Mike McCann's Field of Fotos

December 25th, the birthday of the best leadoff hitter I've ever seen, stolen base king Rickey Henderson. Without a doubt, he's the greatest baseball talent ever born on Christmas Day. A superlative combination of speed and power -- and let's not overlook durability. In 25 major league seasons, he stole a record 1406 bases, added 297 homers -- including an unprecedented 81 leading off a game. The speedburner totaled 3055 hits while maintaining an on-base percentage of .401. He's a lock for Hall of Fame induction (as we learned a month later). One other Christmas Baseball Baby deserves our attention. He was the best pitcher on the worst team of the '60s. Alvin Jackson was an Original Met, playing both Polo Grounds seasons and then the first two at Shea -- all 10th place finishes. Amazingly, on that 120-defeat team in '62, Jackson tossed four shutouts! Curious which ballplayers share your birthday? The site, linked below, will show you who they are, as well as wh

Winter's icy grip has the northeast below freezing. An inch of snow fell here in Connecticut Saturday night and still coats my backyard. The winter meetings are giving baseball some fresh coverage in the sports section, But we need more -- I need more. Let's grab onto some vivid summer images... August 12th, 1991 with the Mets visiting the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The bleachers, the ivy, the rooftop seats just across the street. Icy cold Old Style on tap at those cozy bars surrounding the ballpark. Now, isn't that better than wondering if your snowblower still works? Or you have enough ice melting compound in the garage? Zeroing in on the action. Mets catcher Charlie O'Brien at bat. Dwight Gooden on deck. A little photo detective work -- made easier by this scoreboard shot -- enabled me to determine the day of the game and find the result on baseball-reference.com. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN199108120.shtml