2024 MLB Thread

[monkeytargets39]

ESPN.com has no mention of this still….

[lordstanley]

3 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

ESPN.com has no mention of this still….

Weird, isn't it. Not only not on the main page, but not even on its MLB page. Staffers responsible for baseball must have already broken for Christmas

[Tiger337]

Rickey was one of the most exciting athletes I have ever seen.  He was cocky, but he totally backed it up with his performance. 

65 is pretty young.  Who would have thought that such a physical specimen would go so early.  You never know.    

[Motor City Sonics]

Great Rickey story.   

When Rickey and John Olerud were teammates with the Mariners.   Rickey commented about Olerud wearing the helmet while out in the field by saying

RH "I had a teammate with the Mets that used to do that"

JO "That was me"

RH  "I'll be damned"

(it was the season before).  

 

[Tenacious D]

Very few players will ever be replicated.  He and Ted Williams.  Short list.

[Shinzaki]

Saw Henderson play in Tiger Stadium in his first full year...1980.  What an amazing talent..

[papalawrence]

Santana back to Cleveland. Naylor traded to AZ

[monkeytargets39]

Guardindians are blowing it up a bit

[Tenacious D]

3 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Guardindians are blowing it up a bit

If true, time to capitalize.

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, Tenacious D said:

If true, time to capitalize.

It's a very winnable division.  

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, papalawrence said:

Santana back to Cleveland. Naylor traded to AZ

Only 27. Seems like he's already been around forever. Maybe because he looks 40....

😉

[IdahoBert]

I have a Henderson story. A friend of mine had front row box seats in Oakland in the pre- Bash Brothers era and we would take the BART and arrive early to the game.

One time Rickey was standing near us and his eyes and mine locked and he stared me down because he was competitive in everything, even with a meaningless spectator like me. He was a pretty dominating guy on a personal level, let alone on the field.

I think I inadvertently received this kind of treatment due to proximity because my friend with the season tickets would scream Ricky's name when he would take the field. RIK-EEEEEEeeeee and Henderson would always give him a dirty look until it became "a thing" between them...Sometimes Rickey would give him the look before the scream.

Henderson also played his first season in Boise, Idaho, my fair city, in 1976 with the A’s Northwest League club and they played on the high school baseball field behind Borah High. Kind of an inauspicious way to start a HOF career. That was 11 years before I moved here and I don’t know anyone who went to those games and saw him play. 

[monkeytargets39]

2 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

If true, time to capitalize.

Naylor, Gimenez, Boyd, Morgan and Sandlin all moved and all they’ve really brought in is Horowitz and Carlos Santana.

[chasfh]

19 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Henderson's speed and athletic ability was off the charts. There may have been better players to play the game, but he has to be one the fastest and most athletic to do it. RIP Ricky Henderson.

Definitely one of the fifteen greatest players in modern baseball history, and he doesn’t get talked about in those exact terms enough.

I think too many people get caught up in his whole refers-to-himself-in-the-third-person thing, which might take a bit of the shine off his star for them, but really, you could count the number of players who were as complete as he was on the fingers of one hand.

[papalawrence]

A few times in my life I've been asked what player would I choose from Henderson's era to start a franchise and I've always said Rickey. If it were any player in their prime it would be between Henderson and mid 70s Joe Morgan. Both were so electric and could rattle pitchers with their speed. When they came up everyone took notice. Mike Schmidt would also be up on my list

[oblong]

20 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

 

65 is pretty young.  Who would have thought that such a physical specimen would go so early.  You never know.    

It’s funny how perception works. I was born in 73 so while my earliest memories of baseball involve Fidrych when I really began to pay attention and collect stickers (the sticker books were big for a few years) Rickey was huge. He was also pretty young. So I always assumed he was older. 65 seemed young to me since I am only 51. But when my wife found out he was 65 her reaction was the opposite.  She knew of him later in life. She’s thinking of 1990 Rickey Henderson.  That is when she met me of course. 

[Tenacious D]

3 hours ago, chasfh said:

Definitely one of the fifteen greatest players in modern baseball history, and he doesn’t get talked about in those exact terms enough.

I think too many people get caught up in his whole refers-to-himself-in-the-third-person thing, which might take a bit of the shine off his star for them, but really, you could count the number of players who were as complete as he was on the fingers of one hand.

Truly unique, though.  Not sure who a comp for him would be.  

[Shinzaki]

I like the Morgan comp as they both had the hit for power and average and had a lot of speed...they also won pretty much wherever they went

Edited December 22, 2024 by Shinzaki

[CMU97]

I have a second hand Ricky story. In 1988 a high school teammate of mine got to be a clubhouse boy for the Yankees for a series in Detroit.  His dad and Billy Martin were friends, and Martin invited the family down for the weekend. My friend was basically a gofer and picked up dirty towels, but he had the time of his life. The Yankees had their traveling clubhouse guy, and Detroit had their visitor's clubhouse guy who did most of the work but Donnie and another kid got to hang around and do the unwanted jobs. At the end of the series, Donnie asked the players to sign a ball for him. All did without hesitation. Except  for Ricky.  

It is a custom at the end of a series for the visiting team to tip the clubhouse guys. Since Donnie was just there helping for free, he didn't expect anything but a few guys did give him some (not a lot) of money. Except for  Ricky. 

