Ricky Henderson, the best leadoff man in the history of baseball, was elected to the Hall of Fame today. It would have come earlier had Ricky decided to hang up his spikes before making innumerable comeback attempts, including a run in the independent minor-league circuit. Henderson, who played for 10 different teams, including four stints in Oakland, is the ultimate free-agent era player. His contract-year numbers don't lie. Ricky, who retired from Major League Baseball in 2003, played in the 1970s for goodness sakes. Jim Rice, a dominant pre-steroids-era hitter, is perhaps the first inductee to benefit from a backlash against gaudy performance-enhanced numbers that has voters rediscovering an appreciation for the likes of the Boston LF/DH (and perhaps someday Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy, and Tim Raines). Rice is certainly a first-ballot inductee to the Hall of Very Good, but Cooperstown might be debatable for those who value speed, defense, and longevity. In his defense, he was the most feared hitter in baseball from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s. Also, I collected his baseball cards and he was briefly my favorite player--so that settles that. The glaring omission, for one who grew up watching baseball in the 1980s, continues to be Jack Morris. He was the winningest pitcher of the decade and the ace of three World Series Champions. Unfortunately for him, they were Detroit, Minnesota, and Toronto and not New York, Los Angeles, and Boston.

Pujols for POTUS

Dan:

I agree on Jack Morris when you consider that he pitched in alot of big games for Detroit and Minnesota and always kept you in the game even when his stuff wasn't real good. He belongs in the Hall of Fame.