Baseball Musings: Vote for Rickey

October 07, 2008

Vote for Rickey

Louismsg makes the case for the Baseball Writers voting in Rickey Henderson unanimously.

Every year, members of the Baseball Writers Association submit their ballots to cast votes for new inductees into baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. And so far, after decades of voting, no player has entered the hall with unanimous support.
It takes 75% approval to make it in, and so far, the record is Tom Seaver, who was named on 425 of 430 ballots, for a 98.84% vote. In 2007, Cal Ripken came close, with 98.5%, and Tony Gwynn nearly matched him, gathering 97.6% of the vote.

But let me make myself clear. Whatever the reasons are for these so-called baseball experts to not vote in some of the legends of the game should be thrown away when it comes to Rickey Henderson, who deserves to go into the hall with 100% of the votes. Any writer who knowingly casts a ballot that does not include Rickey should be banned from ever voting again in the future, and they should be openly mocked, for they do not know this game.

I agree 100% with Louis. Henderson, however, won't come close to matching Seaver, Gwynn and Ripken. The private Rickey was a great teammate and a fierce competitior. The public Rickey came off as arrogant, a show boat, and someone who didn't work hard. Henderson's lack of education contributed to that. Rickey doesn't speak well, so he's a lousy interview, always referring to himself in the third person. He showed no humility after he broke Lou Brock's record. He would make snatch catches in the outfield that would make people cringe. It also seemed every spring training, Rickey would show up late.

He also suffered from a comparison to his teammate, Don Mattingly. Don was the first to the park, last to leave kind of ballplayer sports writers love so much. Rickey was more talented, but Don worked harder. Rickey should work as hard as Don. Yet, those two players got along just fine. I remember, just after Rickey was traded back to Oakland, the Yankees went to the west coast for a series with the Athletics. Before the game the cameras caught Mattingly putting balls on a tee for Rickey. It seems to me that if Rickey really was a goof off, the team leader Mattingly would not have gotten along well with the centerfielder.

I remember Tony Gwynn singing Henderson's praises in a pre-season interview on Baseball Tonight in the late 1990s. The question of Henderson returning to the Padres was asked in a way that would allow Gwynn to bash Rickey, but instead Tony lavished praise on Rickey as a great teammate and someone they needed at the top of the lineup. Even when Rickey played in the Atlantic League late in his career, his teammate loved him. He coached them, and used his wealth to make life a little easier for those players trying to make a living at the bottom of professional baseball.

He was better than Ripken or Gwynn on the field, but off the field he did a poor job of promoting himself. He deserves every vote Cal and Tony received, but won't get it. I'm guessing he comes in at 90%.

Posted by David Pinto at 08:04 AM | All-Time Greats | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Anybody who thought that Rickey "didn't work hard" was blind. In his forties the man still had the body of a Greek god. All of you in your forties know just how hard that is to keep.

Posted by: Steve H at October 7, 2008 08:49 AM

So you're saying some writer's would actually not vote for someone who--

Won an AL MVP & ALCS MVP

Won a comeback player of the year award

Was a 10-time all-star

Maintained an OBP above .400 over 13,000 PA's

Is still the career leader for RUNS SCORED...arguably the most important thing any offensive player can do - score runs. And Ty Cobb held that record for like, 1000 years before Rickey. Not Ruth, not Aaron, not Mays, not Musial, or Gerhig.

Ended career as all-time walks leader (and he's the only guy in the top 10 of that list who you really didn't want to walk but he pulled it off anyway)

Stole nearly 500 more bases than any other player

Was a crucial member of 3 World Series teams & played great in each series

He reached the 3,000 hit plateau

Is 10th in career runs created. 10th people!

...I could go on, but I'm preaching to the choir here.

Yeah, those voters should have their voting rights revoked if they make a player like that wait. If I remember right, Rickey was on the all-century team too...I doubt anyone on that team should be left off anyone's ballot.

Posted by: Devon Young at October 7, 2008 09:33 AM

Just want to echo all the other comments. Of course, there will be someone who leaves him off.

Also, if there's anything that Fire Joe Morgan has proved, it's that there are a lot of idiots in the baseball writing industry.

Posted by: Andrew C. at October 7, 2008 10:29 AM

In 1999 Ricky was Met teammate of J. Olerud who was allowed to wear helmet playing 1B because of college surgery/tumor. Next season, when Ricky joined up with Olerud on Seattle, he told Olerud:"You know, we had a guy on Mets last year who was allowed to wear helmet on the field". He didn't even know that Olerud was that teammate (they were also on '93 Jays).
In listing Ricky career stats, he leads by far in game leadoff HRs.

Posted by: Bob S at October 7, 2008 11:34 AM

Bob S.,

Just fyi Olerud had a brain aneurysm in college.

WJD

Posted by: Will D at October 7, 2008 11:51 AM

This situation of baseball writers not unanimously voting for players who clearly are Hall of Famers has bugged me for nearly 40 years now since I learned from my Scholastic book that even the first 5 Hall of Famers didn't get unanimous voting.

