Word: rickey
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Just as Ryan transcends the ages as baseball's Wizard of Whiff, so does Oakland A's left fielder Rickey Henderson as the Sultan of Swipe. How fitting that earlier on this same magical May Day, Henderson purloined third base against the New York Yankees to eclipse Lou Brock's career record of 938 stolen bases. Afterward Henderson crowed, "Today I'm the greatest of all time...
Cringe before the A's majesty, all ye who would oppose them! Try to keep Rickey Henderson, the game's premier player, from stealing you blind; he's on the verge of eclipsing Lou Brock's all-time stolen-base record. Don't groove a pitch to Jose Canseco or Mark McGwire; the Bash Brothers will lose it over the far fence. Watch, and wince, as Dave Henderson or Carney Lansford gets the clutch hit. Scan the depth of the A's bench; almost any scrub could start on another team. Note the new recruits, just in time...
Walter Haas had plenty to spend; he is an heir to the Levi Strauss jeans fortune. He also had a resilient young pitching staff and a local rabbit named Rickey Henderson. To nurture the team to respectability, though, he needed a quick fix and a long view. He already had the first in Billy Martin, a brilliant, volatile field manager. Before he wore out both his welcome and the arms of his starting pitchers (all were shortly out of the majors), Martin , hustled the A's to the play-offs in 1981 and, with his run-and-gun style...
Money aside, the A's took a risk signing such a fragile superstar to a five- year lease. And in doing so, Alderson must have realized that Rickey Henderson would demand an expensive extension of his four-year, $12 million contract. If the A's win the Series again this year, other players will want their share. Building a strong franchise is tough enough in these days of free agency and oversize payrolls. Staying at the top is next to impossible. "Everybody thinks he's underpaid," sighs Alderson. Owners of other teams, of course, think Alderson is paying too much...
Baseball's best team can dazzle you with speed, numb you with power, destroy you with their arrogance -- and that's just when Rickey Henderson is at bat. Add the glower of Jose Canseco and the death stare of Dave Stewart, and you have a team that looks as tough as it plays. This October, the A's know that their true opponents will not be the Pirates or Red Sox or Reds, but the ghosts of great teams past...