A little more than 10 years ago, 32-year-old Rickey Henderson was on top of the baseball world. Coming off an MVP season in 1990, Henderson, then with the Athletics, stole his 939th base on May 1, 1991, breaking Lou Brock’s career record. While Brock took 19 seasons and 1,245 attempts to set the mark, Henderson required slightly more than 12 seasons and 1,154 attempts to overtake it.
In his moment of glory, Henderson hoisted third base above his head and declared himself, before the Oakland Coliseum crowd of 36,139, “the greatest of all time.” Unexpectedly, Henderson had to share national headlines with 44-year-old Nolan Ryan, who struck out 16 Blue Jays en route to his seventh career no-hitter that night.
When he retires Henderson might be remembered for his immodesty as much as his feats on the basepaths. He has also acquired a reputation as a clubhouse cancer and a journeyman in his old age, changing teams eight times since 1993. For a brief moment two weeks ago, however, Henderson returned to the spotlight before a mere 12,573 fans at Qualcomm Stadium.
On April 25 Henderson drew his 2,063rd walk, breaking Babe Ruth’s 66-year-old career record. (Actually, Ruth’s mark was 2,056 for 63 years until six previously untabulated walks were added to his total in 1998.) Having started the season in the minor leagues, Henderson, 42, looked finished after 23 seasons when the Padres placed him on special waivers the day after he set the walks record.
Henderson was batting .136 when he overtook Ruth. Moreover, he has managed a batting average over .250 just once in the last five years, although his OBP has been above .400 three times and his walks and runs over 100 twice apiece during that span. Since that historic evening, though, Henderson is batting .378 with 12 runs, five extra-base hits, and eight walks in 10 games.
Henderson now needs 69 hits for 3,000 and 56 runs to pass Ty Cobb’s career record of 2,246. While his chances of reaching either highlight looked dim at the end of last month, it now appears he may add both achievements to his resume later this season. Henderson also needs 16 home runs for 300. He already holds the career record for lead-off homers.
Even in his old age, Henderson has continued to steal bases. Indeed, only once, when he played just 87 games in 1994, has Henderson failed to steal 30 bases in a season. Henderson may finally slow down this year, but if he can still post an OBP in the high .300s (his OBP is .417 so far this season), it is difficult to imagine that at least a few major-league teams cannot make use of him.
Henderson’s new record caps his career as the greatest lead-off hitter in history. His combined ability to reach base and steal bases at the top of the order is unparalleled. Most people think of Henderson for his stolen bases, not his walks, but Henderson has reached 100 bases on balls seven times and led the league four times, most recently with 118 in 1998 at 39.
In his prime, hitting in front of Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield for the Yankees and Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire for the Athletics, Henderson was a scoring machine, reaching more than 100 runs 11 times in 14 seasons from 1980 to 1993:
Year Age SB CS BB R OBP ---------------------------------- 1979 20 33 11 34 49 .341 1980 21 100 26 117 111 .422 1981 22 56 22 64 89 .411 1982 23 130 42 116 119 .399 1983 24 108 19 103 105 .415 1984 25 66 18 86 113 .401 1985 26 80 10 99 146 .422 1986 27 87 18 89 130 .359 1987 28 41 8 80 78 .423 1988 29 93 13 82 118 .397 1989 30 77 14 126 113 .413 1990 31 65 10 97 119 .441 1991 32 58 18 98 105 .402 1992 33 48 11 95 77 .429 1993 34 53 8 120 114 .435 1994 35 22 7 72 66 .413 1995 36 32 10 72 67 .410 1996 37 45 8 125 110 .412 1997 38 45 8 97 84 .400 1998 39 66 13 118 101 .377 1999 40 37 14 82 89 .425 2000 41 31 9 88 75 .368
The walks record was the last one held by Ruth in a counting statistic. If Henderson reaches the runs record, he will leave Cobb in a similar position. At one time Ruth and Cobb together held the career records for games, at-bats, runs, hits, home runs, RBI, strikeouts, walks, and stolen bases, every major counting statistic except doubles and triples, which are held by Tris Speaker and Sam Crawford, respectively.
In the years since Cobb and Ruth retired, Hank Aaron (games, at-bats, home runs, RBI), Pete Rose (hits), Mickey Mantle (strikeouts), Lou Brock (stolen bases), and Henderson (walks) have dislodged them. (But for the Second World War and the Korean War, Ted Williams would likely have taken the lead in runs, RBI, and walks). Cobb still heads in batting average at .367, and Ruth in slugging average at .690, but their stranglehold on the record book has largely ended.
Depending on whether he surpasses Cobb in runs, Henderson will sit atop three categories, a feat that stands up to anyone’s. The 10-time All-Star is one of the finest players of his generation and a top-five left fielder. Despite his surliness and nomad status the latter half of his career, his accomplishments make it difficult to forget that Henderson is a baseball immortal.
Who’s on Third?
When he hit six home runs and slugged .692 in his first 11 games, Chris Truby had a lot of people believing he might present at least a short-term solution for the Astros at third base. Truby’s performance has fallen considerably, however, to the point where he is hitting .211 with a .279 OBP. Even his slugging average has descended to .440. Truby is batting .231/.288/.500 at home and .204/.283/.407 on the road.
The Astros are simply giving away outs at the bottom of the order. Consider the performance of the lower third of the line-up:
Spot Avg OBP Slg ----------------------- No. 7 .191 .250 .278 No. 8 .231 .289 .426 No. 9 .125 .229 .135
There is another way. Consider Morgan Ensberg’s numbers at AA Round Rock last season and AAA New Orleans thus far this season:
Year Avg OBP Slg G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI BB -------------------------------------------------------------- 2000 .301 .416 .547 136 479 144 34 0 28 94 90 91 2001 .279 .350 .635 27 104 29 4 0 11 22 22 11
Ensberg is unlikely to slug above .600 all season at New Orleans. He has been on a homer binge as of late and should eventually cool off. His batting average and OBP are steady but unremarkable.
On the other hand, Ensberg, 25, is performing better than Truby, 27, did at AAA before his call-up last season. In 2000 at New Orleans, Truby batted .284/.318/.369 in 64 games. The year before at AA Jackson Truby batted .282/.329/.520 in 124 games. Ensberg hit better at AA and is hitting better at AAA. Why not give him the chance to hit better in the majors?