Rickey Henderson, the man that many consider the greatest lead-off hitter of all time, had a very long career. As a result, he used a lot of bats. While Henderson tried different professional model bat brands throughout his career, such as Rawlings/Adirondack, Carolina Club and Mizuno, his bat of choice for most of it appeared to be Louisville Slugger. Moreover, he tended to use a fairly light bat, much like contemporary Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. Henderson also preferred using solid black bats for a good portion of his playing days versus the more common, natural-colored bats or two-toned gamers, though he did use all three types of bats at different stages of his career. To enhance his grip, Henderson did use pine tar and Mota stick at times, but he didn't use heavy amounts of either gripping substance very often.
It is not uncommon to find Henderson bats with various styles of taped handles too, especially towards the latter half of his career. Furthermore, Henderson would occasionally shave the handles of his bats to make them thinner, but this was a rare practice for him. It is important to note that Henderson's uniform number changed several times during his career, and you can find a number of his gamers with his uniform number noted on the knob or barrel end.
While his primary uniform number was "24" with various teams, Henderson wore other numbers like "39" and "35" (Oakland A's, Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox), "22" (A's), "14" (Toronto Blue Jays) and "25" (Los Angeles Dodgers). Keep in mind that Henderson did produce a limited number of documented hit bats in the early 2000s.
Rickey Henley Henderson (December 25, 1958-) holds the records for most stolen bases in a career (1,406), most stolen bases in a single season (130), most walks (2,190), most career runs (2,295) and most leadoff home runs (81). The ten-time All-Star selection played 25 seasons for nine teams, primarily with Oakland (1979-1984, 1989-1993, 1994-1995, 1998) and the Yankees (1985-1989). Rickey Henderson led the league twelve times in stolen bases, five times in runs and four times in walks. In 1990, Rickey Henderson was named the American League Most Valuable Player after posting a league leading 119 runs and 58 stolen bases while batting .325 with a league leading on-base percentage of .439 as he helped guide the A’s to a second straight AL pennant. Rickey Henderson was a Gold Glove winner in 1981, won three Silver Slugger Awards and was a member of two World Series champions with Oakland in 1989 and Toronto in 1993. Rickey Henderson’s amazing durability, surprising power and seemingly never-fading speed made him arguably the greatest leadoff batter and certainly the greatest base stealer of all-time. Rickey Henderson retired after compiling 3,055 hits, 2,295 runs, 1,115 RBI 297 home runs and 1,406 stolen bases with a .279 career batting average. Rickey Henley Henderson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.
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