Rickey in the Hall

In the winter of 1998, my soon-to-be wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I replied with all of the conviction of my blue-and-orange-beating heart, "Rickey Henderson." Sure enough, Rickey signed with the Mets that December, and he was even better than I had hoped he would be; he was a leading contributor to the Mets' successful '99 campaign with 89 runs scored in just 121 games, a dozen homers, 37 steals, 82 walks, and a team-high .315 batting average--the only time in the last eight years of Rickey's career that he would bat over .250.

1999 was in many ways the last hurrah for Rickey, even though he continued to play in the big leagues until 2003, and even beyond that in the independent leagues. But Mr. Henderson had had plenty of hurrahs before that!

He is, of course, MLB's all-time leading base stealer by an almost impossible-to-fathom margin. He is also the all-time leader in runs scored and unintentional walks. He was MVP of the American League in 1990, a ten-time All-Star. He won Silver Slugger awards as well as a Gold Glove. He led his league in steals a dozen times and had a career OBP of over .400. He was almost universally regarded as the greatest leadoff hitter to ever play the game.

And now he is a Hall of Famer. Congratulations, Rickey, on your well-deserved election to the hallowed halls of Cooperstown, but you already had a better place than that in my heart … you were a Met.

A footnote on asking for players to be added to the Mets for Christmas: There have been three that I recall; Rickey was the first, and that worked out just fine. A couple of years ago, I decided to try again, and I asked for Barry Zito. That worked out well, too, when he signed with the Giants instead and flamed out to the tune of more than a hundred million dollars. Then, just this past winter, I really kind of wanted Derek Lowe, and once again came up empty. I can only hope that I will be as pleased this time, when it turns out that Oliver Perez or Freddy Garcia was really the better choice after all!

Anyway, congratulations, Rickey Henderson!