Where’s the Rickey Henderson Award?

It's not like Major League Baseball doesn’t award enough plaques and trophies in November, but one more couldn't hurt. The Rickey Henderson Award for Leadoff Excellence would be an easy and logical addition to the list.

It’s about time these table-setting catalysts got their just due, since they so rarely are recognized with the existing awards. A great idea would be to shape the trophies in the form of home plate, every leadoff man's desired destination.

The men at the top of the lineup jump-start the offense, setting a tone. They work counts. They bunt, run and steal. They do whatever it takes to generate offense and excitement. They are crucial to any team's scoring, but they generally find themselves overshadowed by the big men muscling their way to glory behind them.

Consider Henderson, universally recognized as the greatest leadoff hitter in the game's history. The Man of Steal is the all-time leader in runs scored with 2,295. He stole 1,406 bases -- 468 more than anyone else in history -- including a record 130 in 1982. That's two seasons worth for a steals king these days.

Opposing managers frequently called him the most impactful, intimidating player in the game, even when he played alongside Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco with the A's. Henderson was the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1990, one of just three seasons in which he was named a Silver Slugger Award winner for offensive excellence.
Those trophies usually go to bash brothers, guys who pound 30-plus homers and drive in 100 or more runs. A player who scores in triple digits gets overlooked even though logic suggests it's much harder to score 100 than drive in 100. RBIs can come in bunches. But you score one run at a time.

That's something Rickey liked to point out whenever he was asked to talk about Rickey.
"Scoring runs is the most important part of the game, right?" Henderson told a reporter during his time with the Yankees in the 1980s, during which he crossed home plate 146 and 130 times in consecutive seasons. "Who scores more than Rickey?"

The answer is unchanged all these years later. Nobody.

"I always said that Rickey's the greatest player I ever played with," said Dodgers manager and former Yankees superstar Don Mattingly. "He influenced a game in so many ways. Rickey was a force, one of the all-time greats."

"Rickey was my favorite player growing up," said Oakland-born Jimmy Rollins, the 2007 National League MVP as the Phillies' leadoff generator. "He's the guy I wanted to be like, play like. I loved the way he attacked the game."

A trophy honoring his abilities, accomplishments and dedication to the game would soon be one of the most coveted awards in baseball.  Think about it, commish.

also see: trophies, custom pins and corporate awards

MIAA Ends Competition for All-Sports Trophy

The University of Nebraska at Kearney won’t have to build any more trophy cases to house the conference all-sports trophies.

The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, which UNK has joined, doesn’t have one.

The Lopers won 14 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference All-Sports trophies, including 11 straight from 1995 to 2006, and survived numerous tweaks to the scoring system. The MIAA took a simpler route, giving up in 2003 after six years ¾ and six Central Missouri championships that reflect the Mules’ and Jennies’ desire to succeed.

“If you look at us across the board, we have a really well-rounded program,” UCM Athletics Director Jerry Hughes said. “We have 16 sports, and we typically have 13 or 14 of those go to national competition.”

Central Missouri won or shared MIAA championships in seven sports this past year. Nationally, the Mules and Jennies finished 10th in the Directors Cup standings, cashing in on fourth-place finishes in women’s track and field and fifth-place finishes in women’s volleyball and men’s golf.

“Our history in the Director’s Cup is better than anybody else’s in the league,” said Hughes, who has been the driving force behind Central Missouri’s athletic department since 1983. Prior to that, he was the assistant AD for two years.

Under Hughes’ leadership UCM’s men and women won the Division II basketball championships in 1984 and national baseball championships in 1994 and 2003. The Jennies also won the Intercollegiate Bowling Association championship in 2003. They lost to the Nebraska Cornhuskers in this year’s bowling quarterfinals.

Class 5A All-Sports Award Goes to Starkville High

Starkville High School athletic director Stan Miller does not believe in symbolic awards.

After being named the state's top athletic program for the 2011-12 school year in Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A, Miller got his legal pad out and started making plans.  Miller was already planning a trophy to recognize the Yellow Jackets' achievements.

"I'm going to Tally's Trophies (in Raleigh) right after the Fourth of July," Miller said. "They make the gold ball basketball trophies for the state champions. We are going to develop this all-sports trophy."

For more than two decades, the Clarion-Ledger has compiled an annual listing of the top athletic programs in each of the MHSAA's six classes. Each school receives points for different levels of postseason advancement in each of the MHSAA's 22 sanctioned sports.

Starkville High paced the state's 32 Class 5A schools with a total of 397 points. The Jackets outpaced Oxford by a total of 23.5 points. Overall, Starkville finished third in the state behind Class 6A powers Tupelo (437.5 points) and Madison Central (431).

Tupelo won the overall title for the 18th time in 25 seasons. The Golden Wave had an amazing eight state championships. Madison Central has won the other seven all-sports titles.

