Baseball Fever General Baseball History of the Game PDA View Full Version : Rickey Henderson Thread 12-11-2006, 12:18 PM With all these players getting threads, Rickey should probably have one too. Post whatever you have to say about Rickey Henderson. Here's something I once wrote about him:
Rickey was fun wherever he went, and the fans generally liked him. I remember when he came to the Red Sox for the 2002 season, and while he was no longer really a good player, he was nonetheless my favorite player in the world that season. I remember I was at a game and caught a ball he threw into the stands. He was awesome, I've loved him ever since. He also like many leadoff men even in his prime was a horribly underrappreciated and underrated player.
Rickey was, IMO, the best player of the 1980s, the best leadoff man of all time, and a true unique offensive force in the history of the game for his whole career. Using more sophisticated methods, he is close to the offensive equal of players like Musial who put up much more eye-catching numbers for career value. Based only on career value IMO he is easily one of the top 10 players to ever play the game.
There were also few who brought a true dynamic to the game like Rickey Henderson in his prime, and based on that I think there are few who brought as much that can't be attributed to in the numbers. Rickey in his prime years would often score a run almost half the time he got on base, and of course he was on base constantly. He was unbelieveably fast, but not quite known as the fastest in game, but no one got a better jump on the bases than Rickey. He played very smart in the outfield, always getting a great jump on the ball and using his speed to make up for his not so great arm. I think Rickey was a very underrated fielder, and the statistical metrics have confirmed this (Matt's PCA has him the best fielding LFer of all time). He always used his speed to make up for that not so great arm, and that is definitely evidenced by his assist totals, he averaged 8.8 per 162 games in the outfield. | |
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