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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1781252, member: 289"] THE PLAYERS RICKY HENDERSON was baseball’s greatest lead-off hitter, greatest base stealer and greatest run-scorer and boy, did he know it. He had already been making headlines since he arrived in the big leagues in 1979. In his second season, (and first full one), he hit .303, walked 117 times and stole 100 bases. In 1982 he broke Lou Brock’s single season stolen base record with 130. Later he would break Bock’s career record for steals with Brock present, at which time he said “Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But today, I'm the greatest of all time.” He was right, but…. Henderson batted from a crouch, causing Jim Murray to say that Henderson’s strike zone was "smaller than Hitler's heart". That didn’t prevent him from hitting for power. He hit, 510 doubles 66 triples and 297 home runs for a total of 873 extra base hits. And, of course, most of his incredi8ble 1,406 steals turned singles into doubles so he had the equivalent of over 2,000 extra base hits. Mickey Mantle had 952 homers and 153 steals, so he had about half as many. Using my “base production” stat, Henderson produced 8,184 bases to Mickey’s 6,397 and produced 3,113 runs to Mantle’s 2,649. Of course Ricky played in an incredible 25 years to Mickey’s 18. But that longevity is to his credit. Rickey had a flashy style, using Willie Mays’ “basket catch but adding a Zorro-like flourish by whipping his hand behind his back after the catch. He honored Mays by wearing his #24 while he played in Oakland and even later with the Mets, even though Willie’s number had supposedly been retired there. Bill James once said of Henderson, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers." Maybe that’s why Rickey always referred to himself in the third person. I remember he once signed a $3 million a year contract, the richest in baseball at the time. Then somebody else signed a contract for more than that. He sourly said something about “wanting to be respected” and demanded a contract that would make him the highest paid player in baseball, no matter what someone else got: he wanted his contract increased to put him back in the lead, so he would be appropriately ‘respected’. What if two players had such a contract? Henderson’s greatest years came when he was leading off for the Yankees and DON MATTINGLY was batting third. Those were also Mattingly’s greatest years. They made a great pair. But Henderson’s peregrinations and Mattingly’s back made their partnership too brief. In 1985, Henderson scored a career and decade high 146 runs while Mattingly had a career high and decade high 145 RBIs. One must conclude that a large percentage of those RBIs were runs Henderson cored and a large percentage of Henderson’s runs were driven in by Mattingly. Don was a native of Indiana and great admirer of Larry Bird. So much so he got a bad back just like Bird and it curtailed his career, just like Bird. Like Bird, he got a reputation as the best player in the game in his brief period of excellence. Unlike Bird, Don, despite being a Yankee, never played on a championship team and isn’t in the Hall of Fame, both of which are a shame. (Actually, the bad back was involuntary, supposedly the result of some clubhouse horseplay with pitcher Bob Shirley.) Don was the All-American guy who made good in the big town. Bill James says this about Gil Hodges but bring Mattingly into the discussion: “A genuinely beloved player. How many players from each generation are genuinely beloved, all around the country? Three or four I would say; the public always wants to embrace players but the embrace is stifling and uncomfortable and most players break free of it as quickly as they can. Only a few players are comfortable accepting the public’s adoration, and trying to meet the standard of conduct that goes along with the expectations of being the Nation’s Son. Ken Griffey, Cal Ripken, Sammy Sosa, (he was writing in 2000), Kirby Puckett and Don Mattingly in this generation. In the last, Yogi, Musial.” Don had a quiet start to his career. He was a 19th round draft pick of average size, (6-0 175), and was a .300+ hitter throughout a 4+ year minor league career but with single-digit home run power. He had a 7 game cup of coffee in 1982 and hit .283 with 4 home runs in 91 games in ’83. Then came his great battle with teammate Dave Winfield for the 1984 batting title, which the much lesser-known Mattingly won .343 to .340. Don also hit 23 home runs, (while striking out only 33 times) and drove in 110 runs, scoring 91. Then came Henderson and the huge year for both of them in 1985. Don hit .324 and upped his home run total to 35, a career high, (with 41 strikeouts). I remember Mattingly launching a bunch of powerful drives into those right field seats, several of them into the upper deck. It was like each one was a replay of the last one. The next year he blasted 238 hits 53 of them doubles and 31 of them home runs, (35 skos). He hit a career high .352 and drove in 113 runs, (Henderson scored 130). The next year he had that 8 home runs in 8 games streak that tied a record set by Dale Long back in the 50’s. But he also missed 21 games. But he still hit .327 with 30 homers, (38 skos) and 115 RBIs.( Henderson scored 78 in 95 games). In 1988 Don’s power output dropped to 18 homers, (29 skos), and 88 RBIs but he still hit .311. (Henderson scored 118 in 140 games). Don ended the decade with his last big year, hitting .303 with 23 home runs, (30skos), and 113 RBI’s. Henderson was traded in mid-season and Don’s back was beginning to become a problem. The great years were over. Don played for 6 more years but only hit .300 once, (.304 in 2004). He hit a total of 58 home runs in those years, with a high of 17. He never drove in more than 86 runs. He continue to field his positon, (1st base), excellently, winning a total of 9 gold gloves. The Yankees had the best record in the American league in 1994- but there was no post season. The next year the Yankees made the playoffs for the first time in Don’s career. They lost in 5 games to the Mariners. The Yankees obtained Tino Martinez from the Mariners to replace him. Don sat out the 1986 season without a contract and then decided to formalize his retirement. He watched Martinez and the Yankees win 4 World Series in five years. Many Yankee fans felt that that would have been a wonderful way for Don to have finished his career. Instead Martinez, who had similar home run and RBI numbers but who never hit .300 or won a Gold Glove and struck out 2-3 times as much as Mattingly, got the glory. I remember reading an extensive Bill James article comparing Mattingly to his exact contemporary and rival, Wade Boggs. Both hit for high averages. Boggs walked more but both scored lot of runs. Mattingly had more power and far more RBIs. Mattingly had 9 Gold Gloves to 2. But James concluded that Boggs was the greater player because he was better than the typical third baseman by more than Mattingly was the typical first baseman. I didn’t understand that then and don’t now. When a player is at the plate, he’s not a first baseman or a third baseman. He’s a hitter and Mattingly was clearly a more productive hitter than Boggs. Third base may be the more difficult positon but 9 Gold Gloves is more than 9. Don was clearly the finest baseball player of the 1980’s. He was the best Yankee first baseman since Lou Gehrig and probably the best in all of baseball since Gehrig. And that should put him in the Hall of Fame. I might have sounded like a Yankee fan in describing Don Mattingly, but I’m actually a Mets fan. And we had a first baseman of our own, KEITH HERNANDEZ. Keith was never quite the hitter Mattingly was but he was a very good hitter, hitting .300 seven times including .344 when he won the batting title for the Cardinals back in 1979, (when he should have been the sole MVP as his numbers were clearly better than Willie Stargell). He also hit .299, .297, .292 and .291 in different seasons and finished with a lifetime batting average of .296. He had decent home run power, hitting between 10 and 18 ten times and 162 for his career. I’ve always said a double was more than half a home run, (it clears the bases and puts the batter in scoring positon) and Keith hit a ton them, as many as 48 in one season. He didn’t have much speed but hit as many as 11 triples in a season. He walked a lot, 100 times in his best season. He had only one 100 RBI season but was 90+ five other times. But his hitting, as good as it was, wasn’t what made Keith special. He was the greatest defensive first baseman in history, winning 11 gold gloves, the most of any first baseman in history. But even that statistic doesn’t measure his impact on the game. Before Keith came along. first basemen tended to be big, lumbering power hitters who lacked the speed to play in the outfield or the quickness and dexterity to play the other infield positions. His job was to provide a big target for throws and hit home runs. But Keith proved that the position could be a defensive plus if an athletic player played it aggressively. He was the Brooks Robinson of the right side of the infield, gobbling up bunts, catching line drives, diving to keep balls in the infield and he was the master of the 3-6-3 double play.” Pete Rose, when he managed the Cincinnati Reds, compared bunting against Hernandez to "driving the lane against Bill Russell." (Wikipedia) Since Keith came along, managers and general managers have sought out players who could not just hit to play first base, but players who really knew how to play the position. Keith won rings with two great teams: the 1982 Cardinals and the 1986 Mets. He’s remembered as an on-the-field leader, almost a second manager, getting everyone organized, joining in conferences on the mound. When the Met lost leaders like Keith, Ray Knight and Gary Carter, their slump from the great years they had in the 80’s, (they averaged 95 wins a year from 1984-90: the second place major league team over that time was the