Daily Archives: January 12, 2009

When I first started following the Yankees, their lineup began with Rickey Henderson, Willie Randolph, Don Mattingly, and Dave Winfield. Though Winfield was my favorite player, Mattingly was the most popular, and Randolph was the two-time World Champion veteran, Rickey Henderson likely did more to cultivate my love of baseball than any of the other three. Time and again, Rickey would lead off the game with a walk or a single, steal second, move to third on a productive out by Randolph, and score on a single or sac fly by Mattingly or Winfield. The exceptions were when Rickey would lead off the game with a homer, something he did 81 times in his career, or when he’d steal both second and third, letting Randolph drive him in. In 596 games as a Yankee, Henderson scored 513 runs, drew 406 walks, and stole 326 bases.

Fourteen years after Henderson was traded back to the A’s, Rickey was playing for the Newark Bears, the independent Altantic League team owned by his former Yankee teammate Rick Cerone. I remember reading that Rickey’s monthly salary from the Bears didn’t even cover the rent for the Manhattan apartment he was living in at the time. Rickey was ostensibly playing to get one more shot at the major leagues, but he had already set career records in stolen bases, runs, and walks, and owned 3,040 major league hits. Though he did finish the 2003 season by playing his final 30 major league games for the Dodgers, Rickey was playing to play, just as he did two years later with the San Diego Surf Dawgs.

One weekend in July of 2003, I went with a friend’s brother’s bachelor party to see Rickey play for the Bears against the Mitch Williams-managed Atlantic City Surf. Rickey was having a ball. Before the game he took time out to sign autographs along the first base line.

During the top of the first he chatted and joked with the fans along the left field line between pitches.

Then he led off the bottom of the first.

Just as he had for the Yankees, Rickey walked . . .

Stole second . . .

. . . moved to third on the catcher’s errant throw, and, following a walk to the second-place hitter, scored on a fielder’s choice to the shortstop.

Three batters into the game, I had already gotten my money’s worth.

Not long after that game, Henderson signed with the Dodgers. On September 13, 2003, Henderson pinch-hit for Guillermo Mota in the seventh inning of a game between the Dodgers and Giants at Dodger Stadium. Rickey was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a bunt, to third on a groundout, and scored on a Shawn Green single. He was then replaced by Paul Quantrill, who came in to pitch the next inning. The last thing Rickey Henderson ever did in the major leagues was score a run. As it should have been.

all photographs (c) Clifford J. Corcoran; click to enlarge

It’s a big day for Rickey Henderson who will be elected into the Hall of Fame later today.

Who else goes in?

Will it be this man?

Or this dude?

Or this guy?

So, what would your ballot look like? Pick up to ten–75% is the threshold, just as with the actual Hall.

[poll id=”3″]

Arizona and Philly in the NFC title game …. in Arizona?

Back to baseball:

• Michael Silverman at the Boston Herald reports that the recent Teixeira two-step has left the BoSox with some animosity towards Scott Boras:

The Sox, meanwhile, are, at least for now, done with Boras. One well-placed source said the club will never deal with him again unless it can be guaranteed that talks are being conducted honestly. We would take that threat a little more seriously if Boras’ clientele list were to shrink dramatically, but since that is not realistic, we will take it as a sign of just how badly the club felt it got stung by lies from Boras. They are in a “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” mode right now, with the Teixeira talks feeling like the last straw to them.

Before Teixeira, it was the failed negotiations with another Boras client, right-handed high school pitcher Alex Meyer, the Sox’ 20th-round draft pick this past summer, who came close to signing but ultimately turned down what was estimated to be a $2 million signing bonus. Before Meyer, it was some needless and excessive behind-the-scenes drama in the Daisuke Matsuzaka talks in December 2006, the Johnny Damon talks a year earlier and of course the Alex Rodriguez talks after the 2003 season.

Having lost out on Teixeira, the Red Sox feel an urgency about their offense. Their inquiry to the Marlins about Hanley Ramirez’ availability speaks to that. As good as the core of the lineup still is, there is a pressing need to beef up with an elite slugger. Teixeira was that guy, and he was the perfect guy. To complain about the process, or Boras, publicly would smack of sour grapes. The Sox know this. Boras is not going away and the Red Sox’ resources and long-term strategy survived the latest Boras encounter.

Still, Teixeira left the club somewhat shell-shocked, some executives taking it more personally than others. It will take a bit longer for the shock and the hurt to dissipate.

• Jack Curry of the Times reflects on the similarities between Rickey Henderson … and Manny Ramirez:

“Rickey did his own thing,” said (Dennis) Eckersley, who was Henderson’s teammate on the A’s. “I never saw anyone like him. It’s like Manny being Manny. Rickey was Rickey.”

Even though Henderson was more known for his speed and scoring runs and Ramirez is more known for his hitting and driving in runs, they have a lot in common. (Don) Mattingly said that Rickey used to disrupt opponents and Manny does that now, forcing them to plan strategy around one dominant player and to worry about might happen next.

“Rickey was a lot like Manny, just in a different way,” Mattingly said. “He changed the game. Manny can do that, too.”

When Mattingly was Henderson’s teammate on the Yankees, he was amazed with how flawless Henderson’s hitting mechanics were and how knowledgeable Henderson was about the strike zone. Mattingly said that it was difficult to know how good Henderson was without being his teammate.

When Mattingly was Ramirez’s coach last season, he saw some of the traits he used to see in Henderson. Ramirez has the same type of plate discipline, work ethic and confidence. In addition, Mattingly said Henderson and Ramirez are both much more intelligent players than they are perceived to be.

• Curry has another article with a deeper appreciation of Rickey:

Henderson stole more bases (1,406) and scored more runs (2,295) than anyone, he had the second-most walks (2,190), and he notched 3,055 hits, regal statistics that prove he was a tremendous player. Henderson was also the best at talking about himself.

He needed no coaxing to cruise into Rickey-speak, a mixture of a streetwise preacher and an eccentric professor. He would talk about how he felt or how his salary was unfair or who owed him money from card games or about teammates whose names he did not recall. Through all of Henderson’s chatter, Don Mattingly considered him a baseball savant.

“He kind of got his words jumbled sometimes so some people thought that he wasn’t smart,” said Mattingly, Henderson’s teammate on the Yankees. “But he was. Rickey knew exactly what was going on.”

Eckersley called Henderson “a game changer,” a disruptive force with a strike zone as small as a shoe box. Seeing Henderson lope to the plate and crouch into his stance was nightmarish for pitchers. O.K., Henderson’s body language shouted, try to throw me a strike. Once pitchers did, Henderson would use a swing that Mattingly called, “one of the best I’ve ever seen” to connect.

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