My Brush With Greatness - Congratulations To The Newest Baseball Hall of Famers
MooseDog
Posts: 1,948 ✭✭✭
As someone who was raised in Oakland CA and lived half my life there, I felt a sense of pride in watching a couple of guys with strong ties to the city get inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame today.
Of course you all know Rickey. I had the good fortune to be a sophomore at Oakland High School at the same time as he was a senior at rival Oakland Tech across town. In 1976 the Oakland Athletic League was as competitive as any high school sports league in the state. However the city's reputation and the fact that the league was not part of the CIF, which controls the "state championship" tournaments in California, were not eligible to compete on a state wide basis, limiting the opportunities for Oakland high school athletes to get noticed by pro and college scouts. Indeed it was even hard to get other schools to agree to play games in Oakland. Because of this many great baseball players went unnoticed and undrafted, and the Oakland Public Schools being one of the worst in the country, college scholarships were hard to come by.
Rickey was too good to ignore. Suddenly scouts were showing up at high school games in Oakland. His signing, and subesquent success on the field opened the doors for other Oakland baseball players, including Lloyd Moseby who had a good career with the Toronto Blue Jays and whom I was proud to call teammate for three years at OHS.
Rickey grew up in the Oakland "flatlands" where life can be on the tough, not to mention dangerous side, but thanks to wonderful guidance from his mom, family, and several dedicated baseball coaches he managed to stay out of the trouble that has derailed many young men, including many great Oakland athletes.
I'm proud to have a connection to this Oakland Hall of Famer. As a sophomore, in one of my few pitching appearances in 1976, I pitched the last inning of a game against Oakland Tech (we were WAY ahead) and I did retire the future HOFer on three strikes, the only time I ever faced him. That summer, we played together on a Connie Mack League team. I'm not sure I ever heard him say two words. He was very, very shy. Rickey only was with us for two weeks, then he signed and was off to begin his professional baseball journey. When he left, I exchanged my jersey for his number #22 jersey, since that was my number at OHS. Had I possibly known Rickey would become "Rickey",. I might have kept it, especially since I was already heavily into collecting sports memorabilia way back then.
I know there were a lot of people ready to see Rickey turn the induction speech into a YouTube moment and be a poster child for the Oakland Public School system but Rickey was not about to embarrass Rickey, his family or anyone else. I thought he did good. The videos of his (and the other inductees) full speeches are on mlb.com.
How Rickey Prepared For His Speech
The other new Hall of Famer you may not know is Nick Peters, a longtime local sportswriter who covered the Giants and A's for several local papers, most notably the Oakland Tribune. Nick was inducted into the Baseball Writers wing of the Hall. Besides his job, Nick was an avid sports collector, and was a regular at Dick Dobbins' card shows here in the SF Bay Area. Nick was always great to me, he knew I was a big A's fan and he always seemed to have something good to show me when I attended those shows. Back then, a teenager like me didn't always get a lot of respect from the older collectors but Nick was never condescending and he knew when he met someone who loved the game as much as he did.
Great Sacramento Bee Article about Nick's Induction
Congratulations to two very deserving gentlemen. Oakland is proud of you.
Of course you all know Rickey. I had the good fortune to be a sophomore at Oakland High School at the same time as he was a senior at rival Oakland Tech across town. In 1976 the Oakland Athletic League was as competitive as any high school sports league in the state. However the city's reputation and the fact that the league was not part of the CIF, which controls the "state championship" tournaments in California, were not eligible to compete on a state wide basis, limiting the opportunities for Oakland high school athletes to get noticed by pro and college scouts. Indeed it was even hard to get other schools to agree to play games in Oakland. Because of this many great baseball players went unnoticed and undrafted, and the Oakland Public Schools being one of the worst in the country, college scholarships were hard to come by.
Rickey was too good to ignore. Suddenly scouts were showing up at high school games in Oakland. His signing, and subesquent success on the field opened the doors for other Oakland baseball players, including Lloyd Moseby who had a good career with the Toronto Blue Jays and whom I was proud to call teammate for three years at OHS.
Rickey grew up in the Oakland "flatlands" where life can be on the tough, not to mention dangerous side, but thanks to wonderful guidance from his mom, family, and several dedicated baseball coaches he managed to stay out of the trouble that has derailed many young men, including many great Oakland athletes.
I'm proud to have a connection to this Oakland Hall of Famer. As a sophomore, in one of my few pitching appearances in 1976, I pitched the last inning of a game against Oakland Tech (we were WAY ahead) and I did retire the future HOFer on three strikes, the only time I ever faced him. That summer, we played together on a Connie Mack League team. I'm not sure I ever heard him say two words. He was very, very shy. Rickey only was with us for two weeks, then he signed and was off to begin his professional baseball journey. When he left, I exchanged my jersey for his number #22 jersey, since that was my number at OHS. Had I possibly known Rickey would become "Rickey",. I might have kept it, especially since I was already heavily into collecting sports memorabilia way back then.
I know there were a lot of people ready to see Rickey turn the induction speech into a YouTube moment and be a poster child for the Oakland Public School system but Rickey was not about to embarrass Rickey, his family or anyone else. I thought he did good. The videos of his (and the other inductees) full speeches are on mlb.com.
How Rickey Prepared For His Speech
The other new Hall of Famer you may not know is Nick Peters, a longtime local sportswriter who covered the Giants and A's for several local papers, most notably the Oakland Tribune. Nick was inducted into the Baseball Writers wing of the Hall. Besides his job, Nick was an avid sports collector, and was a regular at Dick Dobbins' card shows here in the SF Bay Area. Nick was always great to me, he knew I was a big A's fan and he always seemed to have something good to show me when I attended those shows. Back then, a teenager like me didn't always get a lot of respect from the older collectors but Nick was never condescending and he knew when he met someone who loved the game as much as he did.
Great Sacramento Bee Article about Nick's Induction
Congratulations to two very deserving gentlemen. Oakland is proud of you.
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Comments
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
Very interesting - great read.
I couldn't even make first team in high school! I did like to play tho.
Thanx for sharing - one of the nicest threads in a while!
mike
I, like many others, could not wait to hear Ricky's HOF speech and listen to Rickey speaking RickeyTalk! I have always liked and respected Rickey, but after listening to his speech and reading your link about how he studied and practice for his speech, I have a whole new respect for this man. There was NO WAY he could have given the speech he did without a lot of hard work on his part. CONGRATULATIONS MR. HENDERSON!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Great story though....
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