How can these people call themselves baseball "experts" when they leave Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, etc. off their ballot?

Yet, if you take away the vote from writers who didn't vote for a clear HoF, you will get writers who vote a player in solely because they don't want to get tossed out. You don't want that to happen either.

The best I could ever think of would be allowing writers 3 strikes (i.e. HoF votes) where they did not vote for a HoF who got at least 95% of the votes. Then they would lose their voting privilege. That would help but there would still be writers (just not as many) who then vote because they are afraid, not just because a player is deserving.

Posted by: obsessivegiantscompulsive at October 7, 2008 12:18 PM

Nice article on Rickey here: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/padres/2001-09-24-cover-henderson.htm

And the Olerud story is just that, a story, it's not true: http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=105;t=000001;p=1

That link has the whole story. This link shows that the NY Post did have this article: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nypost/access/68867610.html?dids=68867610:68867610&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+19%2C+2000&author=ANDREW+MARCHAND&pub=New+York+Post&edition=&startpage=86&desc=RICKEY+HELMET+TALE+JUST+A+JOKE

Posted by: obsessivegiantscompulsive at October 7, 2008 12:47 PM

Ricky played for Ricky. Not to win the game. He was more concerned about his stats than the outcome of the game.

I have no doubt he'll end up in the Hall. I won't argue he doesn't belong there. Can't deny the stats.

But I'd LOVE to see enough voters boycott him the 1st year to get him under 75%. A small message to all of the self-centered athletes of the world.

Besides, precedent has been set with HOF voting. If Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron were not unanimous, no way "Ricky Time" should be.

Posted by: Baseball Fan at October 7, 2008 12:50 PM

Rickey is a great player, but he's not Willie Mays. No crime is going to be committed if a few writers leave him off the ballot in his first year.
Revisionist history aside, Rickey was all about Rickey. I'm sure he always worked hard at his game, but he did and said a lot of things that would give you the impression he was loafing. He always had minor injuries that made him miss 15 to 20 games a year.

I'll never forget him complaining about a big contract he just signed. Saying it wasn't enough because some other stars had signed contracts for more money after he signed his. He didn't know if he could play as hard under those circumstances.

Rickey was never the sharpest tool in shed.

Posted by: geb4000 at October 7, 2008 01:05 PM

i hate hearing people think they should teach him a lesson by not inducting him. i like how u think that u can judge someone well enough on his personality without ever knowing him, not to mention that's a ridiculous criteria for voting someone into the hall.
plus, a side note for those who think Rickey was self-centered; did u read the article where his teammates all seemed to think he was a great teammate. it's like u just didn't even read the article.
living in the bay area, i've bumped into Rickey a couple times in public; and he always impressed me with being a kind and generous guy. this man w/a giant ego i remember seeing at the traveling hall of fame exhibit, making their bay area historical salute to baseball. the man who was most honored by the exhibit decided to attend like any other joe schmoe. he waited in line behind me to purchase his entrance ticket, and wanted to be treated no differently than anyone else. and he was patient and amazingly giving to the bothersome crowd.

Posted by: Nick at October 7, 2008 01:35 PM

In a feature story about him on CBS's 60 Minutes this past spring Bill James was asked about the Hall of Fame and his feelings about how inductees were chosen. As I recall he said the membership of the BBWOA should be told, "Thank you for your past service," and dismissed from ever having anything more to do with selection. I agree with Mr. James.

Posted by: rookie at October 7, 2008 02:19 PM

Was Rickey black? Because I don't see race, so I wonder if that -- somehow -- plays into the fact that writers liked Mattingly better. (Was Mattingly white? Remember: I don't see race.)

Posted by: Josh at October 7, 2008 04:06 PM

The whole "don't vote them in on their first year of eligibility for ______ reason" (when they were seriously better than 90% of their peers) isn't in the voting rules is it? I didn't think so. Which means that attitude & action, is against what the HOF stands for. So there's just no reason not to vote for Rickey his first time around. We're not talkin' about an Andre Dawson or Jim Rice here...Rickey's a clear cut HOFer. Anyone who doesn't vote for him, loses my respect since they didn't vote by the rules they're supposed to go by... yet they'll leave off McGwire because they're sure he didn't play by the rules he was supposed to go by. Yeah, hypocrites voting for HOF induction. I say we put the voting in the hands of the top smart baseball bloggers.

Posted by: Devon Young at October 7, 2008 11:48 PM

Bill James also had a quote about Rickey himself, when some clueless soul asked him if he thought Rickey was a Hall of Famer: "Split him in half, and you'd have *two* Hall of Famers." Man, left field is a tough position: Rickey is pretty clearly #4, with Williams, Musial, and The Barry sitting above him--but he's probably better than most of the #3 guys at other positions, and might well be better than a couple of #2 guys.

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