RICKEY HENDERSON THAT DUDE

That was not a convincing "no" he gave about Game 6 of the 2004 World Series.

I'm going to "Rickey Henderson Night" at the Oakland Coliseum.

They are going to retire his jersey in a pregame ceremony and the first 10,000 fans get a retro-jersey. I love Rickey. discus.

I love Rickey too. He had every right to call himself the greatest. Lou Brock should've stole more bases if he didn't want to witness that.

I wonder if he actually "cashed" that million-dollar check.

damn i feel guilty posting those apocryphal stories upthread after seeing that mlb network special on him from last sunday. if it comes up again near induction time (and it will), watch or tivo the shit out of it. really great interviews, touching stuff.

oh just looked it up it's this sunday they're inducting JHEAH

The Henderson special is on again at 10:30am Saturday and 6:00pm Sunday (eastern).

http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/12/d3/12d34f437efdbed5935474a5351434d414f4541.jpg

^^I owned and read this as a kid

http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/ept_sports_mlb_experts__32/ept_sports_mlb_experts-620854798-1248480943.jpg?ymwK.nBDDH7IpMnE

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Honoring-Rickey-Henderson-The-best-photos-and-q?urn=mlb,178662

^____________________________________^

"They kept that s--- a secret from me ... I wish they had told me. My God, could you imagine Rickey on 'roids? Oh, baby, look out!" — Henderson on steroids, The New Yorker, Sept. 12, 2005

Love. This. Guy.

I haven't cared about the HoF in years, but between Rickey and Rice (who was my hero when I first started watching the game), I'll even listen to Harold Reynolds today.

my god it's full of runs

old and everyone's heard it, but illest quote ever:

"If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers." — Bill James, baseball statistician

If you could split him in two, you'd have two guys who are bad at reading off of cards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSRptJ8fj-Q

http://i.imgur.com/gcutz.jpg

Extremely detailed piece by Daniel Marks that tries to sort leadoff hitters through the years into families, finishing with a ranking of the 25 greatest:

1. Rickey Henderson
2. Tim Raines
3. Kenny Lofton
4. Pete Rose
5, Paul Molitor
6. Richie Ashburn
7. Brett Butler
8. Ichiro Suzuki
9. Stan Hack
10. Craig Biggio

First thought is that the families are too specific--there's like 20 of them, when a more generalized six or seven would be more user-friendly. Carew's omission from the rankings is easily explained: he only led off 370 games. Boggs at #20 less defensible, I'd say, even with the disclaimer that "I do give a fair amount of weight to having done the job for a long time"--he led off almost 1,000 games, and ranks below a number of inferior hitters who led off somewhere between 1,000-1,300 games. Anyway, impressive piece.

http://www.billjamesonline.com/%e2%80%9clet_your_first_striker_always_be_the_coolest_hand_of_the_nine%e2%80%9d/

Sorry, didn't realize that was behind the firewall. Almost always, if it's not by James it's publicly accessible.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/cc/b3/86/ccb3863562ddcd198d62ebdd065062a6.jpg

happy rickeymas! he is 60 today

gather those rosebuds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lssLGZH9fQM

If he were to play next year, I bet he wouldn't score more than 70 runs.

well, if Mike Trout was hitting behind him...