Even though he last played in the majors in 2003, and spent 2005 with the estimable San Diego Surf Dawgs, Rickey Henderson insists that he's ready to help a major league team. And can still steal bases. New York Post:

"I believe today, and people say I'm crazy, but if you gave me as many at-bats that you would give the runners out there today, I would out-steal every last one of them," Henderson said with typical bravado. Rickey got specific, noting, "I can go out and steal as many bases as [Jose] Reyes steals." Reyes stole 56 bases last year.

"I might have lost a step or two, but I learned a step or two in knowledge that I can pick a pitch and walk to second base," Henderson said. Satchel Paige pitched in the majors when he was 59. Rickey's just a kid.

Henderson isn't kidding, by the way. In 2007 Billy Beane offered him a roster spot with the Oakland Athletics for one game, so that he could officially retire with the A's. But he turned that down, saying "I don't want no one day. I want to play, man."

Fun Rickey Henderson facts:

• Also played for the Navojoa Mayos of the Mexican Pacific League in the winter of 1978-79.

• Was born in the back seat of a '57 Chevy on Christmas Day.

• Was named for singer Ricky Nelson.

Calls to Corky Simpson were not returned by press time.

Rickey To Big-League GMs: Don't Lose My Number [New York Post]

Henderson, baseball's all-time stolen base leader, got 94.8 percent of the vote, missing being elected to Cooperstown unanimously by 28 votes (we call that the Corky Simpson factor). Meanwhile, scrappy roustabout Jay Bell barely missed the cut, sparking much earnest debate among our commenters. One sample:

• The two writers who gave Jay Bell a HOF vote should be stomped, tattooed, hanged, and then killed. — MikeSmrek

But this is Rickey's post. I've encountered Rickey on several occasions, but have no delicious stories involving his time with the San Diego Surf Dawgs. So let this excellent David Grann piece in the New Yorker serve as your Rickey background material. Key quote:

Earlier, Henderson had confessed to me, “Last night, I dropped down on my knees and I asked God, ‘Why are you doing this to Rickey? Why did you put me here?’ ”

Referring to yourself in the third person when talking to God ... you get my Hall of Fame vote for that alone.

The complete list. Hey, who voted for Jesse Orosco?

Henderson Elected To Hall: Rice Too [San Francisco Chronicle]
Stealing Time [The New Yorker]

Wave your flags and blow the trumpets. And for good measure find a baseball beat writer and threaten to stuff him in a locker, as Rice has infamously done on more than one occasion. Perhaps that's why it took him 14 years to make it, and just under the wire at that. Our hero got 412 votes in the BBWAA election for 76.4 percent of the vote, with 75 percent needed to get in. He had 72 percent last year.

Oh, and Rickey made it too, which we'll get to momentarily.

Rice only got 29 percent of the vote the first year he was eligible for the Hall, in 1995, and his yearly fail in making the club became one of baseball's favorite ongoing narratives. When the news came down today, I called an old friend and member of the BBWAA who covers the Giants and Athletics for the Associated Press, Rick Eymer, and told him the news. His reaction summed up the moment pretty well.

"Holy shit. He made it?"

Had Rice not gotten the 75 percent necessary from the writers this time around, his case would have been sent to the Veterans Committee next year. His credentials would seem to make him a shoo-in, IMHO anyway, but then I never dealt with Rice in the clubhouse. By all accounts he gave new meaning to the word curmudgeon; once notoriously even tearing the shirt off of writer Steve Fainaru of the Hartford Courant.

But then there are the numbers: .298 lifetime batting average, 382 homers (non-steroid division), 1,451 RBI and a .502 slugging percentage. From 1975-1986, Rice drove in 1,276 runs, more than any other player (Mike Schmidt was second at 1,221).

"It's ridiculous that he hasn't made it before now," Eymer said. "I guess it's because he was a pretty irascible guy. He's definitely his own person."

