Okay so first things first – I was scrolling through old baseball highlights late last night when that Michael Bourn Indians steal popped up. You know, the one where he just zooms past the catcher? Got me wondering: “Man, how many did this dude actually swipe for Cleveland?” Seemed simple enough to find out. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.
Starting The Slog
Hopped onto Baseball Reference first thing this morning. Searched “Michael Bourn,” easy. Clicked his player page. Saw that big career stats table. But dang it – no breakdown by team right there! Had to scroll way down to the “Team By Team” section. Clicked Cleveland…
Scrolled…and scrolled…Where the heck were the steals? They hide that line under “Advanced Batting” or something! Finally found it after squinting at too many numbers. There it was:
- 2013: 23 steals
- 2014: 10 steals
Okay, got the first piece. But I remembered he got traded mid-season! Wait, were these just his Indians numbers? Or did they include Houston too that year? Pain in the neck.
The Trade Year Headache
This is where it got messy. For 2013, the “Cleveland Guardians” team page showed Bourn with 23 steals. But was that all with Cleveland? Or combined with Atlanta before the trade? Gotta dig deeper. Clicked into his 2013 season game logs. Ugh, scrolling game by game.
Copypasted all the box scores into a doc like a madman. Started tallying:
- Found his first game with Cleveland: April 11, 2013.
- Manually counted every “SB” for Cleveland games only. Click, count, click, count…
Holy cow this was stupid. But eventually tallied all 23 steals happening AFTER he put on that Indians jersey. Sweet relief! Same torture for 2014: Yup, all 10 were Cleveland steals.
The Final Tally (And Why Bother)
So after wasting… er, investing… way too much coffee-fueled time:
- 2013 Cleveland Indians Steals: 23
- 2014 Cleveland Indians Steals: 10
Grand Total for Cleveland: 33 swipes. Feels kinda low, right? Thought he had more. Turns out injuries really clipped his wings those years, especially 2014. Makes sense now why I barely remembered his Cleveland stint being super flashy on the basepaths.
End of story? Why even chase these numbers? Got me. Maybe because baseball stats are rabbit holes, and guys like Bourn just make you wonder “how many?” Late night thoughts lead to morning grunt work. Glad it’s done. Final answer: Bourn stole 33 bases wearing Chief Wahoo. Cleveland seasons? Fifty freakin’ one? Nope. Not even close. Got bamboozled by my own memory. Won’t be forgetting this little factoid anytime soon though. My wrist hurts from all the clicking.
