Wow, bummer.
Receiving the sad news that baseball legend Rickey Henderson died just days before his 66th birthday, my first thought was that he had literally used up his lifetime allotment of energy simply playing the game. He was that good, widely regarded as the best leadoff hitter in baseball history.
Henderson’s rookie season was the summer before I entered high school, he debuted with his hometown Oakland A’s in 1979 where he remained through the 1984 season leading MLB in stolen bases for 5 of those 6 seasons. Amazingly, Rickey played for 9 teams in his 25 year career including 4 separate stints with those same Athletics.
Henderson holds the career records for stolen bases with 1,406, and if you consider the generally risk-averse manner in which the game is now played, it’s doubtful that record will be gotten to any time soon, or ever for that matter. He stole more than 100 bases in three seasons, and his 130 in 1982 remains baseball’s single-season record.
Rickey also owns baseball’s all-time mark for runs scored with 2,295, where 81 of those were the result of lead-off home runs, which is also a record. His 2,190 career walks rank him second behind only Barry Bonds.
“Without exaggerating one inch, you could find 50 Hall of Famers who, all taken together, don’t own as many records, and as many important records, as Rickey Henderson” — Bill James
My own path crossed with Henderson’s in the late 80’s when I was stationed in the Navy in Alameda, CA, one town over from Oakland. I went to about a dozen games in ’88 and then ended up buying season tickets in ’89 as that was, believe it or not, cheaper than buying a dozen single-game tickets.
That was a great A’s team that included Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco (pre-juicing), Dennis Eckersley and Dave Stewart amongst others. The icing on the cake though, was in June of that year with Henderson about to enter free agency, the Yankees traded Rickey back to the A’s who were chasing a pennant. Up to that point in the season Henderson was hitting just .247 and the Yankees believed his glory days were over. But once back in that hometown A’s jersey, Rickey ripped off a 20-game stretch where he hit over .500 and led the A’s into the playoffs. I saw a handful of those games live, which was a life memory I’ll never forget.
He ended up the MVP of the American League Championship Series that year against the Blue Jays batting .400 with a couple home runs, 8 runs scored, 7 walks and 8 stolen bases. One of the greatest series performances in post-season history.
The A’s went on to sweep the San Francisco Giants in the World Series, which was memorably disrupted by an earthquake that took out part of the Bay Bridge. The 1989 post-season remains one of my life’s great “what-if’s” as our ship went out to sea just before the playoffs began. If we had been in port, I held a guaranteed right to buy tickets for all the games played in Oakland. 35 years later now, I’m still pissed off about that one.
The following season (which I did not witness in person), saw Rickey bat .325, score 119 runs, steal 65 bases and tie his season high 28 home runs while winning the American League MVP. Take that Yankees.
Rickey’s last big career mark came on May 1, 1991, while still playing for the A’s, Henderson stole 3rd base against the Yankees and with 939, surpassed Lou Brock as baseball’s all-time stolen base leader. Seeing that he was 32 years old at the time, it absolutely blows my mind that he would go on to steal 467 more bases before his career reluctantly came to an end in 2003 at 44 years old. I say reluctantly because Henderson simply didn’t want to retire, in 2005 at 46, he was still suiting up with the Surf Dawgs, an independent team in the San Diego area. But 2005 was the end of the line, nothing left but the short wait to 2009 when alongside Boston great Jim Rice, Rickey Henderson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rickey was a straight up baller. Still need convincing? Check out his career stats on Baseball Reference and enjoy the following video that ties all Henderson’s highlights into a succinct 4 minutes.
