Presented by BBSI BOISE.
This Day In Sports…May 23, 2000, 25 years ago today:
Seattle Mariners outfielder Ricky Henderson draws the 2,000th walk of his big league career, becoming only the third player in history to do so, joining Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. The milestone came in a 4-2 M’s loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on a night Henderson went 0-for-4. But walks were an underappreciated part of Henderson’s game—a key ingredient in making him baseball’s all-time stolen bases leader with 1,406. Henderson finished his career three years later with 2,190 walks, the most ever until Barry Bonds surpassed him several years later.
At that point, Henderson had already held the major league career stolen base record for nine years, having surpassed Lou Brock’s mark. He had swiped his 939th base in a 7-4 A’s win over the New York Yankees in the Oakland Coliseum in May, 1991, and was long known as baseball’s best baserunner and leadoff hitter of all-time. When Henderson finally finished a 25-year big league career spread among nine different teams, he also held big league marks for runs, leadoff home runs and non-intentional walks. He collected 3,055 career hits.
Even though Henderson was born in Chicago, Oakland was his hometown. He was a great high school football player, and his dream was to play for the Oakland Raiders. But on the advice of his mother, Henderson opted to pursue baseball, because she told him baseball players had longer careers (always listen to your mom). It was in school in Oakland that he learned how to hit right-handed despite being a left-handed thrower. Little-known Wikipedia fact: as of 2008, only 57 players in major league history had thrown left and batted right, and Henderson is the only one in the Hall of Fame.
One of the reasons Henderson drew so many walks was his batting stance. He’d crouch low at the plate, reducing his strike zone. But Henderson’s goal wasn’t bases on balls—it was to see the ball better and put his weight on his back foot for a strong, compact swing. He enjoyed the home runs a lot more than the walks. “Sometimes, walking so much even gets me mad,” Henderson once told Sports Illustrated. He wasn’t mad about it after a 1989 A’s game against Mariners star Randy Johnson, though. Henderson stole a career-high five bases against the Big Unit. He went without a hit in that game, but he had four walks.
We always include this footnote when talking about Henderson. He started his pro career as a 17-year-old with the Boise A’s in 1976. And he was good. In 46 games with Boise (as the team played its home dates at Borah High), Henderson batted .336 with three home runs and 23 runs batted in—and 29 stolen bases and 33 walks. He was just gettin’ started. In the following three seasons Henderson advanced to Class A Modesto, Double-A Jersey City and Triple-A Ogden. He then made his big league debut with Oakland in 1979. Henderson passed away last December, five days before his 66th birthday.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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