Rickey Henderson is the MOST OVERATED Baseball player ever who agrees?

Question

His career Batting Avg. is .279, he never had a 200 hit season in his 25 year career. Although he had a incredible 130 stolen base season, he got caught stealing 42 times that season. The only reason why people think he's such a great player is because of his stolen bases, but if you look at how many times he gets caught stealing he really ain't that great. I would rather have Ichiro on my team any day of the week

I'm not a Rickey Henderson HATER, but im sick of people swearing like he's God.

Answer 1

Yes, extremely over rated. His biggest problem is that in all those years and all the teams he played on he was never a team player. It was always all about Rickey. He was so self centered he always referred to himself in the third person. Did you ever hear him interviewed? He would be asked a question and he would always answer, "It's tough to be Rickey, cause Rickey understands how great Rickey is!" It use to crack me up listening to a guy with maybe 2 brains cells.

Answer 2

I do not like Rickey Henderson either, but your premises that Ichiro is a better player are a little far fetched.

One thing you forget is that Henderson is in the top five lfetime in walks, meaning that while his batting average was not high, he ended up with a very high on base percentage. That meant that he had a lot of opportunities to steal bases, meaning the caught stealins did not hurt as much.

Henderson was also a much better power hitter than Ichiro. While I have heard that Ichiro COULD hit more homeruns if he wanted to, I would say two things. One, he hasn't. Two, being that Ichiro has been the best player in that lineup the last two or three years why shouldn't he have tried to hit more homeruns to give his team the lead.

Henderson also has won World Series for Toronto and Oakland and made the playoffs in a couple of other places. Again, Rickey was cocky and arrogant, but he is an all-time great, and Ichiro is a singles hitter.

Answer 3

How about the fact that when he retired he led the league in all-time walks? His stolen base record is one of baseball's untouchables. Ichiro's nice, but the job of the leadoff guy is to get on base, and other than Barry Bonds, nobody did it more consistently than Rickey. You're a moron for even suggesting Ichiro's on Rickey's level. He's only played a few seasons.

Forget average, check his in-base percentage. Real fans know average is one of the most misleading stats in baseball. But then again a real fan wouldn't be talking out of his *** calling a first-ballot hall of famer overrated.

but then again he doesn't hold a candle to barry bonillea (who the **** are these people?)

Answer 4

A God? Hardly. But the best leadoff hitter in the history of the game? ABSOLUTELY.

Batting average alone is a lousy stat that measures next to nothing. Henderson's secondary average (which weighs x-base hits, walks and steals) was terrific. He is second all time in walks, second only to 'Roid Man, whose walk numbers are as artificially inflated as is his body. He is, to the best of our knowledge (we don't have stats from the Cuban league, and we are missing far too many records from the ***** Leagues) the all-time leader in stolen bases, and not by just a bit. His stolen base percentage (a far better indicator than the raw numbers) was over 80%. one of highest in MLB history. His power/speed numbers are also second all time to the 'Roid Man, and for the same reasons. And each of these 2190 walks was pretty much the equivalent of a double, because Henderson never stood still on base. Then. of course, there's the more than 70 lead-off HR's, a total that is more than twice that of the next man in line.

Rickey Henderson's value as a player, and in particular as a lead-off hitter, could never be summarized in his numbers, but by watching him as a baserunner, where he pretty much terrorized the opposing pitchers. For more than 20 years.

That you feel otherwise indicates only one thing - you never saw the man play the game.

Answer 5

Are you kidding? The guy is the best lead off hitter in history. Most lead off HRs. An @$$load of stolen bases. So what if he got caught sometimes. Ichiro has been caught too.

Ill give you that Ichiro is the best in the game today, and may be the best eventually, but as far as things stand TODAY, its Ricky.

Answer 6

Best leadoff hitter in the history of the game. Period. His obp is and he set the table for many teams to score a lot of runs. All time leader in may offensive categories including steals and runs scored. He did his job as a leadoff by getting on and finding a way to score. Plus he did it over a long period of time.

Answer 7

ru serious?he has more runs,doubles,stolen bases,walks than babe ruth.
but hes overrated over 3000 hits thats sucks,82 leadoff homeruns thats sucks to,66 triples that sucks also,510 doubles that really sucks
DUDE YOU NEED TO CHECK UR STATS
remember if he walked there was a good chance that walk was a triple or at worse hes in scoring postion

Answer 8

Career OBP of .401 (and it would have been higher had he retired earlier) -- he can play on my team any night.

Rickey was a lot more than his stolen bases. He got on base, and getting on base requires not making outs. It's a highly valuable skill, and very rare at his level of efficiency. He didn't win an MVP by mistake.

Batting average is a kiddie pool stat. Look further.

Answer 9

I agree and what an arrogant person.
Remember the playoffs when he was out of the game and played cards with Barry Boniella.
What a loser.

Agree and give me a Ba

Answer 10

He's up there, but it's actually Cal Ripken. Sure he had the streak, but he didn't do much during the streak, unlike Lou Gerigh.