The game changed while Henderson was busy rewriting the record books, setting new standards for stolen bases, walks, and the statistic he values most - runs scored. The traditional definition of leadoff man was rendered as useful as one of Henderson's discarded wrist bands. Henderson was anything but a slap hitter, as his 290 career home runs and record 79 leadoff home runs will attest.

''Everybody's looking for a guy who can lead off,'' said Frank Robinson, the Hall of Fame outfielder who has returned to the dugout to manage the Montreal Expos. ''But whoever they put up there now doesn't do the things a leadoff hitter used to be called upon to do.

''Going deep in the count, bunting, stealing a base, that type of thing - getting on base any way you can - that doesn't seem to matter now. Each position used to be defined, from 1 to 8. These days, you put people in a lineup and say, `Go get 'em.'''

In the 1950s, when Robinson played for the Cincinnati Reds and Birdie Tebbetts was managing, a second baseman named Johnny Temple led off for the Reds.

''Birdie Tebbetts wouldn't let Temple swing at the first pitch, a 2-and-0 pitch, or a 3-and-1 pitch,'' Robinson said.

''You can't do that now. Now, they would call the agent, the agent would be on the phone to the general manager, and the general manager would be breathing down your neck.''

''The players today haven't been schooled coming up the ranks on what you're supposed to do. They don't take a pitch. They're allowed to swing, so they're down at the end of the bat, swinging from their rear ends.''

An old-school rant? Of course, but that doesn't make it any less valid. Sports Illustrated reported last spring that in 1980, when there were 26 big-league teams, leadoff men combined to hit 175 home runs and steal 1,232 bases. A decade later, those numbers had changed to 262 home runs and 976 stolen bases. By 2000, with 30 teams, the shift was even more pronounced, to 423 home runs and 872 stolen bases. More power, less speed.

When Chuck Knoblauch was at the peak of his game, leading off for the Minnesota Twins and later the Yankees, he said it should be the goal of every leadoff man to have an on-base percentage of .400. Last season, there wasn't a leadoff man in either league who cracked that number and only one leadoff man, DH Frank Catalanotto of the Texas Rangers, who finished in the top 10 in either league in on-base percentage (.391).

It's why you hear baseball people get so excited at the emergence of a player like Juan Pierre, the Colorado Rockies' center fielder who in his first full season last year hit .327, stole 46 bases, scored 108 runs, and had an on-base percentage of .378, second only to Craig Biggio of the Houston Astros among NL leadoff hitters.

''He's a Kenny Lofton type,'' said Bob Johnson, a scout for the Oakland A's. ''He can really fly.''

Mike Pazik, a scout for the Kansas City Royals, worked for the Rockies last year.

''His work ethic is unbelievable,'' he said of Pierre. ''He's a great kid who works hard every day. He's a very intelligent kid who knows his shortcomings. He's a kid who can bunt, who makes contact, who can steal a base. I don't know what else you could want from a leadoff man.''

Basis for success

The incentive to finding an outstanding leadoff man is the best teams tend to have one. When Lee Thomas, now a special assistant to the GM with Boston, was in Philadelphia, Lenny Dykstra led off for the Phillies. In 1993, when the Phillies won the National League pennant, the Phils led the league in on-base percentage and scored a league-high 877 runs.

The Yankees of Ruth and Gehrig had outfielder Earle Combs, who had an on-base percentage of .397, though his home runs (58) and stolen bases (96) fall far short of the gold standard set by Henderson. DiMaggio's Yankees had Frankie Crosetti and Phil Rizzuto, and later generations of Bombers featured Mickey Rivers, Henderson, and Knoblauch, whose leadoff role this season has been given to Derek Jeter, a job his on-base numbers suggest he is well-suited for.

Henderson never reached the postseason until his second stint with Oakland, and in 1990 he was named AL MVP as the A's captured the pennant. When Maury Wills stole a then-record 104 bases for the Dodgers in 1962 in winning the NL MVP, that was the season Tommy Davis drove in 153 runs in Los Angeles, where Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale usually needed just a run or two to win. Shortstop Zoilo Versailles, the Twins' leadoff man, was the American League MVP in 1965, when the Twins won the pennant. Pete Rose was leadoff man for the Big Red Machine and won his MVP in 1973.

Lou Brock, whose career stolen base record fell to Henderson, brought some of the same components to the game for St. Louis that Henderson did, showing some power as well as speed, but he struck out too much to be a true leadoff man - nine seasons of more than 100 whiffs. Bobby Bonds, the father of Giants' slugger Barry, also was a 30 home run-30 stolen base type who probably should have hit lower in the order, because he, too, routinely struck out well over 100 times.

Shortstop Bert Campaneris, and later speedy outfielder Billy North, were the catalysts for Charlie Finley's A's in the '70s. Lofton led the Indians to their first World Series appearance in 49 years leading off for Cleveland in 1997. And last season, when Seattle tied a 95-year-old record by winning 116 regular-season games, the AL MVP was Ichiro Suzuki, the imported Japanese leadoff model.

