Rickey Henderson-New Mets Hitting Coach

[JeterForPresident]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

Article over at Yahoo! sports which mentions that this was previously reported on Newsday's web site, Wednesday night. Rickey had been a special instructor for the Mets this season, and he replaces Rick Down.

EDIT: ESPN is also showing the AP story as well. Seems legit so far.

Very interesting, and really out of nowhere, as Linda Richman would say...discuss amongst yourselves.

[flymick24]

he might be able to help players like reyes and endy chavez, but i don't think he'll really be of much help to anyone else

delgado's not hitting this year because he's old, not because of the hitting coach

[TheYankee]

This seems like an odd choice... then again, I was never a big league hitter.

[yankeebot]

Weird.

[Mantle'sMutt]

They needed a fourth for pinochle.

[NYYRocket]

Wouldn't of been my first choice, let's see what happens.

[Yankees Empire]

"Excuse me, Coach Henderson, I'm 0 for my last 34. What can I do?"

"Rickey got to be Rickey, you know? I don't know why they boo me. Today I am the greatest."

This is an interesting move and we'll see how it plays out.

[Hitman23]

why are people so skeptical? He was a great hitter. Maybe he can teach others a thing or two. Just because he was a leadoff hitter doesn't mean that's all he knows.

[TheYankee]

why are people so skeptical? He was a great hitter. Maybe he can teach others a thing or two. Just because he was a leadoff hitter doesn't mean that's all he knows.

I would think that being a contact, average hitter would mean he could teach that, but not much else. How exactly does he instruct a power hitter on how to increase his power? It would seem to me that a former power hitter would have a better time instructing both.. I dunno... just seems odd to me.

[Hitman23]

I would think that being a contact, average hitter would mean he could teach that, but not much else. How exactly does he instruct a power hitter on how to increase his power? It would seem to me that a former power hitter would have a better time instructing both.. I dunno... just seems odd to me.

I don't know either. If I did, I'd be a MLB player or a batting coach! I wish I did!

I don't think any of us here are qualified to make that judgment though. I always find it funny when people have strong opinion on who is qualified and hired as pitching coaches and batting coaches.

[TheYankee]

I don't know either. If I did, I'd be a MLB player or a batting coach! I wish I did!

I don't think any of us here are qualified to make that judgment though. I always find it funny when people have strong opinion on who is qualified and hired as pitching coaches and batting coaches.

True enough, though I do have reservations about the way he'll communicate with his players.

[BrooklynBotz]

You just know he's going to be on the bench begging Willie to let him pinch run or get in the game. I don't see how with his personality he will be able to make a good coach but who knows?

[White Knight]

I would think that being a contact, average hitter would mean he could teach that, but not much else. How exactly does he instruct a power hitter on how to increase his power? It would seem to me that a former power hitter would have a better time instructing both.. I dunno... just seems odd to me.

Well, Ricky does have the most leadoff homeruns in the history of the game.

[Soriambi]

I think that people are reading too much into what kind of hitter he was and how much that'll help him help others. Some of the greatest hitting coaches of all time were terrible major league hitters. As for Rickey, I think calling him a contact/average hitter is not exactly true. He hit for a solid average in his career, but he also had above average power and a great, great eye. He was far from a one dimensional hitter.

[SoCal Pinstriper]

I think that people are reading too much into what kind of hitter he was and how much that'll help him help others. Some of the greatest hitting coaches of all time were terrible major league hitters. As for Rickey, I think calling him a contact average hitter is not exactly true. He hit for a decent average in his career, but he also had above average power and a great, great eye. He was far from a one dimensional hitter.

Agree with this 100%. I wish that the Yankees had brought Rickey in to work with Cano on developing some patience. That said, this from jimmykey2 cracked me up:

"Rickey will do whatever it takes to turn this around, even if Rickey has to put Rickey in the cleanup spot. What? Rickey doesn't make the lineup? Rickey quits."

http://forums.nyyfans.com/showthread.php?t=104892

Rickey was an alltime favorite of mine, and far from a one dimensional player.

[Albanyfan]

The ability to be a good coach is not related to how good a MLB player one was, or what one's physical strenghts were. They are different skill sets.
Being a long time player in the majors does, however, give one lots of experience to draw on. Hitting is more than just the mechanics of the swing. It is about how to deal with certain kinds of pitchers, different counts situations etc. RH's work this year must have satisfied the METS that he had what it takes.

[TheYankee]

Soriambi, you make some good points, but don't you think patience is one of those things that can't really be taught? It seems to me to be one of the skills you either posses or don't.

[Soriambi]

Soriambi, you make some good points, but don't you think patience is one of those things that can't really be taught? It seems to me to be one of the skills you either posses or don't.

