Go Rickey, fly
And get your uniform dirty whenever you want
The Prince of Thieves is no more
He died yesterday of pneumonia. The news had been circulating for hours, Dave Winfield only recently confirmed it on Instagram
Rickey Henderson he would have turned 66 next Tuesday.
That is, he was born on Christmas Day 1958, born running, believe it or not. On the seat of an Oldsmobile while they were taking his mother to the hospital in Chicago.
“I was already fast, I never knew how to wait,” he would explain years later. And he probably did so by speaking about himself in the third person, as often
He was born Rickey Henley, Henderson was the surname of his mother’s second husband, in Oakland, where he would win the World Series in 1989. The World Series of the earthquake on the Bay, against San Francisco.
Since 1983 he was married to his classmate Pamela, they had three children.
Rickey has always been fast, and contrary to that. Left-handed, he hit right-handed: a very bizarre combination.
“It’s because everyone on the street was right-handed, and I believed it should be done that way”
With those legs there were dozens of universities queuing up to offer him scholarships. Rickey was a huge Raiders fan. But mom Bobbie always told him: “Rickey, choose baseball, careers are longer in baseball.”
Good omen. Rickey played 25 seasons in MLB. And what’s more, when it closed in 2003, it moved to the Independent League, in Newark. He hadn’t had enough. And there too he stole 37 bases, at 45 years old
In MLB he stole 1406. To say that they are more than anyone else stole doesn’t even give an idea. It may be close to remember that the second is Lou Brock, at 938, i.e. 468 less.
When Rickey stole the 939 on May 1, 1991, he gave a speech.
“Lou Brock was the very symbol of stealing. From today I am the greatest of all time.”
Rickey was the top thief in 7 seasons (1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989).
His 1406 steals came on 1741 attempts, making him 80.75% successful. And in addition to the one with Oakland, he won a second World Series, in 1993, with Toronto.
796 times he started an inning by filing a base. And when he got to first grade, well… ever since he was born he never knew how to wait. Ah, by the way, as a leadoff he also left it out 81 times. No one has beaten many by opening a second half
And this is where we get to the point, in every sense. Because we always talk about home runs, strikeouts, batting averages, but games are won with runs. And no one – NO ONE – in MLB history has scored more runs than Rickey Henderson: 2,295
Ty Cobb 2,245, Barry Bonds 2,227, Hank Aaron and Pete Rose tied at 2,174
Of him in Sports Illustrated, Tom Verducci wrote: “There are some characters in American history who have passed into the realm of cultural mythology, as if reality could no longer contain their stories…”
Trevor Hoffman, his teammate in San Diego, said: “One day I will be able to talk about playing with Rickey Henderson. And it will be like saying ‘I played with Babe Ruth’”
He said one day
“If my uniform isn’t dirty, it means I didn’t do anything in the match”