Howard Bryant
Jeff Passan
Jeff Passan
Senior MLB Insider
ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Contained in the Billion-Greenback Thriller of the Most Useful Commodity in Sports activities”
Rickey Henderson, the best leadoff hitter and base stealer in Main League Baseball historical past whose blazing velocity, discerning eye and strange dwelling run energy complemented an irrepressible swagger that led him from the sandlots of Oakland, California, to the Baseball Corridor of Fame, died Friday. He was 65.
The Henderson household launched an announcement Saturday night confirming the Corridor of Famer’s dying.
“A legend on and off the sphere, Rickey was a faithful son, dad, good friend, grandfather, brother, uncle, and a really humble soul,” the assertion from his spouse Pamela and his three daughters learn. “Rickey lived his life with integrity, and his love for baseball was paramount. Now, Rickey is at peace with the Lord, cherishing the extraordinary moments and achievements he leaves behind.”
The household didn’t announce a reason behind dying however did thank the medical doctors and nurses at UCSF hospital, which they stated cared for Henderson with “dedication and compassion.”
With a fearless, flamboyant model of play, which thrilled some gamers and followers thirsting for theatrical power from a sport identified for its staidness and irritated others who believed the iconoclastic method to the sport disrespected previous traditions, Henderson broke boundaries alongside reams of information throughout a 25-year profession spent with 9 groups.
In a sport that depends on the historic consistency of its numbers, Henderson obliterated the document e book, proudly owning the all-time stolen-base document with 1,406, an astounding 468 greater than the St. Louis Cardinals nice Lou Brock, who held the document of 938 for a dozen years earlier than Henderson surpassed him in 1991. Henderson holds the information for essentially the most stolen bases in a single season with 130 in 1982, essentially the most instances main the league in steals with 12 and most consecutive years main the league in steals with seven. As a 39-year-old in 1998 with Oakland, Henderson grew to become the oldest participant in historical past to steer the American League in steals with 66.
Following his closing season in 2003, Henderson completed with 3,055 hits and left the sport holding the all-time marks in steals, runs scored (2,295) and walks (2,190), a document now held by Barry Bonds (2,558). He was named to 10 All-Star Video games and completed his profession with 111.1 Wins Above Substitute, third most of anybody prior to now half-century, behind solely Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, each of whom used performance-enhancing medicine.
Henderson was a first-ballot inductee to the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame in 2009, receiving votes from 94.8% of electors.
“I have been saying this for years: Rickey wasn’t simply nice. That does not say sufficient for me,” Corridor of Famer Reggie Jackson as soon as stated. “He is one of many high 10 to 12 gamers of all time. That is how good Rickey was.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred referred to as Henderson “the gold commonplace of base stealing and leadoff hitting” in an announcement Saturday.
“Rickey epitomized velocity, energy and leisure in setting the tone on the high of the lineup. Once we thought-about new guidelines for the sport in recent times, we had the period of Rickey Henderson in thoughts,” Manfred stated, referencing current rule modifications which have inspired extra stolen base makes an attempt. “Rickey earned common respect, admiration and awe from sports activities followers. On behalf of Main League Baseball, I ship my deepest condolences to Rickey’s household, his associates and former teammates, A’s followers and baseball followers all over the place.”
Over his quarter century within the sport, which included 4 separate stints along with his hometown A’s, Henderson received World Sequence championships with Oakland in 1989 and Toronto in 1993. The American League MVP with Oakland in 1990, Henderson redefined the position of a leadoff hitter by injecting unprecedented offensive energy to the normal leadoff position of reaching base. He launched 297 dwelling runs, together with a serious league-record 81 to steer off a sport.
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For the entire information, nevertheless, Henderson left maybe his most indelible mark on the sport along with his boisterous on-field presence, celebrating dwelling runs with a hop, a jersey tug and, when the temper struck, one of many slowest trots within the sport. He claimed to channel boxing nice Muhammad Ali by way of his play. When he stole his 939th base on Might 1, 1991, to interrupt Brock’s all-time document — 9 years after he had smashed Brock’s single-season document — Henderson plucked the third-base bag out of the bottom, held it excessive above his head and proclaimed, in an on-field celebration of the second, “I’m the best of all time.”
