Rickey Henderson MLB Baseball Biography and Career Highlights
Whenever Rickey Henderson was at the plate or on the base lanes, he never came across an opposing pitcher he couldn’t ring. Henderson hit for average, power and was rarely fooled by pitches outside the strike zone.
Rickey Henderson had more starting home runs than any other player in MLB history. He could make a pitcher pay the price for trying to pass a strike past him, but if the pitcher tried to get him to chase a pitch, they would fall behind in the count because he didn’t make a lot of bad pitches.
Henderson was a terror on the base lanes, always disrupting the pitcher’s concentration and forcing the pitcher to focus on him instead of the batter. With his explosive jumps when he was stealing a base, he was at full speed on his third step and always dove into first base with a header. Some say Rickey was the best starting hitter to ever play baseball.
Stealing bases began to take its toll on Henderson due to the violent way he threw his body as he slid headlong onto the base. After some spread shoulders, jammed finders, and bruised elbows, Rickey Henderson began practicing crouching while running to reduce the height of his dive and help him slide into the bag, rather than on it. Don Medich, (former pitcher) once helped “You turn your back on him and he’s gone!”
However, Rickey Henderson did more than steal bases. His 1,406 stolen bases are more than 400 stolen bases than the # 2 man on the list, Lou Brock’s 938. Rickey also hit for power. He holds the record for the most starting home runs of all time. He hit 69 home runs to start games. In his career he hit 297 home runs. Many say that if Henderson was asked to hit lower in the batting order, he could have hit a lot of home runs if he needed to, too. Henderson also covered a lot of ground with his glove. He took a lot of hits off opposing hitters and was best friends with pitchers when he hit a line drive into the gap that no other baseball player could have hit.
Rickey Henderson played the game with passion and at a speed that baseball had never seen before. He set the pace for what future leads followed.