Tigers, who averaged 87) to the dismal performances of the early 90’s (59-103). But Keith isn’t in the Hall of Fame either, although his current prominence as a broadcaster with the Mets may give him a shot with the veteran’s committee as it keeps him in the public eye. But Keith had a downside, too. In high school he sat out a year over a dispute with his manger. He had trouble getting along with White Herzog in St. Louis, who “considered him a bad influence on younger players”. One of the reasons was that Keith’s name came up in the drug trials in Pittsburgh where it was suggested that not only used but distributed cocaine. “The players received season-long suspensions, that were commuted on condition that they donated ten percent of their base salaries to drug-abuse programs, submitted to random drug testing, and contributed 100 hours of drug-related community service.” (Wikipedia). He was traded from the championship-level Cardinals to the moribund Mets, a development that so disturbed him that he considered quitting the game, (at age 29). He was persuaded that the Mets were bringing up some good young players and would be contenders. He later called the trade “a refreshing change and said it "reenergized" him because of the "young talent, young guys that were hungry". Hernandez became the poster-boy for the "party hard; play harder" Mets of the '80s.” (Wikipedia). But he was named team captain, the first in franchise history. “In 2006 Hernandez became bogged down by a controversy when he complained about the presence of a female trainer being allowed in the San Diego Padres dugout. He apologized after a barrage of criticism; other women involved in baseball remarked that Hernandez had been known for sexist comments since his days as a player.” (BaseballRefernce.com) it may be that Keith has simply rubbed a few too many people the wrong way during the course of his career and that has come home to roost in his Hall of Fame voting. But he was certainly a great baseball player. The Mets have had eras, defined by their roller-coaster success rates over their history. In the early 60’s they were the lovable, losers, a tragi-comedy of baseball. Then they because our all-time Cinderella Story, followed by several years of contention and another World Series appearance. Then came a long stretch of being unloveably bad. The team began to pull out of that when Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday bought the team in 1980 and began to use their humble position in the standings to accumulate talent in the draft. This produced many good players but two supreme talents: DARRYL STRAWBERRY and DWIGHT GOODEN. They seemed equivalents of each other on the field. Strawberry hit more long home runs than any player I have ever seen, (of course I was watching the Mets regularly, but, still, it was impressive to watch): [MEDIA=youtube]Q6mhp5ihZrM[/MEDIA] Meanwhile Gooden was putting on his own power display from the mound. He was the greatest young pitcher since Bob Feller and was named “Dr. K” the way Julius Erving, then the most admired basketball player, was “Dr. J”.: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p8zooAV1Js"]Dwight Gooden 1985 Cy Young Season Highlights![/URL] When the Mets added quality veterans like Hernandez, Carter and Knight, “gamers” like Wally Backman, Jesse Orosco and Mookie Wilson and other young talent like Lenny Dykstra, Kevin Mitchell, Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez, the Mets became a dominant team and with the top young hitter and top pitcher in the game, the potential to dominate for years. Darryl and Dwight were different off the field: Strawberry was moody and confrontational, with a clique of people he trusted around him. Dwight was quiet and reserved but friendly but with a hit of the insecurity that would be his downfall. Darryl never quite became the player he could have been. People were comparing his swing to Ted Williams and the admiring the power he could generate with those long, muscular arms. But Ted Williams hit .344 lifetime with and on-base percentage of .482 and a slugging percentage of .634. 19.6% of his hits were home runs and he averaged 1.36 strike outs per home run. Darryl hit .259 lifetime with a .357 OBP and .505 SP. 23.9% of his hits were home runs but he averaged 4.04 strike outs per home run. You might say that comparing anyone to Ted Williams is unfair but Darryl was supposed to be a “generational player”, meaning that you had to compare him to players from other generations to be fair. In the field there was a patch of dirt in right field where Strawberry insisted on standing for every batter. He’d catch the balls hit to that spot but was otherwise more of a “retriever” than a fielder. He had the physical capabilities to be a great hitter and a great all-around player, but not the desire. He figured hitting an occasional long home run was enough. It wasn’t. Dwight, on the other hand, did become everything he could be as pitcher- briefly. His 1985 year was one of the great in baseball history: 24-4, 