His snatch catch — ripping the ball out of the air earlier than it landed into his glove and slapping his hip in a single movement — made fielding appear to be sleight of hand, to the annoyance of baseball purists. He launched the play on the ultimate out of Mike Warren’s 1983 no-hitter for Oakland towards the Chicago White Sox.
Henderson believed his model was preordained. Born in a Chicago snowstorm on Christmas Day 1958, Rickey Nelson Henley was named after the Nineteen Fifties teen idol Ricky Nelson. In line with household legend, his mom Bobbie went into labor earlier than coming into the hospital and nurses delivered the kid from the automotive. When his father arrived frantic and late to the hospital, demanding to see his spouse, nurses informed him, “Settle down! The boy’s already within the again seat.” Over time, Henderson would relay the story as proof of his future to be baseball’s biggest base stealer. “I used to be born quick,” he would say.
Rickey was the fourth of Bobbie’s 5 boys. When he was three, she left Chicago and moved the household to her mom’s farm in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. When he was 10, in 1969, Bobbie Earl joined the second Black migration, relocating the household from Pine Bluff to Oakland. In Oakland, Bobbie met Paul Henderson and had two women.
Henderson attended Oakland Technical Excessive College and instantly joined a dynastic legacy of Oakland expertise that included baseball greats Joe Morgan, Curt Flood, Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson, in addition to NBA greats Invoice Russell and Paul Silas. Together with Dave Stewart, Lloyd Moseby, Gary Pettis and Rudy Might, Henderson was a part of a second era of Oakland preps to play skilled sports activities.
At Oakland Tech, when Henderson was starting his senior yr, he met Pamela Palmer, a freshman who saved statistics for the observe and soccer groups. The 2 dated and can be collectively for the following 50 years, formally marrying in 1991. They’d have two women.
Response to dying of Rickey Henderson
• “He was top-of-the-line gamers that I ever performed with and clearly the most effective leadoff hitter in baseball.” — Corridor of Famer and former teammate Dave Winfield
• “It wasn’t till I noticed Rickey that I understood what baseball was about. Rickey Henderson is a run, man. That is it. While you see Rickey Henderson, I do not care when, the rating’s already 1-0. If he is with you, that is nice. If he is not, you will not prefer it.” — Former Athletics teammate Mitchell Web page
• “Rickey Henderson was an all-time nice participant who commanded our consideration like few gamers earlier than or since, transcending our conventional understanding of how elite and thrilling a single participant may very well be within the batter’s field and on the basepaths. When he stepped throughout the white traces, he was magnetic. Opponents, teammates and followers merely could not take their eyes off him.” — Assertion from Yankees
• “He is the best leadoff hitter of all time, and I am unsure there is a shut second.” — Former Athletics GM Billy Beane
• “I am heartbroken and devastated. Rickey Henderson was an extremely gifted participant however an excellent higher human. I will always remember all of the unimaginable recollections we created collectively. Recollections I will always remember. Relaxation straightforward my good friend.” — Former Athletics teammate Jose Canseco
Henderson most well-liked soccer to baseball, however his mom steered him to baseball as a result of she was satisfied his physique wouldn’t stand up to the bodily contact of the NCAA and NFL. Henderson was drafted within the fourth spherical by the A’s within the 1976 draft. Three years later, he made his main league debut for Oakland as a 20-year-old in June 1979, the brilliant spot on a staff in the midst of an enormous rebuild following Oakland’s World Sequence dynasty groups underneath former proprietor Charles O. Finley from 1971 to 1975.
His dynamism on full show from the start, Henderson actually arrived in his first full season in 1980, when Billy Martin was named supervisor. Unleashed by Martin, Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s 65-year-old American League stolen base document of 96 by swiping 100 baggage in 126 tries. The subsequent yr, throughout the strike-shortened 1981 season, the A’s — nicknamed Billyball for Martin’s aggressive baserunning model — made the playoffs for the primary time in six years however misplaced to the New York Yankees within the American League Championship Sequence.
The A’s referred to as Henderson “one of many biggest baseball gamers of all time” in an announcement posted to social media Saturday.
