Baseball Player Of The Day: Rickey Henderson

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

Brief Bio

Considered by many experts the greatest leadoff hitter in history, Henderson is a rare combination of hitting ability, power, and speed. He has led the AL in stolen bases 11 times, including 7 seasons in a row, in walks 3 times, and in runs scored 5 times. Henderson holds major-league records for most career stolen bases with 1,095, most steals in a season with 130 in 1982, and most home runs leading off a game, 63.

He joined the Oakland Athletics during the 1979 season. In 1980, his first full season, he led the league with 100 stolen bases. Henderson had a league-leading 89 runs scored, 135 hits, 56 stolen bases, and 327 outfield putouts in 1981, when a player strike shortened the season.

With Oakland, Henderson also led in steals with 130 in 1982, 108 in 1983, and 66 in 1984. He was then traded to the New York Yankees. Despite missing nearly a month of the 1985 season with an injury, he again led in stolen bases with 80, and repeated with 87 in 1986.

An injury limited him to only 95 games in 1987, but he bounced back with a league-leading 93 steals in 1988. The Yankees traded him back to Oakland during the 1989 season, when he led in steals with 77, runs scored with 113, and walks with 126.

Henderson was named the league's most valuable player in 1990. He had his highest batting average that season, .325, with a league-leading 119 runs scored and 65 steals in only 75 attempts. Although he slipped to a .268 average in 1991, he was the stolen base leader again with 58.

In 1992, Henderson was on the disabled list three times and appeared in only 117 games. During the following season, Oakland traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays, and he helped lead Toronto to a second consecutive world championship.

Since then, Henderson has played for several teams, including the San Diego Padres, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Anaheim Angels, and the Boston Red Sox. He also served two more tours of duty with Oakland

Henderson has been a consistently good performer in post-season play. In the 1989 AL championship series, he stole a record 8 bases and tied a record by scoring 8 runs and was named most valuable player in the World Series, batting .474 with 3 stolen bases, 4 runs scored, and 3 RBI in 4 games. He hit .333 with 3 more steals, 2 runs, and 1 RBI in the 1990 World Series.

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Henderson is a rarity in that he throws left but bats right handed.

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Some stories

Malapropisms

Many stories have been told about Rickey Henderson over the years, both the player and person. He is well known for his malapropisms, for referring to himself in the third-person (for example, calling Padres GM Kevin Towers to inquire about a contract and leaving a message starting "this is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey."), and for talking to himself at length when he is up to bat. He has been known to speak to his bats, asking them which one has the next hit inside them. He once fell asleep on an icepack, thereby contracting a case of frostbite in August. In 2001, he described a long single this way: "I hit it out, but it didn't go out." Another time, Rickey was offered a seat on the team bus, the player saying that he had tenure. To which Rickey replied, "Ten years? What are you talking about? Rickey got 16, 17 years."

Another story occurred while Henderson was playing for the Oakland A's. Team bookkeepers could not account for a $1 million discrepancy in their finances. The mysterious figure was eventually traced to Henderson, who had received the sum as a signing bonus. Instead of cashing the check, he'd had it framed, where it still hung on his wall.[1]

Henderson has also been reported to take practice swings in the locker room in front of a mirror completely naked while repeatedly saying "Rickey's the best! You tha' man Rickey!"[2]

One widely reported story, however, is by all accounts a fabrication. In 2000 while playing for Seattle, Henderson went up to teammate John Olerud, and asked why Olerud wore a batting helmet out on the field. When he expalined that it was due to an anyerism he suffered while in college, Henderson replied to Olerud that he had a teamate in New York last year who did the same thing, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the two were teammates the year prior with the New York Mets. To which a bewildered Olerud was said to have replied, "That was me." Ironically the two were also teammates with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993

Accomplishments

* Record for most stolen bases in a career (1,406)
o Record for most caught-stealing in a career (335)
* Record for most stolen bases in a season (130, in 1982)
o Record for most caught-stealing in a season (42, in 1982)
* Record for most runs scored in a career (2,295)
* Record for most consecutive seasons with at least one home run (25)
* Ended his career with the record for most walks in a career (2,190-- since broken by Barry Bonds)
* American League MVP (1990)
* American League Championship Series MVP (1989)
* Ten-time All-Star (1980, 1982-88, 1990-91)
* Record for most seasons by a non-pitcher (25)
* Led the American League 12 times in stolen bases (1980-86, 1988-91, 1998)
* Led the Major Leagues 6 times in stolen bases (1980, 1982-83, 1988-89, 1998)
* Led the Major Leagues 5 times in runs scored (1981, 1985-86, 1989-90)
* Led the American League 4 times in walks (1982-83, 1989, 1998)
* Postseason record for stolen bases (33)
* Had 21 game-ending RBI, the third most since 1957
* Led off 81 games with a home run, more than any other player
* Led the Major Leagues once in times on base (301, in 1980)
* Led the Major Leagues once in on-base percentage (1990)
* Led the American League once in hits (1981, with 135)
* Three-Time Silver Slugger for outfielder (1981, 1985, 1990)
* Gold Glove for the outfield (1981)
* Oldest player in the American League (2002, at 43)

Stats


Pictures

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

Hall of famer. Jesus these guy was the man... One of my favs of all time

Simon

Founder/Admin

He had 130 stolen bases one year. That is IN-FUCKING-SANE !!!

I always loved Rickey. (except when he was with the Yankees of course haha.)

He also should have hung them up in 2000.


*EDIT* I looked over his numbers again. Besides the leadoff homeruns and stolen bases, frankly he wasn't that good.

He never had 80 or more RBI's in a season, and never hit more than 28 homeruns in a season.

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

^ True but the stolen bases were still fucking crazy...

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

true. his runs and obp are pretty good.

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

"Rickey likes stealing" - Rickey Henderson

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

thats not surprising. he is black.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Well, when you're a leadoff hitter, you dont have nearly as many RBI chances. RBI is a decieving stat, because it's so dependent on both the team around you, and your position in the line-up. Like, if you batted Manny Ramirez 9th instead of 4th, he'd probably have 10-20 fewer RBIs per season. And, if you put him the Royals, he'd probably have much fewer RBIs too. And, if he was the 9th hitter on the Royals, he'd be lucky to crack 100, despite being one ofthe Top 5 hitters in baseball.

As for the home runs, well, not everyone can be a slugger. Also, I'm sure his speed helped him a lot in the field too. I'd take Rickey in his prime over MANY current major leaguers.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Also, there's a stat called Equivalent Average (EqA) which is kinda like total bases per at-bat, but it also adds stolen bases and subtracts caught stealings. The average EqA is .260, Rickey's career EqA is .313.

If Rickey played with a .313 EqA this year, he would be 15th in all of baseball. Behind only Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Berkman, Beltran, Bonds, Chipper Jones, Nick Johnson, Hafner, Manny, Giambi, Thome, Ortiz, Dye, and Mauer.

In 1990, Rickey led all of MLB in EqA at .370. To put that in perspective, A-Rod led the majors last year with a .350 EqA.

Dakstang

MMA Moderator

Damn, I can't belive people actually know what all that baseball mumbo jumbo means.

You guys are some serious fans.

Stop talkin' bout stayin' the course
You keep on beatin' that old dead horse
You know they lied about why we went to War
I can't take it no more