Our All Time Top 50 Oakland Athletics have been revised to reflect the 2024 Season
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists and consistently look to update them when necessary and based on necessity. As such, we are delighted to present our post-2024 revision of our top 50 Oakland Athletics.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball, we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.
Please note that our algorithm has changed, which yielded minor changes throughout the baseball lists.
Last year, the Athletics had another awful year, which turned out to be their final season in Oakland, as they will be playing in Sacramento for three years until they move to Las Vegas. There were no new entrants, but changes within the list based on the new algorithm.
As always, we present our top five, which saw a change at the top based on the new algorithm.
2. Lefty Grove
3. Eddie Plank
4. Jimmie Foxx
5. Al Simmons
You can find the entire list here.
As mentioned above, Henderson overtook Grove for the top spot based on the new calculations.
We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.
RIP: Rickey Henderson
We lost a legend today.
The greatest leadoff man in baseball history and the GOAT of the basepaths, Rickey Henderson, passed away. He was 65.
Henderson played for 25 years, defying age and mystifying logic with his enigmatic words. He was s force of nature on and off the field, referring to himself in the third person, and displaying a passion for baseball that had no peers.
From Oakland, Henderson played a large part of his career with the hometown Athletics, the team where he set the single-season record in Stolen Bases (130). He would shatter Lou Brock’s record, a seemingly unbreakable 1,406. Henderson also had an excellent power game, blasting 297 Home Runs, with a lifetime Slash Line of .279/.401/.419.
The “Man of Steal” won the 1990 American League MVP and was a two-time World Series champion (1988 Oakland and 1993 with Toronto). He also played for the New York Yankees, San Diego, Anaheim, New York Mets, Seattle, Boston, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009 on his first year of eligibility.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Rickey Henderson
Our All-Time Top 50 Oakland Athletics have been revised to reflect the 2023 Season
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2023 revision of our top 50 Oakland Athletics.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in Major League Baseball.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.
Last year, the Athletics had another awful year, where they not only lost a lot of games and were mocked for their lack of attendance. Their time left in Oakland is questionable, and they remain in a perpetual state of rebuilding. This led to another year, where we saw no new entrants and elevations. Nevertheless, at the end of every year we always acknowledge that we took into account the past season.
As always, we present our top five, which (obviously) saw no changes:
1. Lefty Grove
3. Eddie Plank
4. Jimmie Foxx
5. Al Simmons
You can find the entire list here.
We thank you for your continued support for our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.
Our All Time Top 50 Oakland Athletics have been updated to reflect the 2022 Season
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top Oakland Athletics.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.
Last year, the Oakland continued their tradition as a basement dweller, that develop talent only to trade them when they can no longer afford them. This makes it very difficult for anyone to crack the Top 50, and no one was able to do so in 2022, but we wanted to show that this reflects the last season.
As always, we present our top five, which was not affected by the last season:
1. Lefty Grove
3. Eddie Plank
4. Jimmie Foxx
5. Al Simmons
You can find the entire list here.
We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.
1. Rickey Henderson
Rickey Henderson is a lot of things. He is eccentric. He often refers to himself in the third person. He is the greatest leadoff hitter ever. He is the ultimate base stealer. He was a first ballot Hall of Famer.
He is all of those things.
Despite all of the other teams he played for (New York Yankees, Toronto, San Diego, Anaheim, New York Mets, Seattle, Boston, and Los Angeles), he is one other thing: an Oakland Athletic.
Henderson debuted for Oakland in 1979, and in 1980 he would set the American League Stolen Base Record with 100 while going to his first All-Star Game. The following season was strike-shortened, but Henderson was again the Stolen Base leader (56) and would lead the AL in Runs Scored (89), Hits (135), and he was the runner-up for the American League MVP. He would also earn his only Gold Glove this year and received his first Silver Slugger Award.
The fleet-footed Outfielder would break the AL record for Stolen Bases that he set in 1980 with a 130 SB season that set the standard regardless of the league. He would have another 108 Stolen Bases in 1983 and 66 in 1984, both of which were league leading. Henderson also established himself as a solid hitter who, in his first five full seasons (1980-84, not counting 1979), never had an On Base Percentage under .398. This was an impressive run, but it ended when he was traded to the New York Yankees before the 1985 season. This was still the beginning and not the end.
Henderson was traded back to Oakland during the 1989 season, and the A’s, who were already loaded with talent, were going for it all. Henderson helped Oakland win the World Series that year, which would be the only one he would capture as an Athletic. He would have his best season ever in 1990, where he won the MVP by hitting a career-high 28 Home Runs and leading the AL in Runs Scored (119), OBP (.439), OPS (1.016), and batting .325. The Athletics went to the World Series that year but were shocked by the Cincinnati Reds, who swept them in four games. Henderson remained strong for Oakland but was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays midway through the 1993 season, and he would help them win the World Series. In the off-season, he resigned with Oakland.
This period would begin his nomadic run, as he was with A's for only two seasons and would sign with the Padres as a Free Agent after. He came back in 2008 for his fourth run, which lasted only one season, though it was a good one that yielded his last Stolen Base title.
When it was all said and done, Rickey Henderson would accumulate 1,270 runs and 1,768 Hits. 167 Home Runs, 867 Stolen Bases with a Slash Line of .288/.409/.430 as an Athletic.
As of this writing, he is the all-time leader in Runs Scored (2,295) and Stolen Bases (1,406), much of which was accumulated in Oakland, which, as you saw above, was an awful lot!
43. Rickey Henderson
