Maybe he deliberately irgnored the opportunities to stretch singles into doubles because he was more interested in racking up high stolen base totals. Rickey may well be the most eccentric ballplayer I've ever seen on the field. He was the anti Pete Rose in that on walks, he went to first like he was dragging the statue of liberty along with him. Those who saw him play a great deal would understand instantlly when I write that Rickey played as though his goal was to avoid spending a single calorie of energy which wasn't utterly critical to success. He also seemed to be quite deliberately slowing down on the bases in order to make the play close and exciting...and he had extraordinary instincts for doing this, I cannot recall ever seeing him called out on one of his slowdown plays. It has long been my impression that Rickey had that Muhammad Ali attitude where one is so damn good, that he can toy with the opposition and still beat them. He was definitely a man who was operating on a private agenda.
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