Dee Gordon 3rd fastest Dodger to 50 stolen bases in a season

Dee Gordon on Friday night stole two bases against Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs in the first inning on Friday night, his major-league-leading 50th steal of the season. By achieving the milestone in the Dodgers' 110th game, Gordon reached 50 steals the third-fastest of any Dodger in the modern era.

Only Maury Wills reached the plateau faster than Gordon, stealing his 50th base in the Dodgers' 83rd game in 1965, and in their 104th game in 1962.

There were 13 times a Dodger reached 50 stolen bases in a season before 1900, including 91 steals by Darby O'Brien in 1889 in Brooklyn's final season in the American Association. Monte Ward stole 88 bases for the Dodgers in 1892, which stood as the franchise record until Wills broke it with a then-MLB-record 104 thefts in 1962.

But from Tom Daly's 51 steals in 1894 and Wills stealing 50 in 1960, there was only one 50-steal season by a Dodger, when Jimmy Sheckard - you might know him as the Dodger who shares the franchise record for triples in a game with Yasiel Puig - stole 67 bases in 1903.

But because Sheckard and the gang played on dimly-lit fields with jungle-like weeds, pillow bases and nary a smart phone in sight, we will lump those seasons together as pre-modern, though the real reason is because there aren't game logs to accurately track just when each person reached the 50-steal milestone.

So we are left with 11 seasons of 50 or more stolen bases by six different Dodgers, all since the franchise moved to Los Angeles.

In terms of team games, only Wills, twice, was faster than Gordon to 50 steals, though that doesn't diminish Davey Lopes in 1976. Lopes led the National League with 77 steals the previous year but missed the first 21 games on the disabled list in 1976. In fact, a stiff neck and a pulled muscle in his rib cage limited Lopes to just 117 games but he was still able to steal 63 bases, again leading the NL.

Lopes in 1976 stole his 50th (and 51st) base in his 100th game that year, second only to Wills in 1965, and stole his 60th base in his 113th game.

Gordon has played in 104 of the Dodgers' 110 games this season. Here are the 50-steal Dodgers, sorted by fewest team games needed to reach 50 steals: