Elephant Rumblings: Rickey Henderson To Enter Bay Area Hall of Fame

A’s Coverage:

• Mlb.com: Baseball Hall of Famer and Oakland A’s legend Rickey Henderson to be inducted into Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
• Rubin: Q&A: The Pitching Ninja evaluates the A’s prodigious 2020 pitching staff
• Slusser: A’s open camp with top-notch rotation in place: ‘We expect big things’ ($)
• Cluff: Robbie Ray trade to Oakland Athletics listed among next potential big MLB moves in 2020 ($)
• Szymborski: 2020 ZiPS Projections: Oakland Athletics

MLB News:

• Bastian: Kipnis, hometown Cubs near deal
• Browne: Roenicke named Boston’s interim skipper
• Trupin: Mariners sign OF Carlos González to minor league deal with spring training invite
• Morosi: Several teams checking in on Kris Bryant trade

Baseball Interest Stories:

• John Sickels’ Top 100 MLB prospects for the 2020 season (UPDATED with ETAs) ($$$)
• Paschal: The Springfield Nuclear Plant Nine: Where Are They Now?
• Flannery: MLB players’ battle against collusion goes back decades. Meet one of its key early figures.
• Clemens: The New Playoff Format Would Disincentivize Competition

Today in Baseball History:

• 1878 - Fredrick W. Thayer patents the catcher’s mask. He is the captain of Harvard University Baseball Club.
• 1903 - Charles (Chick) Hafey is born in Berkeley, California. Hafey will make his major league debut in 1924 with the St. Louis Cardinals. During a 13-year career with the Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds, Hafey will hit .317, including a National League batting crown with .349 in 1931, and will be part of two World Series championships in 1926 and 1931. Hafey will enter the Hall of Fame in 1971.
• 1930 - After leading his Philadelphia Athletics to the 1929 World Championship, Connie Mack becomes the first sports figure to receive the prestigious Edward W. Bok Prize for service to the city of Philadelphia.
• 1980 - Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley’s plan to sell his team to oil mogul Marv Davis is thwarted when the American League offers to buy out the Oakland Coliseum lease. Davis had hoped to move the franchise to Denver.

Best of YouTube:

Grab yourself some tea and a scone, then enjoy this lovely British review of the 2019 A’s season. The theme song is top notch...

Best of Twitter:

Big trend these days of players using high-speed cameras to track pitches. I mean, look at what you can see with it...

Dang, when people say a fella’s got “stuff”, this is what that looks like...

Barrempeuse projected to put up 1.7 WAR at 2B for the A’s this year...