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Rick out, Rickey In?

Frayed Knot Jul 11 2007 09:26 PM

WFAN reports that Newsday is reporting that Rick Down is out as hitting coach, to be replaced by Rickey Henderson effective immediately.

Johnny Dickshot Jul 11 2007 09:31 PM

Holy fuck. Omar the assassin? Rickey?!?

Johnny Dickshot Jul 11 2007 09:31 PM

Wow. Yahoo!

Nymr83 Jul 11 2007 09:33 PM Re: Rick out, Rickey In?

Frayed Knot wrote: WFAN reports that Newsday is reporting that Rick Down is out as hitting coach, to be replaced by Rickey Henderson effective immediately. Rickey is gonna help the guys win, Rickey is looking to be a player-coach, looking to bat leadoff ahead of this reyes fella, Rickey knows Rickey can contribute with the bat. Rickey is younger than Julio Franco and is only asking for 1 year.

Johnny Dickshot Jul 11 2007 09:35 PM

[url]http://tinyurl.com/29cvaq[/url] ] Rickey Henderson hired as Mets hitting coach Newsday has learned that Rick Down has been relieved of his duties and that the future Hall of Famer will take over immediately. BY KEN DAVIDOFF AND DAVID LENNON kenneth.davidoff@newsday.com dave.lennon@newsday.com July 11, 2007, 10:51 PM EDT The Mets will begin the season's second half with a dramatic change in their coaching staff, Newsday has learned. Rick Down is out as hitting coach, and Rickey Henderson is in. Down said that Willie Randolph informed him Wednesday night of the decision, and that he would be replaced by Henderson. A person familiar with the situation confirmed that Henderson, the future Hall of Famer who has never served as a coach, would take over as hitting coach. When asked whether Randolph offered an explanation, Down replied: "Not really. Approach, I guess." The Mets have a 48-39 record and two-game lead over Atlanta in the National League East, own a .332 on-base percentage, fifth in the NL, and a .419 slugging percentage, ranking them seventh in the league. Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

smg58 Jul 11 2007 09:37 PM

Seems overly drastic to me.

Gwreck Jul 11 2007 10:08 PM

Smells suspiciously like "making a move for the sake of making a move."

DocTee Jul 11 2007 10:15 PM

The second-place D-baggs also shit-canned thier hitting coach, bringing in Rick Schu to replace Kevin Seitzer. I like our new guys stats better than theirs.

Edgy DC Jul 11 2007 10:18 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 12 2007 07:11 AM

While I don't like jettisoning coaches mid-season, and this is no exception, I don't think it's "making a move for the sake of making a move." If pitch selection is an issue (I think it is), nobody knows that aspect of the game better than Rickey, and the limited work he's done suggests he can teach it. Drastic? Yes. Scapegoating? Of course. Overly desperate for a first-place team. It certainly can be argued. Without any logic? I don't think so. Entertaining? Holy shit. I posted, when it was first announced that Henderson was to be a spring training instructor, that, if he could teach Jose Reyes 10-15% of what he knows about pitch selection/plate discipline, it'd be, like, the best thing ever. That seemingly has come to pass, and I'm certainly curious if he can do more.

Edgy DC Jul 11 2007 10:22 PM

DocTee wrote: The second-place D-baggs also shit-canned thier hitting coach, bringing in Rick Schu to replace Kevin Seitzer. I like our new guys stats better than theirs. That's pretty funny. Each of those guys came up and knocked one of the best thirdbasemen ever over to first.

duan Jul 12 2007 04:33 AM

the mets have CLEARLY wanted Rickey to be involved in a coaching perspective for a while, but Rickey wanted to remain 'able to play', which meant taking a full time position was possible. Rickey's obviously decided to let playing go and move on, the Mets are tying him to them as quickly as they can having seen the results he's been able to achieve in limited time frames.

metirish Jul 12 2007 06:37 AM

This will certainly get the players attention,I don't like to see a guy lose his job but I think this move could help...is this official ,because the Snooze says that maybe Hojo will be the hitting coach.

Edgy DC Jul 12 2007 07:13 AM

Although I think duan says "possible" when he means "impossible," it's funny to read his post as Henderson's press conference statement from the podium.

Centerfield Jul 12 2007 08:23 AM

Shake it up!

Benjamin Grimm Jul 12 2007 08:26 AM

Twist and shout!

Willets Point Jul 12 2007 10:45 AM

Awesome!

Centerfield Jul 12 2007 11:49 AM

Will Rickey be given #24?

Benjamin Grimm Jul 12 2007 11:55 AM

I hope so. This "semi-retirement" of number 24 is stupid. Give it to Rickey, and when he's done with it give it to the next Kelvin Torve who comes along.

