began ’01 with the Triple-A Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. Outside of a rehabilitation assignment in 1985, it was his first time in the minor leagues since his debut with the Oakland A’s in 1979.2

Henderson joined San Diego’s roster on April 17.3 Eight days later, he attained his first milestone of 2001, drawing his 2,063rd career walk against Philadelphia Phillies reliever José Mesa. It put Henderson one up on Ruth, whose last major-league walk was in 1935.4 Ahead were Zack Wheat’s on-the-books-since-1927 record for games in left field (2,328), Ty Cobb’s established-in-1928 mark for runs scored (2,245), and the 24-member 3,000-hit and 87-member 300-homer clubs.

When the Padres arrived in Pittsburgh for a weekend series in August, Henderson was six games from Wheat’s record for appearances in left and 19 runs behind Cobb. He needed 29 hits for 3,000 and 13 homers for 300. Henderson’s .213 batting average was significantly lower than any full season in his big-league career,5 but he continued to draw walks, resulting in an on-base percentage that exceeded his average by more than 130 points.

The Padres were a distant fourth in the five-club National League West Division with a 55-59 record, and Pittsburgh’s 44-69 record was the worst overall in the NL. The Pirates were having a disappointing, injury-plagued campaign in their first season after relocating from Three Rivers Stadium to PNC Park.6

Friday night’s series opener was five days after Bill Mazeroski was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his 17-season career at second base in Pittsburgh. The Pirates celebrated Mazeroski in a pregame ceremony; a street adjacent to PNC Park was renamed in his honor.7

Injuries had degraded Pittsburgh’s pitching staff ever since spring training.8 Promoted from Triple A when a batted ball fractured José Silva’s tibia in early June,9 22-year-old left-hander David Williams had joined the rotation to replace ineffective Bronson Arroyo, whose own shot as a starter had followed season-ending injuries to Kris Benson and Francisco Córdova.10 Williams entered his start against the Padres with a 1-3 record and a 4.11 ERA in 12 major-league games.

Henderson led off the game by lining Williams’s 1-and-1 pitch into center for a single. He did not get any farther, as Mark Kotsay flied out and Ryan Klesko grounded into a double play.

Undrafted out of high school and college, San Diego’s Brian Tollberg had started his professional career in the independent Frontier League in 1994 and reached the majors with the Padres in 2000. The 28-year-old righty had missed two months in 2001 after a batted ball broke the middle finger on his pitching hand. He had been sent to Triple A in July after struggling in his return but came back to the majors on August 4 with eight shutout innings against the Cincinnati Reds.11

Henderson, playing left field in a major-league game for the 2,323rd time, caught Abraham Nuñez’s fly ball to begin a one-two-three first inning, but the Pirates went ahead against Tollberg in the second. San Diego native Brian Giles led off with a single and Jason Kendall – born in San Diego while his father, Fred Kendall, played for the Padres – was hit by a pitch. One out later, Kevin Young’s gap-shot double to right-center sent Giles and Kendall home for a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead.12

San Diego’s hopes for a third-inning response were dashed when Henderson followed Tollberg’s leadoff walk with a first-pitch grounder to third baseman Aramis Ramírez, who started an around-the-horn double play. But the Padres capitalized on defensive lapses to score their first run in the fourth. Klesko led off with a single and reached second when the ball kicked off center fielder Tike Redman for an error.13

Phil Nevin walked and Bubba Trammell hit a high fly ball to short right field, where rookie Craig Wilson was playing the right-handed hitting Trammell deep. Wilson took 15 steps while pursuing the ball before it fell between him and second baseman Pat Meares. Wilson recovered to throw to shortstop Nuñez for the force on Nevin, but Klesko took third.14 After Ben Davis walked, Damian Jackson’s sacrifice fly scored Klesko, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

Tollberg – with just five hits and no walks to show for 60 major-league plate appearances prior to the game – led off the top of the fifth with a single, putting him on base for the second straight time. Henderson then hit Williams’s 2-and-2 fastball just to the right of dead center and onto the grassy hill beyond the outfield fence.15 It was Henderson’s 2,973rd career hit, 2,227th career run scored, and 288th career home run, breaking a 163-at-bat homerless streak.16 The Padres led, 3-2.

Redman opened the bottom of the fifth with a bunt single, but relief pitcher Dámaso Marté, who had replaced Williams and closed out the top of the inning, bunted into a force at second. It began a string of seven straight Pirates set down by Tollberg.

Young’s one-out double in the seventh broke Tollberg’s perfect string and put the potential tying run on second. Redman’s fly out pushed Young to third, but pinch-hitter Warren Morris struck out to end the inning.

Pittsburgh’s bullpen was keeping it a one-run game. Marté retired eight Padres in a row, including getting Henderson to fly out to end the seventh inning. Mike Lincoln made it 11 straight with a clean eighth.

