Rickey Henderson, 1958-2024

When Willie Mays died earlier this year, I wrote a post on who had succeeded him as baseball's greatest living player. I made 4 nominations, one of whom was Rickey Henderson.

The others were Mike Schmidt, Rickey Henderson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Albert Pujols. I said at the time that, of the 5, only Rickey would tell you that he was the greatest living player, although he never publicly said that he was.

Now, I have to take Rickey off that list. Not because of anything he's done to disgrace the game, like another man who died earlier this year, Pete Rose, did. But for a sad reason.

Rickey Nelson Henley was born on a Christmas Day, December 25, 1958, in Chicago. His mother, Bobbie Henley, delivered him in the back seat of an Oldsmobile on the way to the hospital. Rickey later said, "I was already fast. I couldn't wait." He was named after singer Ricky Nelson. Within a few years, the singer preferred to be called "Rick." But the ballplayer was "Rickey" forever.

When he was 2 years old, his father, John L. Henley, left the family, and went to Oakland, California. From then until age 7, Rickey lived with his grandmother, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, then rejoined his father in Oakland. John died in a car accident when Rickey was 10. During Rickey's junior year of high school, his mother married a man named Paul Henderson, and Rickey took the Henderson name.

Unusually, especially for a non-pitcher, Rickey learned how to bat righthanded despite being a lefthanded thrower. He later said, "All my friends were right-handed and swung from the right side, so I thought that's the way it was supposed to be done."

In 1976, he graduated from Oakland Technical High School, where he was also an All-American running back on their football team. Other notable Oakland Tech athletes: Baseball players Taylor Douthit '19, Bernie DeViveiros '20, John Gillespie '20, Joe Mellana '22, Bruce Cunningham '23, Les Powers '27, Cookie Lavagetto '31, Linc Blakely '31, Tom Hafey '31, Len Gabrielson Sr. '33 and Jr. '57, Bob Greenwood '46, Jay Porter '50, Joe Gaines '55, Curt Flood '56, Terrell Lowery '88; pro quarterbacks John Brodie and Josh Johnson, and other football players Bill McKalip, Proverb Jacobs, Ray Norton, Roy Shivers and Marshawn Lynch; and basketball stars Jim Pollard, Leon Powe and Alexis Gray-Lawson.

Actor Clint Eastwood is probably the most famous Oakland Tech graduate, whose ranks also include actors Jack Soo, Robert Webber, Bernie Hamilton and Ted Lange; singers Tony Martin, and all of the Pointer Sisters; Muppets operator Frank Oz (Bert, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear); poet Rod McKuen; engineer Stephen Bechtel; Congressman Ron Dellums; and Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton. (Webber was the only actor to be one of the 12 Angry Men and one of The Dirty Dozen.)

Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, loved, in his own words, "Speed, speed, speed." And he loved players with lots of self-confidence. He would have loved to have Rickey Henderson on the Raiders. Rickey wanted it, too. But his mother told him that football players had considerably shorter careers, so he should play baseball instead. Good choice: After all, he seemed to play baseball forever -- and then, at least, tried to.

Shortly after graduating from Oakland Tech, Rickey was signed by his hometown Oakland Athletics, or the A's for short. In 1978, he played for their farm team, the Jersey City A's, who played their home games at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. They moved after that season, and professional baseball did not return to New Jersey until 1994.

Rickey made his major league debut on June 24, 1979, against the Texas Rangers at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. He played left field, led off the A's lineup, and wore Number 35. Batting against pitcher John Henry Johnson, he hit a double to right field in his 1st major league at-bat. He singled to left in the 3rd inning, flew out to right field in the 5th, and flew out to right again in the 7th. The Rangers won, 5-1.

The A's were at a low ebb, as their cheap owner, Charlie Finley, had broken up their 1971-75 dynasty, and they lost 108 games in 1979. He sold the team in 1980, and Billy Martin was hired as manager. Rickey fit "Billy Ball" perfectly, as a contact hitter with speed. After stealing 33 bases as a rookie, Rickey stole 100 in 1980, batting .303 for the 1st of his 7 .300+ seasons, and making the 1st of his 10 All-Star Games.

