Speed kills.
Ask the Yankees circa 2004 when a stolen base by Dave Roberts in the bottom of the ninth kept the Red Sox—down 3-0 in the American League Championship Series and 4-3 in Game 4—alive and propelled them forward to the greatest comeback in baseball history.
Or maybe you could just look at the 1982 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers.
That season the Brewers lead all teams with 216 home runs, 30 more than next closest team. Last in the league that season were the Brewers’ World Series opponents, who hit just 67 home runs, 149 fewer home runs than the Brewers!
However, the Cardinals did steal 200 bases that season, second in the league to the Rickey Henderson-led Oakland Athletics and 35 more than the team with the third-most stolen bases.
In the seven game World Series between the two teams, the Cardinals stole seven bases compared to the Brewers one on their way to a World Series title.
With the importance of speed writ large in the history of Major League Baseball’s playoffs, let’s take a look at the 10 fastest players in this year’s postseason.