Aaron Crowe
RedwoodAge.com
Every baseball fan in every generation has a favorite player they followed while growing up. It could be Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Kirby Puckett, Don Mattingly or a number of All-Stars. For many boomers, it was Rickey Henderson.
Henderson, who turned 50 on Christmas Day, got the call Monday that he will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. It's an honor that all professional baseball players aspire to, and knowing Rickey's persona, it was something he probably expected from his first start for the Oakland A's in 1979.
He'll have a place in baseball history. If you were a baseball fan in the 1980s or 1990s, you couldn't help but notice him. He was the best leadoff hitter of all-time and such a player probably won't be seen again. He had an enthusiasm for the game that made you want to root for him and become more of a fan. Like many baseball legends, he often cast himself larger than life.
Henderson's teammate, Mark McGwire, may have had steroids and homeruns, but Henderson had quick legs, a good hitting stroke and a cannon arm. If McGwire, who is also a boomer, was a hero, then he has fallen mightily and won't make it to Cooperstown anytime soon.
The career numbers collected by the stolen base king, who called himself "the greatest of all-time" after breaking Lou Brock's single-season stolen base record, are staggering. He ranks first on the all-time list in stolen bases (1,406), runs (2,295), games led off with a home run (81), and walks leading off an inning (796). He ranks second in walks with 2,190, 21st in hits with 3,055, and 58th in on-base percentage at .401. He was an American League All-Start 10 times, was A.L. Most Valuable Player in 1990, has the most stolen bases in a season with 130 in 1982, led the league in steals 12 times, won the World Series twice -- with Oakland in 1989 and Toronto in 1993.
Boomer Favorite
Everyone needs a hero, and for boomers who grew up following Henderson, he was
always an exciting player to watch.
On a personal side, I grew up a 30-minute BART ride from Oakland and first saw Henderson in 1980, sitting in the left-field bleachers with my friends and watching this amazing player run and play baseball like no one we had ever seen before. The following year we made our fandom official by unofficially starting the a fan club with "Rickey Henderson Fan Club" on a banner that we hung in the bleachers behind Rickey. But 1982 was the highlight, when he stole 132 bases and I went to about 60 of the A's 80 or so home games.
Henderson made going to a game exciting because you never knew what he was going to do next. It must have been nerve-wrecking for an opposing pitcher. Henderson would often create a "Rickey Rally" by getting a base on balls, then stealing second and possibly third base, and scoring on a single. A's centerfielder Dwayne Murphy batted behind Henderson and took so many called strikes so that Henderson could steal a base that Rickey vowed to kiss Murphy on the forehead after he broke the stolen base record.
Rickey-isms
Even if he wasn't stealing 100 bases a season, Henderson still drew attention
for his many "Rickey-isms." He was known for giving great
quotes to reporters and often talking in the third person, although I'm
not sure I believe all of them. Here are a few:
- After breaking Brock's stolen base record, Henderson told the crowd, with Brock nearby, "Lou Brock was a great base stealer. But today, I am the greatest of all time."
- During a contract holdout with Oakland in the early 1990s, he said, "If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I'll play like Gallego." Gallego is now a coach for the A's.
- While playing for the Yankees, Henderson told teammates that his New York condo had a great view of "The Entire State Building."
- When asked if Ken Caminiti's estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate, Henderson's response was, "Well, Rickey's not one of them, so that's 49% right there."
Henderson was accessible to fans and his autograph was always easy to get after a game. He always seemed to be laughing, except when he thought he was being disrespected by ownership with a contract offer that he didn't think was high enough. He'd sign a contract, then report late to spring training because he wanted the deal renegotiated.
On Nov. 22, 1989, Kirby Puckett signed a contract making him the game's first $3 million-a-year players. Six days later Henderson signed a four-year, $12 million contract, proving that Rickey wasn't about to be paid less than Puckett. But two years later, Henderson groused about his deal after teammate Jose Canseco signed a five-year, $23.5 million deal. Henderson showed up late in 1991 to spring training, telling the A's they had until the end of spring training to renegotiate his contract.
"It's pride, period," he said. "I don't think my contract is fair. I don't think I'm 40th or 50th on the list. If nothing happens by the end of spring training, then I will have a decision to make."
He was traded the next year to the Blue Jays. After leaving the A's for the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson's career took him all over the baseball map: To San Diego, the New York Mets, Seattle, Anaheim, Boston and Los Angeles Dodgers. He last played in 2003, for the Dodgers, and would have kept on playing if some team offered him a contract. Rickey had hoped the A's would bring him back so he could play one final game and retire an Athletic, but it didn't happen.
Instead, Henderson went on to play minor league baseball for the Newark Bears and San Diego Surf Dawgs. Just like when he was a young player, he wanted to play a game where he gets to run around the bases as fast as he can. That's the kind of enthusiasm for the game that can turn you into a lifelong Rickey fan.
