Rickey Henderson stood alone, defined a generation, and became the greatest of all time
"I am the greatest of all time."
Those were the famous words that Rickey Henderson uttered upon swiping his 940th bag to become baseball's all time stolen king.
They don't make them like Rickey anymore.
The baseball world stunned into silence on Saturday with the news that Rickey Henderson, Hall of Famer, Man of Steal, who ran his way into baseball's record books on his way his way to immortality, had passed away at the age of 65.
Close friend and former teammate Dave Winfield was the first report the news.
Once it became real, tributes started pouring in with Commissioner Rob Manfred, MLBPA Director Tony Clark, The A's, Manager Mark Kotsay, owner John Fisher, and Henderson's widow Pamela among those making statements.
Henderson changed the way baseball was played.
When Major League Baseball introduced bigger bases as part of its slate or rules changes in 2022, Manfred stated that they had era of Rickey Henderson in mind. They even released an ad with actor and baseball super-fan Bryan Cranston, encouraging players to run like Rickey
The Oakland native spent 13 1/2 seasons - spread over four separate stints - of his 25 year career with the Athletics.
Known just as much for his personality and good nature as he was for his running prowess, the fastest man in baseball was a towering figure despite his diminutive 5'10 frame.
Sports writer Tom Verducci once said of him
Henderson was famous for referring to himself in the third person, and media stories often quoted him saying Rickey says.
Statistician Bill James, when asked if he thought Rickey was a Hall of Famer, joked
Quite right he was.
Henderson, who ended his career with an astonishing 1406 stolen bases, is also the all time leader in runs scored and lead-off home runs, and second in walks with 2190. Barry Bonds is first.
Baseball wasn't his first choice however. He was a three sport athlete at Oakland Tech high school and nearly played football with hall of fame running back Marcus Allen. His mother convinced to go for the safer sport of baseball. A mother knows best.
Rickey is also part of an unusual statistic he batted right and threw left. How rare is that you ask? Very. Only 70 position players throughout MLB history have that particular set of skills and only nine of them have played in 1000 games or more. Rickey is the only one in the Hall of Fame. He truly was one of one.
Many thought Lou Brock's stolen bases record was unbreakable; Rickey Henderson surpassed it at age 32. In fact, his 1406 stolen bases are nearly 50% more than Brock's total. That's like someone hitting 1100 more home runs than Barry Bonds. Those percentages just don't happen.
Not only that, but he had nearly 400 more stolen bases than Yutaka Fukumoto, who was previously the stolen base kind go the world. It's official, nobody stole more bases on earth than Rickey Henderson.
He was also known to be a very a generous man. Henderson refused to spend his�per diem�money that all players receive on road trips: instead, he would put the envelopes containing the cash in a box, and when one of his children performed well in school he would invite them to choose an envelope out of the box and keep its contents.
He is the stuff urban legends are made of, with a life filled many stories, quotes, and tall tales, that are rivalled only by the equally quotable Yogi Berra.
Rickey's favourite athlete was Muhammed Ali, hence why he chose to say the he was the greatest of all time upon eclipsing Brock's record.
Well many thought he was self-centred, he and Brock actually worked on the speech together.
Although he was most well-known for his time with Oakland, he did spend 44 games with the Blue Jays in 1993, winning his second world series ring with the team.
While he didn't do much with the bat, he still stole 22 bases and scored 37 runs in only 44 games. He was also on base when Joe Carter hit the famous home run in franchise history to walk off the series. Rickey was always there in the big moments. He thrived in them.
Speaking of the Blue Jays, current Toronto bench coach Don Mattingly played with Henderson during their time together on the Yankees and remembered his teammate fondly.
He was quite simply, an incomparable force on the basepaths. Once he was on first, he was on third and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Rickey Henderson was to running what Babe Ruth was to hitting. The best there ever was.
A true icon of a game, that defined a generation and many generations yet to come. Henderson's 1406 steals might just be the most unbreakable record in baseball history.
Rickey wouldn't have it any other way.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 21 | 256 ANSWERS Rickey Henderson stood alone, defined a generation, and became the greatest of all time Will Rickey Henderson's stolen base record ever be broken? | ||
| Yes | 43 | 16.8 % |
| No | 159 | 62.1 % |
| Hell No | 54 | 21.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