There has been some evidence that that's the case (that guys don't really "learn" patience.) It kind of makes sense logically, too. If you've played for however long, and you still can't tell a ball from a strike when it's coming in very well, chances are you're not going to learn it when you're 22 or 24 or whenever you reach the majors. You've been trying to tell the difference between balls and strikes when you played Little League, travel games, high school games, college games if you went to college, and minor league games. The strike zone doesn't change between levels. And patience isn't really a mechanical thing or whatever that a coach can tell you how to fix or work with you on. He can't really say, "stop swinging at balls," because if you knew they were balls, chances are you wouldn't be swinging at them in the first place.

So yeah, I'm not really saying that Rickey will be able to teach guys to be patient. I was just responding to the post saying that he was a contact/average guy and that he wouldn't be able to help power hitters because of that because A. I didn't think that that was true about Rickey and B. I didn't think that that was true about hitting coaches. It's very possible that he won't be a good hitting coach, but you can't really say that a guy who wasn't a top power hitter won't be able to teach power hitters. When you're a hitting coach, I think that all that is important is that you know the mechanics of a good swing, and that you're able to analyze the swings of the guys you're helping and see what they're doing differently when they're not doing well (and, in some cases, what they can do better). I really think that, for the most part, a major league hitting coach is there to maintain his hitters' swings and help them identify what they're doing wrong when they're slumping rather than teaching them how to hit. I think that that's especially true with a team with a lot of veterans and/or accomplished hitters on it like the Mets.

[Mr. Mxylsplk]

I have no opinion on Rickey's ability to coach based on his own playing abilities. But I do have a bit of a hard time imagining him as someone who can sit down and explain things well to others. Obviously a guy can come off very differently in interviews from how he is around friends or teammates, but he certainly never struck me as the patient teacher type.

[SoCal Pinstriper]

Soriambi, you make some good points, but don't you think patience is one of those things that can't really be taught? It seems to me to be one of the skills you either posses or don't.

There is a large body of opinion that agrees with you, but something or somebody got to Jose' Reyes. He has improved dramatically.

[hobokenfish]

Rickey was an alltime favorite of mine, and far from a one dimensional player.

Lou Brock was a great player, but Rickey was the greatest of all time!

I really find this to be an interesting choice for the Mets. Rickey wasn't exactly known as a "team player" when he played, so I'm not quite sure how much of an instructor he will be. But it is certainly an intriguing choice. Maybe he can teach the Mets outfielders the snatch catch!

[smr15]

They needed a fourth for pinochle.

This is the correct answer.




Also, it would be nice if Rickey can find a way to remember some of his team member's names this time around, instead of pointing to them and calling them "Him, him, and him".

[jimmyclark]

I have read this was Omar Minaya's idea and Willie Randolph went along with it because he's the boss.It could work if Henderson is willing to work at breaking down film. But Minaya gives the impression that he loves being in the news.

[SoCal Pinstriper]

Lou Brock was a great player, but Rickey was the greatest of all time!

I think that you know me well enough by now to understand that I'm not suggesting that Ricky was the greatest, but that the combination of performance and entertainment that he offered made him one of my favorites.

[Nome]

True enough, though I do have reservations about the way he'll communicate with his players.

Exactly. Connunication and patience are two extremely important qualities a hitting coach MUST have. Ted Williams one of the 3-5 best pure hitters in baseball history was a failure as a manager and a hitting coach because he didn't have these qualities. Henderson is even less gifted in this area. But who knows?

Andy

[hobokenfish]

I think that you know me well enough by now to understand that I'm not suggesting that Ricky was the greatest, but that the combination of performance and entertainment that he offered made him one of my favorites.

Of course. It was just a play on his little "speech" when he broke Lou Brock's stolen base record. I remember watching it (I think it was actually against the Yanks), and he said something to the effect of, "Lou Brock was great, but now I am the greatest of all time!" It was pure comedy.

[35Knucklecurve]

Exactly. Connunication and patience are two extremely important qualities a hitting coach MUST have. Ted Williams one of the 3-5 best pure hitters in baseball history was a failure as a manager and a hitting coach because he didn't have these qualities. Henderson is even less gifted in this area. But who knows?

Andy

Good points - I never liked Henderson's "me" attitude, so I have doubts about his ability to put that aside long enough to get a point across. As great as Jim Palmer was, he turned down several offers to become a pitching coach because he knew he didn't have the personality for it. Henderson's attitude leads me to believe he probably doesn't think he has any short-comings.

[Mr. Mxylsplk]

Henderson is apparently not going to be the new hitting coach. HoJo is. Rickey will be the 1st base coach.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns

[hobokenfish]

Very funny Page 2 Column by Jeff Pearlman:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...t&lid=tab4pos2

[JWHIII]

Link to some pretty good Rickey stories

http://pecklers.blogspot.com/2006/09/rickey-isms.html

[46Mattingly23]

Rickey seems like one of those guys who would come up to bat with one of the players and stand behind them and grab their arms showing them the proper swing.

[VanHalen5150]

I think you should change the title of the thread. Rickey Henderson is the new 1st base coach and Howard Johnson is taking over as the hitting coach