Former Yankee, Rickey Henderson Rolls into the HOF, Along with Jim Rice..

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

Rickey Henderson, who is the best lead-off hitter of all-time is a Hall of Famer. This is a no-brainer. There is no doubt that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He was elected with 94.8 percent of the votes. Jim Rice will go into the hall along with Rickey later this year, as he received 76.4 percent of the votes casted by the baseball writers. This was Rice’s final year of eligibility. He was a question mark in peoples minds, but they finally decided to put him in.

Henderson’s name appeared on 511 of the 539 ballots. I don’t know what those other 28 writers were thinking when they didn’t put him on their ballots. Maybe they had some sort of grudge against him. His numbers speak for themselves.

Rickey Henderson-  Career Stats

.279AVG  2295R  3055H  297HR  1115RBI  1406SB  .401OBP  .419SLG

Jim Rice-  Career Stats

.298AVG  1249R  2452H  382HR  1451RBI  58SB  .352OBP  .502SLG

     Joe Gordon was elected to the HOF by the Veterans Committee this past December. He will be inducted along with Henderson and Rice on July 26th in Cooperstown, NY. Tony Kubek won the Ford C. Frick Award & Nick Peters won the J.G. Spink Award given by the BBWAA. They will both receive their awards that day as well. 

Nine players didn’t receive enough votes to return to the ballot next year:

Mark Grace, David Cone, Matt Williams, Mo Vaughn, Jay Bell, Jesse Orosco, Ron Gant, Dan Plesac and Greg Vaughn. Gant, Plesac and Vaughn didn’t receive any votes.

 

Here are the results from this years ballot:

2009 HOF Ballot Results

Player	Total Votes	Percentage
Rickey Henderson	511	94.8%
Jim Rice	412	76.4%
Andre Dawson	361	67.0%
Bert Blyleven	338	62.7%
Lee Smith	240	44.5%
Jack Morris	237	44.0%
Tommy John	171	31.7%
Tim Raines	122	22.6%
Mark McGwire	118	21.9%
Alan Trammell	94	17.4%
Dave Parker	81	15.0%
Don Mattingly	64	11.9%
Dale Murphy	62	11.5%
Harold Baines	32	5.9%
Mark Grace	22	4.1%
David Cone	21	3.9%
Matt Williams	7	1.3%
Mo Vaughn	6	1.1%
Jay Bell	2	0.4%
Jesse Orosco	1	0.2%
Ron Gant	0	0%
Dan Plesac	0	0%
Greg Vaughn	0	0%

1/12 Winter Ball Report  /  Startin’ hot (or cold) 

Checking in on Cox, Sanchez, Melancon