Davey Lopes, who sped to Phillies infamy on ‘Black Friday’ before coaching with the team, has died at 80

Davey Lopes, who used his legs to scar a generation of Phillies fans but made good years later by teaching the 2008 world champions to run like him, died Wednesday. He was 80.

Mr. Lopes played 16 major league seasons, 10 of which were with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was a four-time All-Star, won a Gold Glove at second base in 1978, and was a whiz on the bases as he twice led the National League in steals.

Mr. Lopes’ speed in 1977 helped turn a memorable afternoon at Veterans Stadium into Black Friday.

His grounder with two outs in the ninth inning bounced off Mike Schmidt’s left knee before Larry Bowa retrieved it and fired to first base. The Phillies thought they beat Mr. Lopes to the bag for the final out of NL Championship Series Game 3. But umpire Bruce Froemming ruled Mr. Lopes safe, tying the score and keeping a nightmarish inning alive.

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The Phillies lost that game and a day later watched the Dodgers celebrate the National League pennant.

Mr. Lopes retired after the 1987 season and became a coach. The Phillies hired him in 2007 as their first base coach, a position he would hold for four seasons. The Phils finished 2007 ranking second in steals, swiping 46 more bags than the year before. Mr. Lopes, armed with a stopwatch at first base and filled with intensity, pushed his team on the bases.

“You need somebody with that energy at first base,” Jimmy Rollins said in 2007. “Because sometimes you know you can go, but you need a push. Your legs might be a little tired that day, but somebody gets on you and gives you just enough of that burst to get to second. Now somebody can get you over and get you in. That’s a run right there.”

The Phillies averaged 125.25 steals per season under Mr. Lopes, consistently finishing near the top of the majors. The 2008 world champions had three players — Rollins, Shane Victorino, and Jayson Werth — with at least 20 steals. Mr. Lopes’ runners were smart, not reckless. They led the majors that season in stolen-base percentage as they were safe on 84% of their attempts.

“It’s almost like good base-stealers are in control in the game” Mr. Lopes said in 2007. “They change the complexion of the game. They change the speed of the game. It’s almost like speed slows down the game because people get defensive.”

Mr. Lopes coached Phillies shortstop Trea Turner for two seasons with the Nationals early in Turner’s major league career. Not coincidentally, Turner stole 33 bases in 2016 and had a career-high 46 in 2017.

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“He’d look at me [at first base] and say, ‘Why are you still standing here?’” Turner said a few years ago. “He wanted me to run. ‘Just go, just go, just go.’”

When he worked for the Phillies, before analytics proliferated the sport, Mr. Lopes said he considered 80-85% to be a successful stolen-base rate. The Phillies met that mark in each of Mr. Lopes’ four seasons on the staff. They led the majors in stolen-base rate in all four seasons, peaking at 87.9% in 2007.

Victorino was one of Mr. Lopes’ top Phillies protégés. Under Mr. Lopes, Chase Utley became among the most proficient base-stealers in baseball en route to an 87.5% success rate that ranks fifth all-time.

Turner described Mr. Lopes’ approach as instinctual. He wanted his baserunners to recognize the most opportune situations to run but also to be aggressive.

“He was old-school, man,” Turner said. “Not a lot of numbers or anything. Just pure confidence almost. I always thought I was a good baserunner and took a lot of things in and tried to be smart about it. Just having him in my ear and saying, ‘Just trust it and go,’ was kind of a change of pace.”

Mr. Lopes helped the Phillies become champions, but he never backed down from Black Friday. He was safe, Mr. Lopes insisted years later. The play was revisited before the Phillies played the Dodgers in the 2008 National League Championship Series with Mr. Lopes coaching for the Phils and Bowa on L.A.’s staff.

“Davey Lopes was one of the fastest guys who played in the National League,” Bowa said before the 2008 series started. “When the ball went off Schmidty, Bruce Froemming’s first reaction was, ‘There’s no way anybody is going to throw him out’ because of the way he runs after the ball ricocheted to me. And I think he just got caught up in the fact that Davey was exceptionally fast and couldn’t believe the play was going to be that close.

“Davey says there’s no way he was out. I see him all the time and he says no way. But he knows he was out.”

Mr. Lopes said he never watched a replay of Black Friday and didn’t understand why Bowa dwelled on it. The next night, the two former stars had to be separated on the field during a benches-clearing scuffle.

“I’ll be honest with you, we had another game to play, did we not?” Mr. Lopes said, as Black Friday did not eliminate the Phillies. “So what’s the problem? Did they give up? Is that what he’s telling me, he gave up the next day? Or did Tommy John just throw too many sinkers for him and that’s why we won? It wasn’t the last game. They had plenty of opportunities to turn and reverse that. They didn’t do it. So stop crying and get over it and move on.”

David Earl Lopes was born in East Providence, R.I., and was drafted by the Dodgers after playing college ball in Kansas. He was the leadoff hitter for a Dodgers team that went to the World Series three times before winning it all in 1981. He coached for seven big-league teams and managed the Milwaukee Brewers for three seasons. Mr. Lopes is survived by his brothers, Patrick and John, and sisters, Jean, Judith, Mary and Nina.

Staff writer Scott Lauber contributed to this article.