He’s Become a Steal : Whatever Makes Davey Lopes Run, at 39, Has Escaped Dodgers

When Dodger Vice President Al Campanis traded Davey Lopes to Oakland before the 1982 season, he expected that Lopes would return to be honored sometime.

What he didn’t expect was that Lopes would return as a 39-year-old member of the Chicago Cubs who has stolen 36 bases this season and has 519 steals in his career.

“The man is a physical phenomenon at his age, with all of the bases he’s stolen and the year he’s had,” Campanis said. “When we traded him, he wasn’t stealing bases and running that well.

“We also had an up-and-coming second baseman in Steve Sax, and the philosophy of our club is to keep a team for a decade. You never like to trade a player, but it had to be done.”

Lopes was the first to go amid the breakup of the 1981 World Series champion Dodger infield. Ron Cey and Steve Garvey followed. Only Bill Russell remains.

The man Johnny Bench said “was the best base stealer ever” was honored Thursday night--much as Garvey, Cey and Russell were honored previously as part of the infield that once seemed destined to bleed Dodger Blue forever. Lopes was honored for stealing more than 500 bases.

“They only told me about it last night in San Diego,” said Lopes, who is fourth in stolen bases this season in the National League. “I’m happy with whatever they do, because they don’t have to do anything.”

Going into Thursday night’s game, Lopes, one of the bright spots of this year’s injury-plagued Cub team, was hitting .296, with eight homers and 31 RBIs for the defending East Division champions.

Moreover, he will become the first 39-year-old major leaguer to equal his age--and certainly surpass it--in stolen bases. Even the great Lou Brock stole only 17 at that age. Honus Wagner, when he was 39 in 1913, stole 22.

Lopes has stolen 36 bases in 38 attempts this season and has stolen 12 consecutive bases dating back to June 15. He has been 9 for 9 in stealing third.

How does Lopes explain this success?

“I’ve got that intensity level back, and I had lost that for three years,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t physical, and I knew I could do it physically.”

Lopes certainly could do it in his younger years. In 1974, he stole five bases in one game and had 59 steals. Years of 77 and 63 stolen bases followed.

Lopes was traded to the Cubs last Aug. 31, completing a deal in which the Cubs had traded pitcher Chuck Rainey to the A’s.

Although Lopes was acquired in time for playoff eligibility, and the the Cubs won the NL East, he didn’t feel a part of the team’s winning season. He stayed in a back room while the Cubs’ celebrated their title-clinching win.

This spring, in the Cub camp at Mesa, Ariz., Lopes was penciled in as a utility-type player who could fill in if necessary.

It has been necessary. The Cubs have used 69 different lineups, and not one Cub has started every game. The big injuries have been to outfielders Gary Matthews and Bob Dernier. That’s where Lopes has filled in admirably, starting 47 games in the outfield.