• Home
  • About
    • The Legend of Stately Beat Manor
    • Pale Green Pants Moment
    • The “Satisfying Chunk” Theory
  • Pick Heidi’s Brains!
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Resources
    • Information on How To Get Into Comics and Survive Once You’re There
    • Master Convention List
    • Tilting at Windmills Archive
    • Videos
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

The Beat

The News Blog of Comics Culture

  • Cartoonists
  • Conventions
  • News
  • Publishers
  • Showbiz
  • Sales Charts
  • Reviews
  • Video Games
You are here: Home / News / Contributors / Mark Coale / Rickey being Rickey: the greatest of all time

Rickey being Rickey: the greatest of all time

01/12/2009 2:06 pm by Mark Coale

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

rickeyhcomicCongratulations to Rickey Henderson, arguably the greatest lead-off hitter of all time, on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame today.

As someone who grew up watching baseball in the 1970s and 1980s, Henderson was just amazing. Here’s what Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski wrote on his blog about Henderson:

“I’m about give you one of my all-time favorite statistics: Rickey Henderson walked 796 times in his career LEADING OFF AN INNING. Think about this again. There would be nothing, absolutely nothing, a pitcher would want to avoid more than walking Rickey Henderson to lead off an inning. And yet he walked SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY SIX times to lead off an inning.
He walked more times just leading off in an inning than Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg and more than 50 other Hall of Famers walked in their entire careers…I simply cannot imagine a baseball statistic more staggering.”

Of course, Henderson is known not just for his on-the-field accomplishments, but his quirky behavior off the field. Some of the stories about Rickey are true (“tenure?”, framing a million dollar check) and some are apocryphal (the John Olerud story).

And Jim Rice finally gets in on his last chance on the ballot. We’ll let New Englanders like The Beat discuss the merits of him being elected.

Rickey got 94.8% of the vote and Rice got 76.4%. Sadly, no election for Andre Dawson (67%) or Bert Blyleven (62.7%). The shameful percentage for Tim Raines is just shocking.

Also congratulations to Tony Kubek, for winning the Ford Frick award for broadcasters. As a kid, I always preferred watching Costas and Kubek on NBC to Vin Sculley and Joe Garagiola, even though he was a former Yankee.

Posted by Mark Coale

Mark Coale

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Mark Coale

Comments

  1. Bon Alimagno says

    01/12/2009 2:20 pm at 2:20 pm

    There was a pre-backlash against those who stated they wouldn’t vote for Ricky on the first ballot and some have gone out of their way to defend themselves. I can’t believe 5.2% of these people wouldn’t vote for him.

    Loading...
  2. Peter Krause says

    01/12/2009 2:33 pm at 2:33 pm

    Henderson is a no-brainer, the greatest leadoff guy of all time. How could you not vote for him, unless you harbor some personal grudge?

    As far as Rice, congrats to him, although I’d have preferred that Blyleven and Raines would have attained Hall status.

    Loading...
  3. Captain Aardvark says

    01/12/2009 3:48 pm at 3:48 pm

    “I can’t believe 5.2% of these people wouldn’t vote for him.”

    Well, it would be such a horrible thing for anyone to get 100% of the vote if no one ever has, wouldn’t it? So say the writers, so goes the voting.

    Loading...
  4. Blackeye says

    01/12/2009 3:54 pm at 3:54 pm

    Remember when Rickey was going for the base stealing record, and he had to always wear the Oakley sunglasses? That seemed a little like a sell-out. I think it was this sort of self promoting that alienated him from several people. I don’t think you could ever say he was humble or endearing.

    Loading...
  5. Scott says

    01/12/2009 4:00 pm at 4:00 pm

    Does Ricky Henderson have a comic coming out? Why is this on the blog? The Babymen don’t care about baseball hall of fame crap…

    Loading...
  6. mark coale says

    01/12/2009 4:12 pm at 4:12 pm

    Ha.

    I posted a picture of that rickey comic specifically to thwart the “why is this on the beat” contingent.

    [Raspberry]

    Loading...
  7. SpyBoy says

    01/12/2009 4:41 pm at 4:41 pm

    Any idea as to what he’s going in as? I would assume an “Am” but he’s played with so many teams.

    Loading...
  8. SpyBoy says

    01/12/2009 4:42 pm at 4:42 pm

    Oops, I meant to type “A.” Damn fingers.

    Loading...
  9. Jeff says

    01/12/2009 6:08 pm at 6:08 pm

    Man, you forget how colorful baseball used to be. I love it still, but in a homogenized era of obscene contracts with private jet and penthouse hotel room clauses, Joe Buck’s ignorant boring and banal telecasting, and kids groomed to be big leaguers from the cradle, the sport has lost a lot of personality. Manny can be all the Manny he wants- he’s peanuts compared to Rickey, who deserved to be in the Hall, and 100% of the vote, for sheer entertainment-of-character value alone.

    “Kevin, this is Rickey. Calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”

    Being one of the five greatest baseball players of all time doesn’t hurt, either.

    Loading...
  10. Mark Coale says

    01/12/2009 6:09 pm at 6:09 pm

    I would presumeas as a member of the “A’s,” since he set many of his records with them, during his various times with the team.

    Loading...
  11. Jennifer de Guzman says

    01/12/2009 8:21 pm at 8:21 pm

    He’s better go in as an Athletic! He broke the base-stealing record as an A. He is one of the superheroes of my childhood. Rickey was not a humble ball player, but there was such fun in his cockiness. He would get on base, and you KNEW something was going to happen and no one would be able to do a thing about it. And then he’d talk about what he did in third person! Is there anyone in baseball like Rickey now?

    Loading...
  12. ~chris says

    01/12/2009 8:47 pm at 8:47 pm

    As an Angels fan who therefore always rooted against the A’s, I have to say that Rickey darn well belongs in the Hall of Fame, and as an Athletic.

    Loading...
  13. Scott Dunbier says

    01/12/2009 9:34 pm at 9:34 pm

    I used to share season tickets with a friend back in the 80s at Yankee Stadium. Our seats were halfway between third base and the wall, two rows off the field–a perfect spot to watch Ricky’s antics. He was the most dynamic player I’ve ever seen. The Yankees didn’t win any titles then but it was a joy to behold players like Ricky Henderson (Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly).

    Loading...

HIVEWORKS

Our Sponsors

Load More...
Follow on Instagram

Hot Now!

  • This new Nancy strip is lit – and it’s got people on the internet going crazy
  • Infographic: Which MCU movies cost the most money and made the most money?
  • My MCU Rewatch: Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man – The Last Temptation of Joss Whedon and Edgar Wright
  • All about WICOMICON and other events taking the place of Universal Fan Con
  • EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: A rogue Beast Boy turns against his friends in TEEN TITANS #19
  • My MCU Rewatch: Guardians of the Galaxy Vols. 1 & 2 – When We Love Too Much

Search

CONTACT THE BEAT!!!

Send us news, tips and links!

More Sponsors

Join our mailing list!

Sign up here for our very rare and special mailing list!
Text graphic for The Beat's Sales Chart archives
free comics, free comics on the beat, a year of free comics
artists you should know

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2018 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: