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| Just let him go to second...he's already stolen this base... |
Here's a question for everyone. With Rickey Henderson's 81 leadoff the game homeruns (which is 28 more than 2nd place Alfonso Soriano)...hold on...have you guys looked at Rickey's numbers? Freaking unbelieveable. I love Rickey. Definately my favorite player ever. I used to stand like this guy in Little League as if I was actually going to steal a base. Then I'd go back to the base because you can't lead in Little League. But when I first started following Rickey and collecting his baseball cards that was when I realized I loved baseball, and black people. Ok, mostly baseball.
So check this out. He's second in total walks all time. Who is #1? Bonds. Why? Because he was juicing all those years and everyone intentionally walked him. So I think that is a record that was destroyed because of steroids. Rickey got screwed out of that #1 placement. Really unfortunate. Bonds would NOT have had 200 plus walks several years in a row if he wasn't hitting 70 homeruns. He wouldn't have hit 70 homeruns if he wasn't on steroids. Therefore Rickey wins again.
My real question is, and I can't find this stat yet on the internet, is what do you think the batting average is of the guy that followed Rickey after his leadoff the game homeruns was? Conversely, what was the success rate of the pitcher following Rickey's 81 homeruns? It would be interesting to know if that lead off the game homerun led to a walk the next guy up or another hit because he may have been rattled or if the pitcher beared down and k'd the #2 guy? It could be researched but would take some time digging through box scores. Which would actually be a lot of fun! Place your bets now, I'm going to figure it out!
Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star and Sports Illustrated wrote:
ReplyDelete"I’m about to give you one of my all-time favorite statistics: Rickey Henderson walked 796 times in his career LEADING OFF AN INNING. Think about this again. There would be nothing, absolutely nothing, a pitcher would want to avoid more than walking Rickey Henderson to lead off an inning. And yet he walked SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY SIX times to lead off an inning.
He walked more times just leading off in an inning than Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg and more than 50 other Hall of Famers walked in their entire careers...I simply cannot imagine a baseball statistic more staggering."[91]
Padres closer Trevor Hoffman said, "I don't know how to put into words how fortunate I was to spend time around one of the icons of the game. I can't comprehend that yet. Years from now, though, I'll be able to say I played with Rickey Henderson, and I imagine it will be like saying I played with Babe Ruth."[28] Padres general manager Kevin Towers said, "I get e-mails daily from fans saying, 'Sign Rickey.' ...I get more calls and e-mails about him than anybody... We've had some special players come through San Diego. But there's an aura about him nobody else has."[28]
ReplyDeleteTony La Russa, Henderson's manager in the late 1980s in Oakland, said, "He rises to the occasion—the big moment—better than anybody I've ever seen."[28] Coach Rene Lachemann said, "If you're one run down, there's nobody you'd ever rather have up at the plate than Rickey." Teammate Mitchell Page said, “It wasn't until I saw Rickey that I understood what baseball was about. Rickey Henderson is a run, man. That's it. When you see Rickey Henderson, I don't care when, the score's already 1–0. If he's with you, that's great. If he's not, you won't like it.” [24]
A's pitching coach Dave Duncan said of Henderson, "You have to be careful because he can knock one out. But you don't want to be too careful because he's got a small strike zone and you can't afford to walk him. And that's only half the problem. When he gets on base he's more trouble still." Sportswriter Tom Verducci wrote, "Baseball is designed to be an egalitarian sort of game in which one player among the 18 is not supposed to dominate... Yet in the past quarter century Henderson and Barry Bonds have come closest to dominating a baseball game the way Michael Jordan could a basketball game."[71] In July 2007, New York Sun sportswriter Tim Marchman wrote about Henderson's accomplishments:
He stole all those bases and scored all those runs and played all those years not because of his body, but because of his brain. Rickey could tell from the faintest, most undetectable twitch of a pitcher's muscles whether he was going home or throwing over to first. He understood that conditioning isn't about strength, but about flexibility. And more than anyone else in the history of the game, he understood that baseball is entirely a game of discipline — the discipline to work endless 1–1 counts your way, the discipline to understand that your job is to get on base, and the discipline to understand that the season is more important than the game, and a career more important than the season. Maybe he'd get a bit more credit for all this if he were some boring drip like Cal Ripken Jr., blathering on endlessly about humility and apple pie and tradition and whatever else, but we're all better off with things the way they are... Everyone had their fun when he broke Lou Brock's stolen base record and proclaimed, 'I am the greatest', but he was, of course, just saying what was plainly true.[72]
It is incredible when you really think about it, as a lead off hitter, he was that dominant. Imagine the amount of money teams today would be willing to throw down for a guy that valuable to your team! He was the greatest.
ReplyDeleteBest quote from Jeremy: A's pitching coach Dave Duncan said of Henderson, "You have to be careful because he can knock one out. But you don't want to be too careful because he's got a small strike zone and you can't afford to walk him. And that's only half the problem. When he gets on base he's more trouble still."
Kind of brings up my point from another post saying how old[er] players are going to fade away in the record books b/c of 'roids. There is no way Bonds would have touched that record. No way. pretty much any of the records he broke for that matter...
In fact, Rickey's SB record may never be broken either. Unless...this defense/pitching trend continues and teams have to resort back to the N.L. style baseball. Then it will be. cyclical.
Kind of impressive the Soriano has that many lead off HR's to be honest. If he wasn't such a g*d damn lazy latino he would be even better than he's showed us.
I want to find the guy who did not vote for Rickey to go into the hall of fame and hold him up for public ridicule and then ban him from baseball for life.
ReplyDeleteHow was he not the first unanimous vote?
How, how, how can you look at yourself in the mirror after you say no to Rickey in the HOF????
How is he not in the top five players of all time?
I remember when he retired there was a story about a stat for how many runs a player is responsible for and Rickey was off the chart.
Truly an amazing player, and his longevity...
Run Rickey Run!!!
I LOVE RICKY HENDERSON!!! I got in a fight with a neighbor kid over his baseball card. Top 5 of all time for sure. That was a great stat of him and Bonds Jeremy. Really speaks to the caliber of what a great hitter Ricky was. He's the full package player.
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