Here is the story: Donnie asked him to sign the team ball, and Ricky said no, but gave him a $100 bill. Which was way, way more then anyone  else did. Donnie was shocked, and quite didn't know what to do, so he said, "thank you very much Mr. Henderson, but I really only wanted your autograph." Rickey took the money and Donnie's pen,  signed the $100 bill, and said, "there you go".  Donnie was in shock, said thank you, and walked away. Other players and Ricky started laughing,  and he said he was just joking, and then he signed the baseball. Donnie got to keep the autographed $100 bill and has an awesome story.

The postscript to this story is the Tigers swept that series,  and Martin was fired for the 5th and final time by Stienbrener the following morning. 

 

[oblong]

I remember that series.  The media was all congregated at the Hyatt in Dearborn and kept doing reports from the lobby. 
 

I almost got to be a clubhouse kid or bat boy for the Red Sox but I wasn’t 16. My sister had a connection somehow and said at work that day they were looking for someone. 

[Tiger337]

3 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

I like the Morgan comp as they both had the hit for power and average and had a lot of speed...they also won pretty much wherever they went

Morgan is the one who comes to my mind too.  

[casimir]

8 hours ago, oblong said:

It’s funny how perception works. I was born in 73 so while my earliest memories of baseball involve Fidrych when I really began to pay attention and collect stickers (the sticker books were big for a few years) Rickey was huge. He was also pretty young. So I always assumed he was older. 65 seemed young to me since I am only 51. But when my wife found out he was 65 her reaction was the opposite.  She knew of him later in life. She’s thinking of 1990 Rickey Henderson.  That is when she met me of course. 

Oh, those sticker books from Topps?  Those must have come to be due to the more broad sticker collecting craze of the time.  Yeah, I think I’d have enough money to buy the annual book and then maybe a few packs and that’d be it.  I should have just stuck with the traditional baseball cards (which, ok, I don’t have those anymore either).

[IdahoBert]

4 hours ago, CMU97 said:

I have a second hand Ricky story. In 1988 a high school teammate of mine got to be a clubhouse boy for the Yankees for a series in Detroit.  His dad and Billy Martin were friends, and Martin invited the family down for the weekend. My friend was basically a gofer and picked up dirty towels, but he had the time of his life. The Yankees had their traveling clubhouse guy, and Detroit had their visitor's clubhouse guy who did most of the work but Donnie and another kid got to hang around and do the unwanted jobs. At the end of the series, Donnie asked the players to sign a ball for him. All did without hesitation. Except  for Ricky.  

It is a custom at the end of a series for the visiting team to tip the clubhouse guys. Since Donnie was just there helping for free, he didn't expect anything but a few guys did give him some (not a lot) of money. Except for  Ricky. 

Here is the story: Donnie asked him to sign the team ball, and Ricky said no, but gave him a $100 bill. Which was way, way more then anyone  else did. Donnie was shocked, and quite didn't know what to do, so he said, "thank you very much Mr. Henderson, but I really only wanted your autograph." Rickey took the money and Donnie's pen,  signed the $100 bill, and said, "there you go".  Donnie was in shock, said thank you, and walked away. Other players and Ricky started laughing,  and he said he was just joking, and then he signed the baseball. Donnie got to keep the autographed $100 bill and has an awesome story.

The postscript to this story is the Tigers swept that series,  and Martin was fired for the 5th and final time by Stienbrener the following morning. 

 

What a tremendous story thank you. 

[IdahoBert]

50 minutes ago, casimir said:

Oh, those sticker books from Topps?  Those must have come to be due to the more broad sticker collecting craze of the time.  Yeah, I think I’d have enough money to buy the annual book and then maybe a few packs and that’d be it.  I should have just stuck with the traditional baseball cards (which, ok, I don’t have those anymore either).

Yes, when I was a child I also “put away childish things.” I somehow lost my ticket stubs for the fifth game of the 68 World Series and I don’t know if that’s one of those things I can blame my mom for, in all honesty. I think after a while, she asked me what I wanted to keep and since I moved on in life, I pretty much told her “nothing.“ I would only have a sentimental attachment to the things of childhood long after they no longer existed.

[chasfh]

16 hours ago, CMU97 said:

I have a second hand Ricky story. In 1988 a high school teammate of mine got to be a clubhouse boy for the Yankees for a series in Detroit.  His dad and Billy Martin were friends, and Martin invited the family down for the weekend. My friend was basically a gofer and picked up dirty towels, but he had the time of his life. The Yankees had their traveling clubhouse guy, and Detroit had their visitor's clubhouse guy who did most of the work but Donnie and another kid got to hang around and do the unwanted jobs. At the end of the series, Donnie asked the players to sign a ball for him. All did without hesitation. Except  for Ricky.  

It is a custom at the end of a series for the visiting team to tip the clubhouse guys. Since Donnie was just there helping for free, he didn't expect anything but a few guys did give him some (not a lot) of money. Except for  Ricky. 

Here is the story: Donnie asked him to sign the team ball, and Ricky said no, but gave him a $100 bill. Which was way, way more then anyone  else did. Donnie was shocked, and quite didn't know what to do, so he said, "thank you very much Mr. Henderson, but I really only wanted your autograph." Rickey took the money and Donnie's pen,  signed the $100 bill, and said, "there you go".  Donnie was in shock, said thank you, and walked away. Other players and Ricky started laughing,  and he said he was just joking, and then he signed the baseball. Donnie got to keep the autographed $100 bill and has an awesome story.

The postscript to this story is the Tigers swept that series,  and Martin was fired for the 5th and final time by Stienbrener the following morning. 

 

This was laugh-out-loud funny. Thanks.

Edited December 23, 2024 by chasfh