With a propensity to check with himself within the third individual and to be on the middle of usually preposterous tales that bordered on the apocryphal, Henderson was one of many sport’s nice characters, within the mould of baseball greats Satchel Paige and Yogi Berra. Tales about Henderson have been as legendary as his play, such because the true story of him as soon as framing a million-dollar bonus examine and hanging it on his wall — with out first cashing it.
Henderson usually sneered at baseball’s conventions and did what he wished to do, which made him a legend to youthful baseball followers and gamers. For the sport’s institution struggling by way of a tumultuous period of labor strife, nevertheless, Henderson represented a brand new era of participant within the new world of free company and the tens of millions of {dollars} now obtainable to gamers. Not like earlier generations, Henderson was unafraid to demand the excessive salaries he believed his play merited.
“Past the statistics and the awards, Rickey captivated crowds with how he performed the sport, and it earned him a heartfelt following, particularly in his beloved Oakland,” MLBPA govt director Tony Clark stated in an announcement. “He impressed future generations along with his velocity, aggressiveness, and trademark neon inexperienced batting gloves. Off the sphere, he by no means ceased to entertain along with his colourful quotes and references to himself within the third individual. He was an American unique, in each sense of the time period.”
After six years in Oakland highlighted by record-breaking seasons and a number of other high-profile contract battles, Henderson was traded in December 1984 to the Yankees, the place he introduced his explicit model of showmanship to a staff bereft of it following the departure of Reggie Jackson. Henderson was traded again to Oakland in 1989, main a powerhouse A’s staff to consecutive pennants in 1989 and 1990, together with a World Sequence title in 1989, sweeping San Francisco within the Bay Bridge Sequence outlined by the Loma Prieta earthquake that struck throughout Recreation 3 and delayed the sequence for 10 days. Henderson led the A’s to a different playoff look in 1992, a six-game loss within the AL Championship Sequence to eventual champions Toronto.
“I traded Rickey Henderson twice and introduced him again extra instances than that. He was the most effective participant I ever noticed play. … 9 totally different groups, one unforgettable participant. Sandy gonna miss Rickey.”
Former A’s common supervisor Sandy Alderson
For all of the flamboyance and hilarity, Henderson was one of many nice gamers of any period. His finest season got here with the Yankees in 1985, when Henderson led the league with 146 runs and 80 stolen bases, hit .314/.419/.516 with 24 dwelling runs and completed third in AL MVP voting. Henderson continued to supply, his on-base share nonetheless recurrently hovering round .400, a hallowed threshold usually reserved for Corridor of Famers. Henderson completed his profession at .401.
When he returned to Oakland in 1989, his signature efficiency within the 1989 ALCS towards the Blue Jays was one of many nice devastations of an opponent in playoff historical past. In Henderson’s MVP season the following yr, he tied a profession excessive with 28 dwelling runs, stole 65 bases and hit .325/.439/.577. In 1993, the A’s shipped him out once more, sending the then-34-year-old to Toronto. He secured his second championship ring that October, standing on second base for one of many nice moments within the sport’s historical past, Joe Carter’s World Sequence-winning three-run dwelling run off Philadelphia nearer Mitch Williams.
For the ultimate 10 seasons of his profession, Henderson would crisscross baseball, returning to the A’s twice extra, the San Diego Padres twice, the Anaheim Angels, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Boston Pink Sox and eventually, in 2003, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A part of his aura emanated from his bodily look. As soon as, within the Eighties with the Yankees, he received the staff’s competitors of lowest physique fats, at 2.9%. Years later, at 40, Henderson appeared the a part of a person half his age. He by no means lifted weights. He would do push-ups and sit-ups nightly, flexing his pipes and flashing his abs to all who cared to see. In 1999, he batted .315 and received on base for the Mets greater than 42% of the time. He performed his final sport at 44 years, 268 days previous Sept. 19, 2003, for the Dodgers, and his stolen base complete stays greater than 1,000 forward of the present energetic chief.
True to his repute as an ageless showman, Henderson by no means formally retired from MLB — groups merely stopped calling. Pamela Henderson would say Rickey, even in his early 60s, believed he might nonetheless play if solely one other staff would give him an opportunity.
“We might sit there over breakfast, and he would watch the TV,” she as soon as stated. “And he would see how a lot right now’s gamers have been making — and he would have a look at their stats and say, ‘I can do this.'”