Padres manager Bruce Bochy brought in veteran right-hander Rudy Seánez for the bottom of the eighth. Seánez retired the first two Pirates, but Ramírez walked on a full-count pitch. Alex Hernández ran for Ramírez, and Bochy called on rookie lefty José Nuñez to face Giles.

Giles pulled Nuñez’s pitch down the right-field line. Hernández was running on contact, but third-base coach Trent Jewett held him at third, as the throw-in missed the cutoff man and the ball dribbled toward home plate. Giles took second with a double.17

With the potential tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, Bochy went to the bullpen for closer Trevor Hoffman. The 33-year-old Hoffman was approaching a milestone of his own. He was two saves from becoming the 14th major league pitcher with 300 in his career.18

An intentional walk of Kendall loaded the bases with Wilson up next. Wilson entered the game with a .393 on-base percentage and a .652 slugging percentage as a reserve; his eight home runs included a three-run blast against Los Angeles Dodgers’ All-Star Chan Ho Park a day earlier.

But Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon sent up .220-hitting veteran Keith Osik to bat for Wilson. Osik popped up to second, leaving the bases loaded.

Hoffman gave up a two-out single to pinch-hitter Adam Hyzdu in the ninth but wrapped up his 299th career save by getting Abraham Nuñez to pop up to short for the final out.19 Tollberg’s record improved to 6-3; Williams dropped to 1-4.

And Henderson’s milestone march moved on.

“The 3,000 hits, the run record, they’re not on my mind,” Henderson said after the game. “I think I put them there about a month and a half ago because I was swinging the bat real well. But then I started thinking about it, and you try to do it all in one day. Now I try to clear my head and go day by day, and when it happens, it happens.”20

Henderson continued to deepen his mark on the record books after the Padres left Pittsburgh. His start against the Florida Marlins on August 25 was his 2,329th appearance in left field to break Wheat’s 74-year-old record.21 On October 4 he homered against the Dodgers’ Luke Prokopec and crossed home plate for the 2,245th time in his career, passing Cobb’s mark for runs scored. Three days later, on the final day of the regular season, Henderson doubled against John Thomson of the Colorado Rockies to become the 25th member of baseball’s 3,000-hit club.

But Henderson did not join the 300-home-run club. His homer against Prokopec sent him into the 2001-02 offseason with 290 home runs. Five homers for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 and two in a half-season stint with the Dodgers in 2003 left him at 297 for his career.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Rickey Henderson, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT200108100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B08100PIT2001.htm

Notes

1 Tom Krasovic, “Rickey’s Back for Love of the Game: Henderson Seen as Insurance if Gwynn Disabled,” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 19, 2001: D1.

2 Bill Center, “Rickey to Start in AAA,” San Diego Union-Tribune, April 1, 2001: C10.

3 Tom Krasovic, “Rickey Gets Call to Aid an Ailing Team,” San Diego Union-Tribune, April 16, 2001: D6.

4 Bill Center, “Historic Night Ends With 9th Loss in Last 10,” San Diego Union-Tribune, April 26, 2001: D1.

5 Henderson’s previous low was .233 in 2000, a season that he split between the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.

6 Robert Dvorchak, “Season in the Gutter: Unlucky Pirates Rolled a 100 (as in Losses) in 2001,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 14, 2001: D-3.

7 Paul Meyer, “Mazeroski Way Street of Dreams,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 11, 2001: B-1.

8 Dvorchak, “Season in the Gutter.”

9 Robert Dvorchak, “Pirates Report,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 6, 2001: D-3.

10 Robert Dvorchak, “Pirates Report,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 24, 2001: D-13; Robert Dvorchak, “Morris to Open Season in AAA,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 31, 2001: B-6.

11 Bill Center, “Tollberg Back Just in Time to Stifle Reds,” San Diego Union-Tribune, August 5, 2001: C-1.

12 Robert Dvorchak, “Padres Bullpen Holds Pirates, 3-2,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 11, 2001: B-6.

13 Dvorchak, “Padres Bullpen Holds Pirates, 3-2”; ESPN SportsCenter, “2001 MLB Highlights August 10,” YouTube video (SW561), 16:14, accessed November 20, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfuD95sa7LM.

14 ESPN SportsCenter, “2001 MLB Highlights August 10.”

15 ESPN SportsCenter, “2001 MLB Highlights August 10.”

16 Henderson had last homered on May 19 against Scott Strickland of the Montreal Expos. Tom Krasovic, “Padres Are Marching to History,” San Diego Union-Tribune, August 11, 2001: D7.

17 Dvorchak, “Padres Bullpen Holds Pirates, 3-2.”

18 Krasovic, “Padres Are Marching to History.”

19 Hoffman recorded his 300th career save five days later on August 15. He retired with 601 career saves, as of 2025 more than anyone in major-league history besides Mariano Rivera (652).

20 Alan Robinson (Associated Press), “Henderson Jump-Starts San Diego,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, August 11, 2001: 13.

21 Henderson surpassing Wheat’s mark was not mentioned in newspaper coverage of the 2001 season.