Rickey Henderson died over the weekend. He was born on Christmas Day in 1958, so he was just shy of 66 years old. Henderson was in the major leagues for all or part of 25 seasons; he was an MVP and a multi-time All Star. He has some amazing stats that might be considered “untouchable”. Consider:
- Henderson is the all-time leader in stolen bases with 1,406. In second place is Lou Brock with 938.
- Henderson is the all-time leader in runs scored with 2,295. I believe the active player with the most runs scored is Freddie Freeman at 1298. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that Freeman is not going to eclipse Rickey Henderson’s total.
- In 1982, Henderson led MLB in stolen bases with 130. By comparison, in 1982 the player with the second most stolen bases was Damaso Garcia; he stole 54 bases.
In addition to those sorts of mind-boggling numbers Henderson accomplished a seemingly impossible performance in a single game. In a game he came to the plate 4 times and walked all four times. So, in that game, he appeared in the box score as “0-for-0” AND he also stole 5 bases in that same game.
Rest in peace, Rickey Henderson…
I mentioned here before that ESPN plans to shut down Around the Horn in 2025 and I am on record that I think the time has come for that to happen. I read somewhere recently that the suits at ESPN are considering the possibility of filling the time slot currently occupied by Around the Horn with an expansion of Pardon the Interruption. I am of two minds on that idea:
- The first is to apply the old adage of “If it ain’t broke …” Pardon the Interruption has been a great program for about 25 years now. It found a way to exist in a very tricky environment where the two hosts gave the program a steady and constant feel – – and yet when they needed to substitute for one or both hosts, the program worked just fine. So, is it a given that the program can expand seamlessly from 30 minutes to an hour?
- The second is to recognize what ESPN programming has become in the afternoon and early evening. That programming has devolved into a bunch of studio shows that present either “hot takes” or “Banalities-R-Us”. If the programming mavens are going to fill that empty time slot with another show of either ilk, then an extra half-hour of “Tony and Mike” has to be a better option.
Moving on … There is a report on CBSSports.com that says the LA Dodgers now owe a “luxury tax” payment of $103M and that a bunch of other teams have smaller payments due in January. The total “luxury tax” payments from nine MLB clubs will be $311.3M.
The “luxury tax” is imposed with the intention of penalizing the “big market/high revenue clubs” from spending the “little guys” into non-competitive positions. Clearly, it does not work; but it is the best system that MLB and the MLBPA have been able to come up with in their collective bargaining sessions. The “luxury tax” is distributed to the “small market/lower revenue teams” with the idea that those clubs can use luxury tax payments from the “rich guys” as a basis to bid for star players. Clearly, that is not working either.
If you want to know how the tax is calculated, here is a link to a page at mlb.com that will provide you with more information than you would want to know.
Before signing off today, I don’t know my writing and posting schedule for this Holiday week except that I plan to do a Football Friday at the end of the week. In case I am not back on the air tomorrow or Wednesday, let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas and thanks for reading and commenting here. Stay safe and stay well, everyone.
Finally, I’ll close today with these words from Rickey Henderson:
“Once you can accept failure, you can have fun and success.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
Merry Christmas to you too Jack