Daily Archives: March 2, 2005

So, will anyone be elected to the Hall of Fame later this afternoon? My vote would go to Ron Santo, Minnie Minoso, Joe Gordon and Dick Allen.

Randy Johnson has a sore left calf and will miss his first spring training start. Johnson insists that this is not a big issue. Meanwhile, Kevin Brown pitched two innings yesterday in a intra-squad game and felt good when all was said and done. It would be curious if Brown ended up being a valuable contributor in 2005, particularly after how he finished 2004.

Part three of Rich Lederer’s chat with Bill James is up:

BJ: Rickey [Henderson] is one of a kind. Someone should write a really good book about Rickey. There is an essential connection between ego and greatness and no one better illustrated that than Rickey. When Rickey is 52, he will still believe that he could play in the majors. You can say that his ego is out of scale to his real world, but his ego is what made him so special. Somebody should document mannerisms and Rickey was a walking catalog of annoying mannerisms. He was a show. Every at-bat was a show. It’s not like a Reggie Jackson show where it’s done for television. It’s a live show. It’s done for the guys in the ballpark and the guys on the field. The show made him totally unique.

Tim Raines was almost as great of a leadoff man and almost as great of a player. Tim is a good guy, just a nice, reasonable person that everybody likes. Rickey is a show. [laughs] The show was essential to his greatness.

I really enjoyed this conversation. I can’t wait for lunch.