268-59 strikeouts to walks and a 1.53 ERA. I remember people were saying that it was Michael Jordan in basketball and Dwight Gooden in baseball. “Doc” was poised to be the face of the game for the team or the era. But, while the Mets had an all-conquering regular season in 1986, something seemed wrong with their star pitcher. He went 17-6, 200-80 and 2.80. People said that you can’t expect a season like ’85 to be repeated. But if a hitter has a big year, people expect him to do it again. In his post season debut, against the Astros and Red Sox, he went 0-3, (in fact, his career post season record is 0-4). He missed the team’s victory parade because nobody could find him. He was arrested in December for fighting with Tampa police and tested positive for cocaine in spring training 1987. He entered drug rehab to avoid a suspension. From then on drugs and baseball would vie control of Gooden’s life and that’s never a fair contest. He remained a Met through 1994 but after his great 1985 season he averaged 13 wins a year for the Mets, including a 25-32 record his last three years. Then he began his journey around baseball, trying to extend his career through a series of comebacks with the Yankees, the Indians, the Astros, the Rays, etc. There were highlights, such as a 1996 no-hitter, but his overall record in those last five seasons was 49-37. He was accused to rape in 1991, tested positive for cocaine again 1994 and was accused of having the clubhouse attendant supply ‘his’ urine samples, After his career ended in 2000, he was arrested for DUI in 2002, for driving without a license in 2003, DUI and resisting in 2005 and violating probation in 2006, which got him 7 months in prison. “He then accepted a position as a spring training instructor with the Mets, but backed down without offering an explanation; one of his tasks would have been to counsel young players about the dangers and temptations of playing in New York. On March 24, 2010, he was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, child endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident after an automobile accident at 9:00 a.m. in Franklin Lakes, NJ.” (Baseball reference.com.) Injuries also played a role in Gooden’s decline and they certainly did in Strawberry’s. The Mets let him go after a highly productive 1990 season, (37 home runs, 108 RBIs), because they viewed him as a malcontent. He had a good 1991 for the Dodgers, hitting 28HR and driving in 99 runs. He played in 100 games only once the rest of his career: 101 for the 1998 Yankees. From 1992 through his last year, 1999, he played in a total of only 335 games of a possible 1,231 in those years. He tested positive for cocaine in 1995 and was suspended. At one point in his rehabilitation he was playing for the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League. To add to his problems he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1998. In 2007, he was convicted of tax evasion. Since then, he’s become a born-again Christian and has turned his life around. Gooden wound up with 194 wins and Strawberry with 335 home runs but both seemed destined for much better things than that. Neither will ever be in the Hall of Fame, yet they were among the greatest talents in this history of their positions. Before Darryl: [IMG]http://www.rantsports.com/mlb/files/2014/09/Darryl-Strawberry-New-York-Mets-.jpg[/IMG] Dwight: [IMG]http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/width620/img/mets_main/photo/doc-goodenjpg-a27a0505d2fecc62.jpg[/IMG] After Darryl: [IMG]http://www.totalprosports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/darryl-strawberry-athletes-sports-personalities-caught-with-hookers.jpg[/IMG] Dwight: [IMG]http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.11020105.1446034112!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_768/image.png[/IMG] (He looks painfully thin every time I see him these days.) Just as you can’t talk about Darryl Strawberry without talking about Dwight Gooden, you also can discuss Strawberry without talking about his childhood friend, ERIC DAVIS, who became a big star with the Cincinnati Reds. Bill James listed the similarities: - They were both born in the spring of 1962 - They were both born and raised in Los Angeles. - They were both childhood friends. - They were both drafted in 1980. - Both struck out a great deal. - They did not hit for a good average but are 8th and 9th, (as of 2000, when he wrote this), among all listed outfielders in secondary average because of their walks, stolen bases and power. (Secondary average is “sum of extra bases gained on hits, walks, and stolen bases, less times caught stealing, depicted per at bat.” Wikipedia) - They have both been injured and out of the lineup for long periods of time in many seasons but… - …are both among the 50 best players at their positon, despite the career interruptions. - They are both cancer survivors. Pete Rose: Having Eric is like having an atomic bomb sitting next to you in the dugout. Ray Miller: “When he goes into the game, something