So Jim Rice, your latest slugging Red Sox left fielder to make it to Cooperstown. The fact that he had to kick down the door 10 minutes before the joint closed for the night shouldn't diminish the accomplishment in any way.

Henderson, Rice Elected To Hall of Fame [BaseballHall.org]
Getting Into Rice Numbers [Boston Globe]
Rickey Races Into Hall, Rice Finally Slugs Way In [NBCSports]

Corky, of course, created a category four shitstorm earlier this week when Home Run Derby revealed that he'd left Henderson off of his ballot, which was among a handful published early. The fact that he did vote for fellow first-time nominee Matt Williams didn't help.

Then he expressed surprise when he discovered — via Western Union telegraph, one presumes — that the Internets were ablaze with stories of his major goof. An elaborate mea culpa ensued. From the Oakland Tribune:

"First things first, would I vote for Rickey if I had it to do all over again? Damn right, I would," Simpson said. "I had no idea my ballot would cause such an uproar. Seriously, he was a wonderful player and I simply goofed. I voted for eight deserving men. I could have picked two more — and I wish to heck I had."

But Simpson's claim that he simply forgot that he had 10 votes instead of eight doesn't hold a lot of water. Nick Prevenas, sports editor of the Green Valley Times, a retirement community newspaper in Arizona where Simpson now writes, said that he warned the columnist about leaving Henderson off his ballot when he turned it in. Said Prevenas:

"He (Simpson) told me that he 'wasn't a Rickey guy,' and that he would vote for him next time."

Anyone who followed the 2000 Presidential election knows how much trouble the elderly have with paper ballots. But still, if you're not going to take this seriously, then why not just take a pass? Rickey probably wasn't going to be the first player voted into the Hall unanimously anyway (Willie Mays missed by 23 votes, after all). But that doesn't make this any more digestible.

This never would have happened at the Boca Breeze.

Corky Simpson Would Like His Rickey Henderson Vote Back — I Want His BBWAA Card [Home Run Derby]
Voter: 'I Made A Mistake Not Voting For Rickey Henderson' [Oakland Tribune]

There have been some spirited attempts to keep the game alive, but it looks like this is it. It has been a while since anything particularly noteworthy has happened during the game — the games this decade have been mostly sideshows — but the best game might have been in 1961, when the birth of Brooks Robinson's son was announced over the loudspeakers while he was on the field, and a light-hitting outfielder named Whitey Herzog hit a home run on a rooftop across the street.

We haven't been to Cooperstown in more than 20 years, but we kind of wish we were there today.

Save The Fame Game [Official Site]

Rice garnered 72.2 percent, not quite enough to make it, but awfully close. He was followed by, in order, Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Lee Smith, Jack Morris, Tommy John, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Alan Trammell, Dave Concepcion and Don Mattingly. Congrats to Goose, who finally got better in 2007. Excellent improvement there.

Well, we've already told you how Woody Paige is going to vote for Goose Gossage because he was personally nice to him. (Which, we assume, makes Gossage the only man on earth qualified for the Hall of Fame.) But how about the other Hall voters? How studious are they in their deliberations?

Vegas Watch has an excellent rundown of ridiculous Hall of Fame arguments. Oddly, two of the top three — Paige's is No. 1, of course — involve Tim Raines. Here's Tracy Ringolsby's thought "process:"

"The biggest debates for me were Tim Raines, who obviously was overshadowed by Rickey Henderson, but also if you take Vince Coleman's five top years, I would say he outperformed Raines, too, and I don't see Coleman as a Hall of Famer."

And Vegas Watch's retort:

In his top five SB years, Coleman stole 484 bases. In Raines' top five SB years, he stole 384. This is the only category in which Coleman outperformed Raines.

They were similar players in the sense that they were both fast, I guess. So maybe Ringolsby thinks the only thing that matters with guys who are fast is how many bases they steal? That must be it, since comparing Raines and Coleman as overall players is laughable.

