Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 31, 2003
Where's Rickey?

It's opening day, and Rickey Henderson is not on a roster. Lots of people don't like Rickey; he's arrogant, a showboat, and he refers to himself in the third person. But I like Henderson. Unlike a lot of players in his age group (Tim Raines, Paul Molitor, Darryl Strawberry) Rickey was able to avoid scandal in his career. And if you sat at a game and watched him play, you saw a person who was in the game 100%. He stretched before each pitch when he was in the outfield so he was ready to go after a ball. He worked the count as well as anyone at the plate. His compact stance allowed him to uncoil like a spring, generating uncommon power for a leadoff man. If Rickey had never stolen a base, he still would have been the greatest leadoff man ever.

I'm going to miss him. Time to make a reservation for Cooperstown.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:58 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)