Batty31 Jul 12 2007 12:50 PM

metirish wrote: This will certainly get the players attention,I don't like to see a guy lose his job but I think this move could help...is this official ,because the Snooze says that maybe Hojo will be the hitting coach. I keep reading reports that they did consider Hojo for the job. Here is a bit from an article in the NY Times: "Henderson will most likely replace Down, but according to a club official, the Mets were deliberating whether to make him the first-base coach and bump Howard Johnson to hitting coach." It seems like a panic move to me. Has firing the hitting coach ever been the solution?

metirish Jul 12 2007 01:05 PM

Here is the bizarre Rickey....from Jim Baumbach . ] There's been so many stories told about Rickey, it's often hard to remember what's truth and what's fiction. He's well known for not remembering his teammates' names, and one of his former teammates once told me a story about how Rickey was forced to stand on the team bus and list everyone's names. Of course, he couldn't do it. Then there's the story that Tony Gwynn likes to repeat, about how when they were teammates on the Padres Gwynn offered Rickey a prime seat on the team bus because, he explained, Rickey had tenure. As the story goes, Rickey responded with something to the effect of, "What are you talking about? Rickey's got 17 years." In search of more Rickey stories, I dug deep into the Newsday archives this morning, reading through as many Rickey quotes as I could find. Here's the best of them. *** Rickey's years with the Yankees were quite newsworthy, though that had as much to do with George Steinbrenner being in his prime, firing managers at will. But Rickey did his part to add to the bizarre clubhouse atmosphere. -- On Billy Martin's rule that players must show part of their stirrup, Henderson said, "Tomorrow I'm going to put a big bucket in the middle of the [clubhouse]. We're all going to throw our socks in there and I'll burn them." -- On a private meeting with George Steinbrenner to discuss his criticisms, Rickey insisted he wasn't bothered one bit. "I'm like a branch floating in the breeze," he said. -- On manager Lou Piniella putting him in centerfield, "Centerfield? I ain't playing centerfield. I don't care. I ain't playing there." (This quote seems to me to be the best of Jim Mora's "Playoffs?" and Allen Iverson's "We're talking about practice!" combined into one.) -- But nothing topped the start of spring training in 1989 for Rickey, considering for the fifth straight season with the Yankees he did not show on the report date. This, however, did not please new manager Dallas Green. Not that Rickey cared. He had his own explanation, saying he flew from Oakland to Atlanta to Baltimore to Miami to Fort Lauderdale, then found out he had no hotel reservations for spring training. "Yeah, I was ticked off," he said. "I had no place to stay. You're calling me and telling me to come to spring training. You don't have a place [for me] to stay. Why come to spring training?" The story was vintage Rickey. Told Green was not happy with him, he said, "Upset with me? The manager ain't even met me. How can he be upset? What can he be upset for? I might be early. He said I'm late . . . I have business. I have things I've got to do before I get to spring training . . . My itinerary told me to be here today. Their itinerary told me to be here Wednesday. My itinerary told me to come here Thursday and be dressed Friday. I guess they misprinted it." Even then, people were using the Rickey being Rickey phrase, including Rickey himself. "Rickey's gonna be Rickey. Period. No matter what I'm going to do or play or come here early, I'm gonna be Rickey. Rickey is not going to change and not be himself. I've been in this world too long to try to change Rickey and what he does . . . My mother don't even try to change me. She raised me, but she ain't gonna change me. "But what is 'being Rickey?' . . . What is 'being Rickey?' . . . Doin' his own thing? What is it I'm doing different? What am I doing? I didn't come on a day that he said. I came when I could make it." -- Speaking of Rickey's mother… he said after the A's won the World Series that season that he wanted to be a football player, but his mother, Bobbie, wouldn't let him. Rickey was still angered by that. "If she had let me go to college," Rickey said, "I could have become Bo Jackson before Bo Jackson." But… does Bo know Rickey? -- Remember when Rickey broke Lou Brock's stolen base record and proclaimed over the loudspeaker, "Today, I am the greatest of all-time." That's not all he did. The day before, Henderson arrived in the clubhouse and handed out specially made flyers with the words, "I was there when Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's all-time stolen-base record of 938 with steal number 939." He also had t-shirts commemorating the event ready to go. -- Here's a good Rickey being Rickey moment. During the 1992 season Rickey was unhappy with his contract, which was a common theme during his career. He told the Sacramento Bee, "'I'm not happy, so I'm going to ask to be traded. It's been going on too long. I don't think I'm treated fairly. They don't deserve what I do." Of course one day later he back-peddled, saying, "You are fools. It's a big joke. Rickey tricked everybody. Thank you all." -- Now let's fast forward to Rickey's short but eventful time with the Mets. He explained on his first day of spring training in 1999 that part of the reason he doesn't always know teammates' names is because, "I like nicknames." And, also, he said, "I never get that close to pitchers." -- He started camp just 1-for-20, but he wasn't worried. "If Rickey had to get on base right now, Rickey would." -- He enjoyed a fine 1999 season at the plate, but his play quickly became overshadowed by the show he put off the field. He grew irate at Bobby Valentine for taking him off the field for a defensive replacement during a playoff game, which essentially was the turning point with the Mets. He started the 2000 season unhappy, though in a way only Rickey can be unhappy. "I came here, I was a happy man today. I'll be happy tomorrow. Even if I'm talking unhappy, I was happy." Then, at the start of the season, "When Rickey's not happy, that's not good." Two days later, "My head ain't on right… I'm in a bad situation, a bad way. I hate it. I hate where I am." He went on to say he had a "garbage contract," which he partly blamed his agent for. But it wasn't meant to be, and the Mets released him in May. "I'm going fishing," he said. -- And, one final story I came across was a bizarre shouting match Rickey had with none other than El Duque during a spring training game in 2002. It wasn't clear what exactly bothered El Duque. He began yelling and they eventually had to be held back. "He needs to grow up a little bit," Rickey said. "I ain't a kid. When I broke into the game, he was crawling on his hands and knees. Unless he's as old as I am. He probably is." Email: jim.baumbach@newsday.com

