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MLB’s All-Time Great Lead-Off Hitters

  • Edgar Chaput's Author profile. Edgar Chaput

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MLB’s All-Time Great Lead-Off Batters

Toronto Blue Jays right fielder George Springer recently hit his 54th home run in the lead-off spot. That puts in him in a tie with Alfonso Soriano for number two overall. The great Rickey Henderson is first with 81 home runs. David Bastl pries John Gibbons’ mind to know who are the greatest lead-off hitters he ever watched or played with.

“One hundred per cent on this one: Ricky Henderson. So who would we put at number two?…I gotta go with Pete Rose, the all-time hit king. He was the prototypical lead-off hitter back then.”

After getting two of the biggest names out of the way, “Gibby” shows some love to players who carved their names in baseball history, if maybe not to the same degree as Henderson and Rose.

“Lenny Dykstra I thought was one of the best. He did everything right. One of the best lead-on hitters I ever saw. He drew walks to get on base. He could steal bases, and he could burn you deep every now and again.”

Vince Coleman, remembered as one of the great St. Louis Cardinals, also gets a mention. Maybe he wasn’t the best hitter, but he didn’t need to be. Coleman was all about putting the ball in play. The old artificial turf the Cardinals played on at home in the 1980s made it easier for Coleman to get some speed with his legs,, which made throwing him out a tall challenge. Stealing bases was as easy as pie too, meaning that whoever batted next just needed a single and St. Louis practically had a run in the bag.

With a wry smile, there is one player that “Gibby” insists that fans and pundits don’t forget about; Jose Bautista. Bastl asks why Gibbons even put a player of his calibre in the lead-off spot at all.

“Well, no one has ever accused me of being smart!”