Top 106 Baseball Players: #20 - Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson was the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of baseball, and he is the owner of numerous all-time and single-season records.

Rickey first played for the Athletics in 1979, and in his second season, he was already setting records, breaking Ty Cobb's AL record by stealing 100 bases, becoming just the third player ever to reach that number. Two years later, he broke Lou Brock's Major League record by stealing 130. He had 84 steals by the All-Star break, a number no other player has reached in a full season since, let alone the actual record. He also had at least 100 runs, steals, and walks in 1980, 1982, and 1983, and he is the only player in the modern era to ever achieve that even once.

He was traded to the Yankees after the 1984 season, and his first season in New York was the best of his career. He led the league with 146 runs and 80 steals, and the runs scored were the most by any player since 1950, and he was the first player since 1939 to have more runs scored than games played.

In 1989, he was traded back to the A's at midseason, and he led them to the playoffs after leading the league with 113 runs, 77 steals, and 126 walks. He was very proud to have become Nolan Ryan's 5000th strikeout victim during that season as well. He was named the ALCS MVP after setting a postseason record with 8 steals in a 5-game series, while also batting .400 with 7 walks and 2 home runs. He then hit .474 in a World Series sweep of the Giants as he earned his first title.

The next season he led the league in runs, stolen bases, and on-base percentage, and finished second to George Brett in batting average, and finally won an MVP award, though he deserved a few earlier in his career. The A's returned to the World Series, but this time were victims of a sweep against the Reds, though Henderson batted .333 for the series.

In 1991 he broke the career record that is most associated with him when he passed Lou Brock to become the all-time leader in stolen bases. By the time he finished his career, he had a total of 1406, more than 50% above Brock's second-place total.

He was traded to the Blue Jays near the end of the 1993 season, but struggled after breaking his hand just a few games into his time in Toronto. The Blue Jays did reach the World Series that year, and Henderson scored on the final play of the series to win his second title, though he did little else to contribute to the win.

He was a nomad for the rest of his career, never spending more than 2 consecutive seasons with the same team again, and he had 2 more stints with the Athletics, even leading the league in steals and walks with them in 1998. In 2001, while playing with San Diego, he broke a couple more career marks, Ty Cobb's career runs record and Babe Ruth's walk record. He is still the leader in runs and unintentional walks, though Barry Bonds has more total walks. With all the records he holds, and his amazing performance in his first World Series run, he definitely needs to be remembered as one of the greatest players of all time.