Blog: Ken Oberkfell over Rickey
In a post for Mets Fever, Ed Ryan makes a case for replacing Rickey Henderson with Mets Triple-A manager Ken Oberkfell, who has been 
coaching in the Mets minor-league system for seven years.
As Ryan points out, “He has coached or managed every Mets farm hand that has come up through the system for the past seven years and any vets who have been on rehab assignment.”
…it’s an interesting idea, and the man is certainly worthy of a promotion…the thing is, if the main job of the first-base coach is to advise and direct a player on how best to advance to second, how can any one in baseball be better at that than rickey…frankly, i think reports of rickey’s negative influence in the team’s clubhouse are way, way overblown…also, from what i can gather, willie actually likes him, and finds him to be a great resource…
…however, a case can certainly be made that rickey’s popularity and insight may be best served in his old job of roving minor league instructor, helping the team’s youngster talent prepare for big league base running…at the same time, minor-league people seem to love and respect oberkfell…
Last off-season, the 51-year-old Oberkfell interviewed with the Nationals for a position on Manny Acta’s bench. He also interviewed along with Gary Carter to fill the first-base coaching job for the Mets, which ultimately went to Howard Johnson, who later switched to batting coach.
Oberkfell was named Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America in 2005.
According to Wikipedia, he was part of the ‘Bearded Braves’ in 1985, during which he told the Houston Chronicle that, “the beards make us stand out from the clean cut Dale Murphy types. Consider us a modern era House of David team.”
