A’s Henderson Voted AL Most Valuable Player : Baseball: He gets 14 of 28 first-place votes. fielder is second in balloting.

Rickey Henderson’s array of talents--speed, power, batting and defense--outshined the sheer slugging of Detroit’s Cecil Fielder to win the American League most valuable player award Tuesday.

The Athletics’ Henderson, one of the best leadoff men in baseball history, capped the finest overall season of his 11-year career with 14 of the 28 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers Assn. of America.

“Rickey’s the best leadoff man I’ve ever seen,” said Hall of Famer Willie Mays. “. . . Rickey has everything it takes, the hitting and running and fielding. I’ve never seen a leadoff man who can do all the things he does so well.”

Henderson would get more recognition and probably drive in 100 runs a year if he were batting third, Mays said.

“But the A’s need him to control the game, and that’s what he does,” Mays said. “He controls the game with his speed and with his bat and he plays. He’s the complete ballplayer.”

Henderson’s 317 points put him narrowly ahead of Fielder, who led the majors with 51 homers and drove in 132 runs. Fielder drew 10 first-place votes and 286 points in the voting by two writers in each AL city.

Boston pitcher Roger Clemens, runner-up to Oakland’s Bob Welch for the Cy Young award, finished third in the MVP voting with three first-place votes and 212 points. Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley, who finished sixth in the MVP voting behind Toronto’s Kelly Gruber and Chicago’s Bobby Thigpen, got the other first-place vote.

Henderson and Fielder were the only players named on all 28 ballots.

The award brought a $100,000 contract bonus to Henderson, who signed a $12-million, four-year deal a year ago.

More than the slugging of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, Henderson made the Athletics go this year. If he didn’t open the scoring with a homer or “Rickey run”--a walk or single followed by two stolen bases and a sacrifice fly--he frequently started rallies or made the big plays in left field.

Oakland won 26 of the 33 games in which Henderson scored in the first inning. Five of his career-high 28 homers were leadoff shots, extending his major league record to 45 leadoff homers.

Henderson, 31, led the American League in stolen bases for the 10th time, finishing with 65 to give him a career total of 936--two shy of Lou Brock’s major league record.

Henderson also led the majors in runs scored (119) and on-base percentage (.439). He finished second in batting with a .325 average, just behind George Brett’s .329, and in slugging with a personal record .577, just behind Fielder.

“This guy doesn’t play one game, even in spring training, when the other team isn’t saying, ‘Let’s get him out, and if he gets on base, stop him,’ ” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa said.