is going to happen.” Washington Post: “…and then there is Eric Davis, who may be a better baseball player than any of them, when he is healthy.” Davis exploded onto the scene in 1986 when he hit 27 homers and stole 80 bases for the reds. The next year he got off to a huge start and seemed like he might become the first ever 50-50 man, (home runs-steals), but tailed off in the second half of the season. Still, he .293 with 37 homers, 50 steals, 100RBIs and 120 runs scored. Unlike he pal Strawberry, he was a dynamic center fielder as well and was recognized as the best player in the National League and maybe in the game. That was his best season but he continued to be one of the most productive players in baseball through 1990, when his Reds shocked the baseball world with a sweep of the defending champion Oakland A’s. But in the fourth game, he dove for a ball and lacerated a kidney. That and a knee injury required an operation in the off season. He only played 85 games in 1991 and all he could do is bat .235 with 11 homers. He was traded to the Dodgers, by now viewed as ‘damaged goods’. His reunion with Strawberry couldn’t overcome further injuries and he played in only 76 games, batting .228 with 5 home runs in 1992. The Dodgers traded him to the Tigers, for whom he could play in only 60 games in two years. Eric was totally out of baseball in 1995. But he made a successful comeback back in his old stomping grounds in Cincinnati in 1996, playing 129 games and hitting .287 with 26 home runs and 23 steals. It was as if he’d never left. But he left again for the Baltimore Orioles in 1987. Amazingly, like his friend Strawberry, he was diagnosed with colon cancer after batting .304 with 8 homers in only 42 games. He beat the cancer and came back in 1998, having one of his best seasons, hitting .327 with 28 homers . But the injuries made a comeback and in his final three seasons he played for the Cardinals and Giants but only in 224 of a possible 486 games. He wound up with a .269 career average, 282 home runs and 349 steals. Paul O’Neill, a teammate on the Reds said of Eric Davis: "the best hitter, best runner, best outfielder, best everything" he ever saw. Those Athletics teams were really something, winning 486 games and losing 324 in the regular season from 1988-1992, an even .600 winning percentage. They won four AL West titles, three pennants and the 1989 World Series. Their most famous players were the “bash brothers”, JOSE CANSECO and MARK MCGWIRE. Canseco came up late in the 1985 season and hit .302 with 5 home runs in in 29 games. In his first full season, 1986, he hit only .240 with 175 strike-outs but he did hit 33 home runs and drive in 117 runs. People were amazed at his physique. He was 6-4 and weighed 240 well-sculpted pounds. I remember Mickey Mantle saying he stood next to Canseco and felt small. The next year even the mighty Canseco go put in the shadows as 6-5 250 Mark McGwire set a rookie record with 49 home runs He only struck out 131 times, managed to bat.289 and drive in 118 RBIs. I remember being impressed with his swing, which seems powerful but so easy and smooth. Jose basically duplicated his rookie year: .257-31-113 with 157 skos. He took the attention back from McGwire in 12988 by becoming baseball’s first 40-40 man with 42 home runs and 42 steals as the A’s won 104 games but got upset by the Dodgers in the World Series. Jose hit a career high .307, drove in 122 runs and scored 120. He was injured in 1989 and played only 65 games but the next two years he clobbered 37 and then 44 home runs. In 1992 he had 22 home runs in 97 games when he was suddenly traded to the Texas Rangers, (the trade came through while he was in the on-deck circle). Off the field incidents may have contributed: two 1989 arrests for “reckless driving after allegedly leading an officer on a 15-mile chase” and “carrying a loaded semi-automatic pistol in his car” and a 1992 arrest for “for allegedly ramming his then-wife Esther's BMW with his Porsche”. (Wikipedia) Canseco: “"I guess the club figured it needed pitching or maybe the fans tired of Jose Canseco," he said. "Maybe I wore out my welcome, but I hope they miss me as a player and person.” (Los Angeles Times) McGwire had hit 31, 33 and 39 home runs from 1988-90 but had an awful year in 1991, hitting only .201 with 22 home runs. ”Manager Tony La Russa sat him out the final game of the season to avoid allowing his batting average to dip below .200…. McGwire stated in an interview with Sports Illustrated that 1991 was the "worst year" of his life, with his on-field performance and marriage difficulties, and that he "didn't lift a weight" that entire season.” He came back strong the next year with 42 home runs and 104 RBIs. Then he started to have problems with his feet and only played 178 games the next three seasons. But he hit 57 home runs in those games, a sign of things to come. We now know how Canseco and McGwire got so big and strong, but that’s a story for another decade. [/QUOTE]

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