"As I have always said before, athletic directors do not win all-sports trophies, so it's the coaches and players who do that," Miller said. "My job was to make sure our coaches were working as hard as they could with our kids and making sure they are working with their programs in the summer."

Starkville High received some credit in 19 different varsity sports. Only Tupelo, Madison Central and Starkville scored in that many. Few Class 5A teams were close to that total.

Of the major sports, SHS football played for the state championship, boys basketball lost in the state semifinal round, girls basketball lost in the first round of the playoffs, while baseball lost in the second round of the playoffs.

The Yellow Jackets won their lone state championship in boys soccer, which was the first ever for that program. Girls soccer also advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

"Our goal this year was to win that all-sports trophy, since it's never been done before here in Starkville. So I knew moving down to 5A, we had a tremendous chance to do it.”

Dareta Supports Abesan Tourney with Trophies

Chairman of Dareta Restaurant and Bar, Abesan Estate, Dare Faneye, has donated trophies for the maiden Abesan U-18 tournament.

The donations Faneye made during his meeting with Abesan Football Development Union, led by its co-ordinator, Tayo Adeyemo, included five trophies and the sum of N500,000 towards making the event a success.

Faneye said the gesture was part of his social responsibility to Nigerian youths, using sports as a platform. According to him, “the trophies are for the top three teams while the other two are for the most valuable player and highest goal scorer in the tournament. Apart from this, the winner and the first two runners-up will share N300,000.”

The donor, whose relationship with the organizers began in 1999 when he sponsored the first two editions of their tournaments, urged the organizers to ensure that only players below 18 years participate in the championship.

Official Football Hospitality Awards Recognize Aston Villa with Six Trophies

Aston Villa Football Club was the big winner at this year's Official Football Hospitality Awards, netting six hospitality trophies including the 2012 Overall Match-day Hospitality Experience title.

The in-house catering team at Villa Park took home top prizes in three other categories: Chef Team of the Year, the Green Award and Match-day Hospitality Experience in the Premier League.

Aston Villa also scooped silver for the Media Choice Award and bronze for Conference & Events Sales & Marketing, building on the club's success at last year's ceremony, when it took home five awards.

The trophies and awards presentation, which took place last week at the American Express Community stadium - home to Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club - are now in their eighth year and recognize the efforts shown by the catering, conference and events teams at every UK football club.

Each club that took part in the awards was independently visited by a professional catering judge from Salon Culinaire over a period of six months and marked on criteria including service efficiency, food quality and venue standards.

Abramovich Wants More Trophies for Chelsea

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has said the team's Champions League triumph might spur the club's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich to go to another level in injecting cash to help the Blues win more soccer cups and trophies.

Sources close Abramovich feel that the Champions League win could mean end of his interest in the club. The Russian tycoon has already invested around one billion in the club over nine years, and the Champions League triumph could prompt an eventual sale of the club, but Buck refuted this claims.

"We've seen him, year after year, invest and put his hand in his pocket and spend big money. He may go to another level now. I don't know his thought process," The Telegraph quoted Buck, as saying.

Asked whether there were still targets and trophies for the club to aim for, Buck added: "Of course”. He explained that there were a lot of teams with three and four stars above their club badge, which are awarded for winning the Champions League, but "we have one".

Grand Champions at Great Britain Regional Championships a Family Affair

A father and son from Chipping Sodbury Tang Soo Do Club were crowned Grand Champions at the Great Britain Regional Championships in Birmingham. Connor Townsley, 16, received the colored belt Grand Champion trophy with a maximum 30 points and his father Paul Townsley, as the only people of 360 competitors from all over the country to score maximum points in the individual events.

Chipping Sodbury were the most successful club there as they racked up more points than any other club and took home 20 winning individual trophies, with 14 second place trophies and 13 third place martial arts trophies.

Nathan Manchett, Gemma Rallison, Owen Robertson, Christopher May, William Townsley, Lauren Perrett, Beverley Sadier, Katie Goldhawk, Lucia Sadler, Phil Rawlinson, Samantha Skoplljak and Ryan Newland-James also won individual events for the club.

The various categories of weapons, forms, team forms and sparring were judged, with competitors of all ages and abilities taking part, and the 33 students from Chipping Sodbury acquitted themselves admirably in every event.

They celebrated a 1-2-3 in the senior belt team category as William Townsley, Owen Robertson and Katie Goldhawk triumphed with Beverely Sadier, Sue Marchant and Kay Ashfield finishing as runners-up, and Connor Townsley, Lauren Perrett and Gemma Rallison in third.

In the junior belt category, first place went to Chris May, Rob Varga and Joe Lock, while Natasha Sadier, Lucia Sadier and Samantha Skopljak taking third place.

Instructor Paul Townsley said: “The club has a fantastic group of students. They are just a great bunch who help each other to achieve and continually make me proud.”