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Welcome to the Hall, Rickey. What took so long?
by Tracy Ringolsby, Special to FOXSports.com
It should have been four years ago.
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The induction of arguably the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of the game has been put on hold because Henderson didn't know when to call it quits.
The smallest Hall of Fame ballot in history — only 23 names — features a player with one of the biggest resumes in history.
A 10-time All-Star and the 1990 American League Most Valuable Player, Henderson is best known for holding the all-time record for stolen bases (1,406), but more significantly he also scored more runs (2,295) than anyone in the history of the game. And for all the numbers crunching the world can provide there is one stat that means more than anything else in baseball — runs scored. A team can get outhit and win. It can get outpitched and win. It can get outplayed defensively and win. But it can't get outscored and win.
And nobody could do it better than Henderson, a true five-tool player. He could get on base — his 2,190 walks were a record when he retired and still rank second all-time to Barry Bonds — and he could hit with power. He could run, and don't overlook the fact he could play a quality left field, too, adding a 1981 Gold Glove to his career honors.
He easily could have been inducted four years ago. It's just that the man who stepped on home more often than anyone to ever play the game didn't know when it was time to pack his bags and go home.
Fortunately, the four years he tried to hang on were not able to tarnish the nearly 21 years he spent building the Hall of Fame credentials.
They were not, however, pretty. Four years and five teams, a vagabond existence for a man who is baseball royalty. From the Mets to the Mariners to the Padres to the Red Sox and Dodgers, Henderson put on an uncharacteristic performance. The last three years he struck out more than he walked for the first three times in two decades. His hit a paltry .228. He stole a total of only 72 bases, a figure he had surpassed in seven single seasons.
The only question that is waiting to be answered about Henderson's Hall of Fame statue is how many votes will he receive. He should be a unanimous selection. But he won't be. Nobody ever has.
Tom Seaver came closer to unanimous than anybody in history, and even he was left off five of the 430 ballots cast in his first year of eligibility.
Never has it made sense that the longer a player has been retired the more votes he receives. It's not like there are any more hits or wins to be garnered.
If someone deserves to be in the Hall of Fame he deserves to be in his first year on the ballot. Once the player is elected he is a Hall of Famer, treated the same as all others. There's no pecking order based on the year of eligibility in which the selection was made.
That's why the Jim Rice phenomena is so puzzling. Rice could slip into the Hall this year, his 15th and final year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot. A year ago, he came up only 16 votes shy of receiving the required support from 75 percent of the voters. The puzzle is how in a four-year span he could go from being on 54.5 percent of the ballots cast to 72.2 percent.
Rice will be one of the more interesting debates, and the decision on him will expand past his own merit, but also to the worthiness of Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy and Tim Raines. It would seem that each of those three is at least as qualified as Rice, if not more so.
But then Ozzie Smith was elected and Alan Trammell has never even received serious support. He was on only 18.2 percent of the ballots a year ago.
There won't be any debate about Henderson.
And at least one ballot will also include Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Trammell and Bert Blyleven, holdovers from past elections, in addition to the game's all-time theft king.
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