Coleman, best 5 years: 3236 PA, .272/.330/.351
Raines, career: 10359 PA, .294/.385/.425

It's not close. In fact, in the comments of this post, tangotiger makes the amusing point that Raines' worst five years were easily better than Coleman's best five. Tim Raines is going to fall short of the Hall of Fame this year, and he has reasoning like this to thank.

Personally, we believe Raines should be in the Hall of Fame simply because he admitted to sliding head first so he wouldn't break the vial of cocaine in his back pocket. That reasoning is as sound as Ringolsby's.

Worst Hall Of Fame Arguments Of 2008 [Vegas Watch]
If You're Nice To Woody Paige, You Have A Chance At The Hall Of Fame [Deadspin]

Check out some of the new names: Tim Raines. David Justice. Chuck Knoblauch. Sheesh, did those guys really retire just five years ago? Sports Gone South has a fun rundown of the candidates, including this riff on Raines:

Tim Raines-Used to slide headfirst when stealing bases, allegedly so as not to break the cocaine vials in his back pocket. Our favorite baseball story ever.

We forgot about that: Now that's devotion to your craft. For all the talk about how today's athletes are Out Of Control, we remind you that Raines had his drug issues, Justice used to pummel Halle Berry around the head and neck and Brady Anderson never, ever did steroids during his 50-homer season. We do enjoy that Shawon Dunston is on the ballot this year, though. Where's the votes for Jose Oquendo?

Your 2008 Hall of Fame Candidates In Thirty Seconds Or Less [Sports Gone South]

Barry Bonds is heading to New York this week for the Giants' three-game series with the Mets, and because there are a ton of reporters here, expect Bonds to make some sort of headline in the next three days, whether he homers or not. (If we were Bonds, we'd avoid anybody with a combover for the next week.) The Bonds Ruins America stories kicked off this morning with Bonds making it clear that he's not going to just give away his memorabilia to the Hall of Fame.

"I'm not worried about the Hall," the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. "I take care of me."

We're not sure why Bonds should be blasted for wanting to make sure he benefits from his own successes — it's not like those who have caught his home run balls have been impersonating Tim Forneris themselves — and, frankly, the people who run the Baseball Hall of Fame always pull this "hey, what about us?" routine anytime the public consciousness suits them. Remember Dale Petroskey? He's the head of the Hall who famously banned Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon from a celebration of Bull Durham because their anti-President Bush comments "could put our troops in even more danger." (We still find it amazing Petroskey has a job after that, actually.) When it comes to Barry Bonds and Dale Petroskey, we choose to root for neither.

Bonds May Not Share Mementos With Hall Of Fame [ESPN]
Dale Petroskey [Wikipedia]

(We enjoyed The Dugout's take on this too.)

Well, as pretty much everyone has weighed in on now, Mark McGwire is on the Hall of Fame ballot, and it's got everybody's panties in a bunch. We typically get exhausted by Hall of Fame debates anyway — they're like regular sports debates, except it's about stuff that ended a decade ago — but this one is the ultimate doozy, because it allows people to dither and blather about steroids some more. Because those conversations never get exhausting.

Some say McGwire should be out, some say he should be in, some say they aren't sure (though we're not sure what information they're waiting for). Our view is that McGwire is in, along with Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa and probably even Rafael Palmeiro, because steroids just don't fire us up as much as they're apparently supposed to. We promise this is the last time we're going to mention that fact; we honestly just don't care that much.

But we can guarantee you that the number of words devoted to this topic will exceed the number of words written about the NFL's steroid issues by a ratio of about 4,421 to 1.

Poll Results [Baseball Musings]
Big Mac Worthy Of The Hall? I Think Not [Seth Mnookin]

We like this picture, by the way, from one of those old Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. They couldn't do a shot from the back, lest the SI PhotoShop wizards be forced into air-brushing.