In 1981, he stole far fewer bases, 56, but it was still enough to repeat as American League leader, and he won his only Gold Glove, leading the A's to the AL Western Division title. He finished 2nd in the AL Most Valuable Player voting, behind relief pitcher Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The A's fell apart again in 1982, but Rickey had a season like no other. The existing Oakland Athletics record for stolen bases in a season was 75, by Billy North in 1975; for the A's franchise, 81, by Eddie Collins in Philadelphia in 1910; for the American League, 96, by Ty Cobb with the Detroit Tigers in 1915; and for the major leagues, 118, by Lou Brock with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974. Rickey blew past them all, finishing with 130, a record that has never seriously been approached -- not even by himself, as his 108 the next season would be his last time topping 100. He also set a record by being caught stealing 42 times.

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In 1983, he married his high-school sweetheart, Pamela. They have three children: Angela, Alexis, and Adrianna. After the 1984 season, the Yankees sent outfielder Stan Javier and pitchers José Rijo, Jay Howell, Eric Plunk and Tim Birtsas to the A's for Rickey and pitcher Bert Bradley.

Bradley was a throw-in, who appeared in 3 games for the A's in 1983, and that was it for him in the majors. The A's got 5 serviceable players, although they ended up trading Rijo and Birtsas to the Cincinnati Reds for Dave Parker. That trade worked out well for both teams: Parker helped the A's win the 1989 World Series, but Rijo was the MVP of the 1990 World Series, in which the Reds beat the A's.

But Yankee Fans were thrilled to add Rickey to a team that already had Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly. Playing left field, and switching to the Number 24 that he wore for most of the rest of his career, Rickey thrilled fans with a "snatch catch": He would catch the ball, then whip his left down to his leg. I was always worried that he would drop it. A couple of times, he did, and got booed.

He was with the Yankees for 4 full seasons: They came within 2 1/2 games of the AL Eastern Division title in 1985, within 5 1/2 in 1986, were in 1st place at the All-Star Break in 1987, and got within 3 1/2 in 1988. Three times, Rickey raised the team record for stolen bases, to 80 in 1985, to 87 in 1986, and to 93 in 1988. None of those totals has been seriously challenged since. But the Yankees always seemed to be one starting pitcher short, and there would be no Playoff run in Pinstripes.

On June 21, 1989, tired of his ego and not willing to sign him to a new contract after the season, and wanting to get something for him, the Yankees traded Rickey back to the A's, regaining Plunk, and also getting pitcher Greg Cadaret and outfielder Luis Polonia.

Shortly after his return to Oakland, on July 29, Rickey had one of the strangest statistical lines in baseball history: No hits, no at-bats, but drew 4 walks, stole 5 bases, and scored 4 runs. None of it did much good, as the A's lost to the Seattle Mariners, 14-6 at the Oakland Coliseum.

The trade worked out a lot better for the A's, as Rickey helped them win the 1989 World Series, the 1990 AL Pennant, and the 1992 AL West title. On May 1, 1991, during a 7-4 A's win over the Yankees at the Coliseum, Rickey stole 3rd base in the 3rd inning. It was the 939th stolen base of his career, breaking the record held by Brock, who was on hand for the occasion.

A microphone was set up, and Henderson thanked, in turn, God, the Haas family (owners of the A's), the A's organization, the City of Oakland, the fans in the Coliseum, his mother, his friends, his loved ones, and former managers Tom Trebelhorn and Billy Martin (who had died in 1989).

Then he said, in words that another of his heroes, Muhammad Ali, might have appreciated, "Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But, today, I'm the greatest of all time. Thank you."

Brock took no offense, saying, "He spoke from his heart." But Henderson knew he had gone too far, later saying, "As soon as I said it, it ruined everything. Everybody thought it was the worst thing you could ever say. Those words haunt me to this day, and will continue to haunt me. They overshadow what I've accomplished in this game."

