Leadoff Hitters Who More or Less Spanned the Eighties, Ranked off the Top of My Head Ricky Henderson Paul Molitor Tim Raines Lou Whitaker Brett Butler Steve Sax Otis Nixon Lonnie Smith Tony Fernandez Vince Coleman Mookie Wilson Willie Wilson Others, of course, would have been among the greatest leadoff hitters, had they been in a position to bat leadoff more --- Robin Yount, Eric Davis, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, Willie McGee. Tony Fernandez at his best was great, but he gets partial credit for batting leadoff only about half the time and coming up a few years after most of these guys. Willie Wilson spanned the decade, but he had his best years before the decade really unfolded, and was pretty lousy by the end of the eighties.