Nymr83 Jul 12 2007 01:57 PM

i remember a story that when Rickey went to Seattle after the Mets he was talking to John Olerud about wearing a helmet in the field and told him that he played with a guy in NY who did that (which, of course, was Olerud.)

Johnny Dickshot Jul 12 2007 02:01 PM

I believe Robin Ventura made that story up -- it was funny because it was believeable.

Benjamin Grimm Jul 12 2007 02:02 PM

Yeah, that smells like an Urban Legend to me.

Kid Carsey Jul 12 2007 05:49 PM

I've been somewhat off-the-air on some of the goings on and now it's un- clear if Rickey will be batting coach or something else? Hojo to give up first base coach and become hitting instructor with Rickey over there at first is a possibility since the Mets don't seem to want to make anything official. Willie visibly annoyed about his friend getting the boot. If ya really want to read into to stuff (more than probably warranted) is this a wake up call to Willie that his team should be doing better? Is Rickey being brought in be- cause Reyes and Wright like him? I don't think Jose is diggin' Willie right now. Mangers generally get to pick their staff. I'm sure Willie knows Rickey pretty well but there's something about this that's making me scratch my head a little and wonder how everything will pan out.

DocTee Jul 12 2007 08:15 PM

Marty Noble says all signs point to HoJo as hitting coach and Rickey assuming his spring training duties as "baserunning"--and probable first base-- coach

metirish Jul 12 2007 09:11 PM

Willie is fucking pissed,talking about how Rick was his brother,told Omar he's the GM and if he wantred to fire Down then he could,cos well he's the GM...Willie left little doubt that he din't like it. Omar couldn't put a complete sentence together talking aobut the firing....

metirish Jul 12 2007 09:24 PM

Gwreck wrote: Smells suspiciously like "making a move for the sake of making a move." ] "It's not that one guy is going to make that big of a difference," Minaya said. "I think that whoever we put as hitting coach, it's because we just needed a change."

Johnny Dickshot Jul 12 2007 09:27 PM

It seems obvious there's a good bit of internal unhappiness with the Mets this year. I don't know if its that bad, but it's enough to have noticed.

Edgy DC Jul 13 2007 07:46 AM

Down had a two year contract for the Mets to eat. The entire staff ('cept Acta, of course) was re-signed to two-year deals this off-season, except for Rick Peterson, who got three.

Benjamin Grimm Jul 13 2007 01:51 PM

="Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports"] Mets to name Johnson hitting coach By Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports July 13, 2007 Howard Johnson will be named hitting coach of the New York Mets on Friday, getting the nod over Rickey Henderson, who will coach first base, baseball sources said. Ninth in the National League in runs after finishing third in the NL last season, the Mets fired hitting coach Rick Down during the All-Star break and interviewed Henderson in San Francisco this week. General manager Omar Minaya decided Friday morning that Johnson, who managed and served as hitting instructor in the Mets organization before being named the parent club's first-base coach before the season, would be best suited to replace Down. Henderson, who last played in 2003, retired with 3,055 hits, a .279 batting average and a .401 on-base percentage. Johnson batted .249 with 228 home runs in a 14-year career that ended in 1995. His best seasons came with the Mets, and he helped them to a World Series title in 1986.

Centerfield Jul 13 2007 02:17 PM

Tim Brown uses the term "helped" very liberally. HoJo was 0 for 7 in the '86 post-season, striking out in a key at-bat in the 9th inning of Game 6.

Willets Point Aug 01 2007 01:20 PM

Funny pseudo-Rickey post.