Rickey Henderson Time!

Instead of continuing to rant about the varied negativity surrounding the Mets, I'd like to take a moment to salute Rickey Henderson on his Hall of Fame induction (Jim Rice deserves a nod as well, however he never played for the Mets and was also not nearly as interesting as Rickey).

We at The Ballclub always remember Rickey fondly for his contributions to the 1999 Mets. Clubhouse card games aside, Rickey was a major reason the Mets were able to perform as well as they did that season. Beyond his performance on the field, which included a team leading .315 BA, 12 HRs and 42 RBIs, Rickey's influence on other players was evident. I'm fully convinced that Roger Cedeno was as good a player as he was that year because of playing with Rickey. Despite being 40 years old and having 20 years in the Major Leagues, Henderson still had plenty left in the tank, and even kept some in reserve for the postseason, where, in the NLDS against Arizona, he hit .400, stole 6 bases and generally made the DBack pitchers nuts for 4 games.

We tip our hat to Rickey Henderson, who amazingly did not refer to himself in the 3rd person in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech. But if there was ever a moment to pull out the "Rickey Henderson Time" quote, yesterday would have been the day.