10) Rickey Henderson
How do you win in baseball? You score runs. And the first guy on my list is baseball’s all-time leader in runs scored, Rickey Henderson. Eight of the ten players who make my list are also in the top-10 in career runs scored. So not only Henderson is in good company, he’s at the head of the class.
Unquestionably the greatest leadoff hitter ever, Henderson holds the career record for unintentional walks and stolen bases. The two-time world champion (Oakland 1989 and Toronto 1993) and one-time AL MVP (1990), Henderson owns the single season record for most stolen bases with a whopping 130. When Willie Mays Hayes says in Major League that he bought 100 pairs of gloves, one for each base he was going to steal, he was clearly following Henderson’s lead. Henderson is the only American League player to have ever stolen 100 bases in a season, and he did it three times. Plus, he finished among his league’s top-10 in steals 21 times. Since Rickey stole 93 bases in 1988, no one else in all of the major leagues has come anywhere close to stealing 100.
With 297 career home runs, Henderson also had surprising power. Another career record Henderson holds is games led off with a home run. Henderson went yard in a game’s first at-bat eighty-one times.
His 1,406 stolen bases are 468 more than his next highest competitor. He scored 49 more runs than the man in second place. Henderson maintained a . 279 career batting average, .401 career on-base percentage, and .419 career slugging percentage. The “Man of Steal” led the majors in stolen bases six times and the American League twelve. He won the ALCS MVP in 1989 when he stole eight bases that series, another record. For the ten-time All-Star, one Gold Glove and three Silver Slugger Awards also line his trophy case.
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| #10 Rickey Henderson |
9) Randy Johnson
I’ve only got one pitcher on my list because when it comes down to it, a player that goes out there every day and bats four times a game is more impactful than someone who plays once, maybe twice per week. I think I picked a good one though, “The Big Unit,” Randy Johnson.
With a powerful fastball and devastating slider, it is no surprise that the 6'10" Johnson holds the career record for strikeouts per nine innings and is second all-time in total strikeouts. Johnson is the all-time strikeout leader for left-handed pitchers.
The 300-game winner won five Cy Young awards in his career, won a World Series with the Diamondbacks in 2001, and threw two no-hitters, the second of which was the seventeenth perfect game in Major League history. In the sixth inning of a 2001 game, Johnson struck out three Pittsburgh Pirates on nine pitches, becoming the thirtieth major leaguer to throw an immaculate inning. He also won the pitching Triple Crown in 2002—leading the NL in wins, ERA, and strikeouts—for his fourth straight Cy Young, a unanimous selection.
The ten-time All-Star led his league in strikeouts nine times, in ERA four times, complete games four times, shutouts twice, holds the record for most strikeouts in a relief appearance with 16, and shared a World Series Co-MVP with Curt Schilling. Johnson also holds the distinction of defeating each of the thirty teams in baseball.
Cooperstown surely beckons for the big blonde. Plus, the guy killed a bird with a fastball.
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| #9 Randy Johnson |
--from @jeuneski
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