The super hero awards or in pro terms, All Stars. Baseball is a game I’ve played for a long series of my youth and was disenfranchised by several coaches to continue with the skills I had. It’s very unfortunate when you have adults that don’t encourage kids because they themselves have inadequacies in their home or personal life. I dye grass…
The ballot for the All Star vote was released last month, and the obvious choice was always Ricky Henderson. To make a case for Ricky is an insult to anyone with remote knowledge of the game. He’s the all time leader in stolen bases and runs scored and second in base on balls with 2190. Not because he was one of the first star ball players I remember having fun watching when I’d go to the Safeway bar-b-que days at Oakland park but because he’s truly the best. In fact, his 1406 stolen bases are 468 more than the next closest player. His .401 OBP combined with his 297 career HRs are a rare combination of speed and power that deserve to be honored with an unanimous vote. Ricky was voted in today without a doubt.
The other side of the spectrum was Jim Rice, the left field, single franchise Red Sox player who’s been on the ballot now for 15 years. This was his last shot to get in the Fame, and I think it was that fact alone that people threw him some sympathy votes, but despite having quite a few of his ball cards, as a product of Fenway, I don’t really believe he belongs there. Congrats no the less Rice.
Best. Rickey. Henderson. Stories. Ever:
In no particular order:
- Rickey the diplomat: When Rickey broke Lou Brock’s all-time Stolen Base record, Brock had given up his own time to come to the game and stand next to Rickey for the presentation. Rickey addressed the crowd: “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.”
- Rickey, friend to the little people: With the Mets in 1999, Rickey asked a teammate why there were so many reporters around and he was told the team had fired Tom Robson. “Who’s he?” Rickey replied Robson was the Mets hitting coach.
- Rickey the Wizard of Wall St. The A’s accounting department was in a panic because their books were off by a million bucks. The source of the discrepancy was Rickey, who had taken a $1 million bonus check and instead of cashing it, framed it.
- Rickey the Wizard of Wall St. Part II: He once held onto a bonus check rather than cash it because he was “waiting for the rates to go up.”
- Rickey the geographer: He once asked a teammate how long it would take to drive to the Dominican Republic.
- Rickey the geography, Part II: His apartment had a “view of the Entire State Building.”
- Third person Rickey: He once left Padres GM Kevin Towers this voicemail: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”
- Rickey the linguist: When he was looking for a seat on the Padres bus, Steve Finley said “You can sit anywhere you want. You’ve got tenure.” To which Rickey replied “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”
- Classy Rickey: When he broke Ty Cobb’s All Time Runs Scored record on a home run, he took full minute to round the bases then slid home.
- Rickey the mathematician: When Ken Caminiti said that 50% of ballplayers were juicing, Rickey said “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”
- Gracious Rickey: At the end of his days with the Sox, Tom Werner offered him a car as a going away present and Rickey said he wanted John Henry’s Mercedes. Not the same make and model. He wanted John Henry’s car.. So the team presented him with a red Thunderbird and when he saw it Rickey said “Who’s ugly car is on the field?”
- My all time favorite Rickey story that turns out not to be true even though I wish it was: Legend has it that when he was with the Mets, Rickey asked John Olerud why he wears a helmet in the field and Olerud explained how he had had an aneurysm and had to as a precaution. “Man,” Rickey supposedly said, “I was with Toronto last year and we had a guy with the same thing!” And Olerud said “That would be me.” Too bad both men deny it ever happened.
- But a true story of Rickey, great teammate: His locker was next to Billy Beane’s, but Beane got sent down to the minors. After a few months, Beane got called back up to the bigs. Six weeks after his call up Rickey said “Hey, man, where have you been? Haven’t seen you in awhile.”