I think ego can be a big asset to a coach. Look at Peterson. If Rickey knows his way is right, he'll be sure to let you know about it.
I don't see how hiring Rickey in any capacity other than spring training advisor makes any sense.. The guy was a great baseball player but not exactly the guy I want teaching these kids the fundamentals of the game.
That I disagree with, he knows his stuff and as the greatest leadoff hitter he would know fundamentals the best
HoJo gave them a corked bat to try out last night before he was officially named the hitting coach. After the first two batters they decided to save the secret weapon for a desperate situation.
Greatest leadoff hitter, yes. Fundamentally sound, no. I don't know maybe he has matured, I'm sure he has but based off his playing days, he isn't the kind of guy I want teaching kids how to play the game the right way..
Ricky, HoJo, Down, who cares? Most coaches have no effect so if Omar wanted to fire Down just to show who's boss or to shake things up I really don't have a problem with it. Communication may have been an issue in not giving Ricky the job, I'm not sure if anyone on the Mets is fluent in crackhead.
Funny Rickey story: When he was on the Mets with John Olerud, he went up to him and said, "You wear a helmet in the field? That's funny. I used to play with a guy in Toronto who wore a helmet in the field." Olerud says, "Yeah, Rickey. That was me." Nice.
yeah, I think everyone has heard that one. However, that story is fabricated. It never happened. Just like Bret Boone never told Jose Canseco he was taking steroids (one of Canseco's inventions).
I don't believe it, because everyone involved I've heard from has said it's false. It's an urban legend that keeps running around because people think it's funny. another example: http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/10/09/henderson/print.html " Another Rickey story. When he hooked up with the Seattle Mariners last year, Rickey is said to have approached John Olerud, who had once suffered a brain aneurysm, and asked about his unusual practice of wearing a batting helmet in the field. Henderson says, "I used to play with a dude in New York who did the same thing." "That was me," said Olerud, who was Henderson's teammate with both the Mets and the Blue Jays. Good story. Widely reported. And completely untrue -- concocted by a visiting player who had run out of hot-foot victims. But apocryphal or not, it's the kind of incident that Henderson's critics cite as proof of his stupidity or his self-absorption. "How on earth Rickey Henderson sustained such a tremendous career," added one Internet critic, as a footnote to the Olerud fable, "while acting like the self-centered idiot that he is, I have no idea."