There is a difference between having a healthy ego, which is necessary to succeed in just about any endeavor, including professional sports; and having an excessive ego. Henderson certainly gave the impression of having the latter, not helping himself by being an illeist, a person who tended refer to himself in the third person, often calling himself "Rickey" instead of "I."

Just a few hours later, Henderson's thunder was stolen by Nolan Ryan's lightning. Ryan had pitched the 6th no-hitter of his career against the A's in 1989, and had made Henderson his 5,000th career strikeout victim in 1990. The same day that Rickey gained his 939th steal, Ryan pitched his 7th, no-hitter, against the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the oldest pitcher ever to throw one, at age 44, and striking out 16 batters. Rickey would follow Ryan as a player who seemed to just keep going and going, and excelling through most of it.

On July 31, 1993, at the trading deadline, the A's sent him to the Toronto Blue Jays, basically as a "rent-a-player" deal, and he helped the Jays win the World Series. He signed a new deal with the A's in 1994, got traded to the San Diego Padres in 1996, and helped them win the NL West title that year.

He was traded to the Anaheim Angels in 1997, returned to the A's in 1998, and helped the Mets reached the NL Championship Series in 1999. In 2000, the Mets traded him to the Seattle Mariners, and he helped them reach the AL Championship Series. He went back to the Padres, and, on October 7, 2001, in a 14-5 Padres loss to the Colorado Rockies, he blooped a double down the right-field line off John Thomson. It was the 3,000th hit of his career.

He played the 2002 season with the Boston Red Sox. No team was willing to take him on for the 2003 season, so he signed with the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League. He was impressive enough for the Los Angeles Dodgers to sign him. On September 19, 2003, in the bottom of the 7th inning at Dodger Stadium, he pinch-hit for pitcher Guillermo Mota, against Jason Christiansen. He was hit by a pitch, and eventually scored, but the Dodgers lost to the Giants, 6-4. It turned out to be Rickey's last major league appearance.

He hung on, signing with the Newark Bears again for 2004, and in 2005 in another independent league, with the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Golden Baseball League. Nobody would take him for 2006. In 2007, the Mets took him on as hitting instructor, but his hope that he would be signed as a player -- at the age of 48 -- went unrealized. Finally, on July 13, 2007, he announced his retirement.

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Henderson was baseball's greatest base stealer, with 1,406. To put that in perspective, Brock's 938 remains 2nd on the all-time list. He collected 3,055 hits. His lifetime batting average is not very impressive, .279; but all those walks pushed his on-base percentage to .401. His slugging percentage is .419, and his OPS+ is 127. He had a surprising amount of power, with 297 home runs despite spending the majority of his career in the pitching-friendly Coliseum. And he is baseball's all-time leader in runs scored, with 2,295; and is 2nd (and formerly 1st) all-time in walks, with 2,190.

Baseball statistician Bill James once said, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall-of-Famers."

In 1999, while still an active player, The Sporting News ranked him 51st on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. And yet, he was not chosen by fans in balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2022, ESPN ranked him 23rd on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

In 2009, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in his 1st year of eligibility, and the A's retired his Number 24. In 2017, as part of the team's 50th Anniversary celebration, the playing surface at the Oakland Coliseum was renamed Rickey Henderson Field. Few players in baseball history have been as great as he has, and even fewer have done it with their hometown teams.

On September 26, 2024, Rickey was in attendance as the Athletics played their last game at the Oakland Coliseum, beating the Rangers, 3-2. They will play the next 3 seasons in Sacramento, before moving to a new stadium in Las Vegas. On October 30, he was in attendance again as A's and Yankees Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson hosted a charity softball game at the Coliseum.

It turned out to be Rickey's last public appearance. He was hospitalized a few days ago, for pneumonia, and died yesterday, December 20, 2024. He was 5 days short of his 66th birthday.

Rickey played his 1st major league game when I was 9 years old, and his last when I was 33. (He was 20 and 44, respectively.) He thrilled me at some times, and angered me at others. He amazed me with his talent, and he perplexed me that so much talent was given to a guy like him. In ways both good and not-so-good, he will remain a baseball icon.

Rickey Henderson was one of a kind. We shall not look upon his like again.