''Ichiro, he's a swinger who gets on base by getting 250-something hits,'' Robinson countered. ''He's not a true leadoff hitter. I don't know if there is one.''

For years, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa had Henderson leading off for him in Oakland.

''I still think the on-base percentage leadoff hitter is as important as ever,'' La Russa said. ''You need the table-setter if you've got good guys in the middle of the lineup.

''Somebody like Rickey will steal second and if you can get him over to third, he'll score sometimes without a hit. The running game defense is tougher and tougher. You can shut down the running game, but getting on base is still the key to scoring a run.

''Rickey used to be a great player. You still have to consider him a good player, which is a heck of a statement about someone who is 43. But when he was a great player, I thought he was the most dangerous guy in the league. Ninth inning, you have a one-run lead, he was the guy you didn't want to hit in the ninth because he'd get that run. Now, he's one of the danger guys.''

Henderson last season hit a career-low .227 for the Padres, but because of his 81 walks, his leadoff OBP of .366 was third best among all NL leadoff men, behind Biggio and Pierre. Biggio, the indestructible Astros leadoff man who has helped Houston win four division titles in the last five years, has taken leading off to a place where even Henderson hasn't ventured. Biggio has been hit by a pitch 197 times, fourth all time and one fewer than Robinson.

''I still think a leadoff man is still very important,'' Henderson said. ''We overlook leadoff men because sometimes they don't hit for a high average or don't hit the ball out of the ballpark. They're hitting in front of those big guys driving in all those runs and hitting those home runs.

''But we just saw one of the biggest home run exhibitions ever in the National League, and those guys [Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa] didn't drive in so many runs (Bonds 137, Sosa 160) by hitting only solo shots. Those guys in front make a difference.

''But leadoff guys now aren't trying to do little things. They want to do big things because they want to get paid. They'd do the little things if they were looked as equal to the big guys.''

Defining the role

When Henderson was with the Mets, he played with outfielder Roger Cedeno, who stole 66 bases while Henderson stole 37, at age 40. He said that if anyone might break his single-season record of 130, it would be Cedeno.

''But I was watching TV the other day, and he looks as big as an ox,'' said Henderson. ''You got to be flexible, you got to be loose. A lot of the guys who bulk up are the guys getting hurt.''

Before the Red Sox signed Henderson at the eve of spring training, they made a much more heralded acquisition, signing Johnny Damon to a four-year, $30 million deal. Damon appears to have all the tools to be a premium leadoff man - over a three-year span with the Royals, he hit over .300 and averaged 114 runs scored and 36 steals.

But last season, after being traded to Oakland, Damon barely kept his average over .200 for 21/2 months, and while he scored 108 runs, he hit a career-low .256, and his on-base percentage in the leadoff hole was an unacceptable .324.

Damon is an accomplished bunter, but he never has walked as much as 70 times in a season, and he admits struggling to adjust to Oakland's philosophy of working the count. This season, he will share leadoff duties with Henderson, who figures to hit first and Damon second when the Sox face lefties.

In some ways, Henderson suggested, Damon may be better suited for batting in the No. 2 hole. Hitting leadoff effectively, he said, demands a willingness to hit with two strikes.

''You've got to be able to learn how to hit with two strikes,'' Henderson said. ''For a lot of hitters, that's panic time. Two strikes, some guys panic and chase pitches.''

That brings us back to Robinson's contention that many players simply don't know better.

''Everybody swings from the end of the bat with two strikes,'' he said. ''Nobody shortens up. Nobody sits back a little bit and be less aggressive. All the time you see guys swinging at pitches with strikes, balls bouncing in the dirt, like the count is 3 and 0. They don't know how to hit in those situations.

''But it's very difficult to teach guys, because they don't have to accept it. You can't tell a hitter, `Do this or else,' because there is no `else.' He's going to be in lineup, anyway. That's the way it is today.''

How do you find a good leadoff man?

''I can tell you this,'' said Gary Hughes, special assistant to Reds GM Jim Bowden. ''In 10 years as a scouting director, I never read a report that ever referred to a potential leadoff hitter. Scouts look at tools, but their reports never get as specific as that.

''There's a lot of emphasis of late on on-base percentage, but I've never made it a priority to talk about it.''

But while Suzuki, who walked just 30 times last season, might not be the prototype, Hughes suspects the Mariners might be onto something.

''Ichiro reduces the game to slow-pitch softball,'' he said. ''He can do anything he wants with his bat. I saw a game in which there were 10 ground balls hit between first and second. Seven of them were outs. Three of them were hit by Ichiro. Two of them went through for hits, and he beat out the third for another hit.''

Tough to follow his lead, Hughes acknowledges, but definitely worth a try. No more Rickeys perhaps, but we could be looking at a 21st-century prototype.

This story ran on page D2 of the Boston Globe on 3/29/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.