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Rickey Henderson

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Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henley Henderson (born December 25, 1958) is a former professional baseball player. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s his on-base percentage and high stolen-base totals made him one of baseball's premier leadoff hitters. He is Major League Baseball's all-time leader in runs scored and stolen bases, and holds the single-season record for stolen bases. Statistician Bill James was once asked if he thought Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer. James' reply: "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers."

Early years

Henderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in the city of Oakland, California and became friends with Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley as a boy. Henderson, blessed with speed and explosiveness, was eventually drafted by Oakland in 1976 and worked his way through the minor leagues in just three seasons. He made his big league debut with Oakland on June 24, 1979.

Early playing career with the Athletics

Henderson batted .274 with 33 stolen bases in little more than half a season. Despite this strong performance, and even though his abbreviated numbers compared favorably with either of the co-winners (John Castino and Alfredo Griffin), Henderson did not receive any votes for the Rookie of the Year award.

Finley hired legendary manager Billy Martin in 1980, and Martin's aggressive "Billy-Ball" philosophy propelled Rickey into stardom. Henderson became the third modern-era player to ever steal 100 bases in a season (Maury Wills (104) and Lou Brock (118) had preceded him).

Henderson was a Most Valuable Player candidate a year later, when he hit .319, fourth in the American League, and again led the league in steals with 56, in a season shortened by a players' strike. Finishing second to Milwaukee's Rollie Fingers in the MVP voting, Henderson's flashy fielding that season also earned him his only Gold Glove Award. Rickey Henderson would later become known for his showboating "snatch catches," in which he would flick his glove out at incoming fly balls, then whip his arm behind his back.

Henderson swipes third for the New York Yankees in 1985

In 1982, Henderson shattered Lou Brock's modern major league record by stealing 130 bases, a total which has not been approached since. (Three years later, Vince Coleman stole 110 bases.) During the 1982 season, Henderson had an astounding 84 stolen bases at the All-Star break - 21 more than any other player in history. No player has stolen as many as 84 bases in an entire season since 1988, when Henderson himself stole 93. He also continued to develop as a hitter, and even began to hit for some power, eventually owning the record for home runs to lead off a game.

Years with the Yankees & back to Oakland

In 1985, he was traded to the New York Yankees, and that year he scored 146 runs in just 143 games, with 24 home runs and 80 steals. He later hit 28 homers in two separate seasons.

He had an off-season, by his standards, in 1987, beginning a problematic relationship with frustrated Yankee fans and the New York media. It wasn't until 1989 that Rickey bounced back after a mid-season trade to Oakland, eventually re-establishing himself as one of the game's greatest players during that postseason. He was MVP of the American League Championship Series with 8 steals in 5 games to go with a 1.000 slugging percentage. Leading the A's to their first World Series title since 1974, he hit .474 with a .895 slugging average.

A year later, he finished second in the league in batting average with a mark of .325, losing out to George Brett on the final day of the season. He had a remarkably consistent season, with his batting average falling below .320 for only one game — the third of the year. Reaching safely by a hit or a walk in 125 of his 136 games, his on-base average was a league-leading .439. With 119 runs scored, 28 homers, 61 RBI and 65 stolen bases, he won the 1990 MVP award and helped Oakland to another pennant. He again performed well in the World Series (.333 batting, .667 slugging, 3 steals in 4 games) but the A's were swept by the underdog Cincinnati Reds.

Stolen base king

On May 1, 1991, Henderson broke one of baseball's most famous records when he stole the 939th base of his career, one more than Lou Brock. However, Henderson's achievement was somewhat overshadowed because Nolan Ryan, at age 44, set a record that same night by throwing a no-hitter against Toronto, the seventh of his career. Two years earlier, Ryan had also achieved glory at Henderson's expense by making him his 5,000th strikeout victim.

Rickey also took some heat for his famous speech afterwards where, with Brock looking on from the field, he proclaimed, "Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest!" As it now stands, however, Henderson has 468 more stolen bases than Brock. For his career, Henderson has 50% more stolen bases (1,406) than the sport's all-time runner-up (938). Just the difference in the two men's totals would place in the Top 25 on the all-time modern list. The proportional margin is one of the greatest for any career statistical category in professional sport.

In his prime, Henderson had a virtual monopoly on the stolen base title in the American League. Between 1980 and 1991, he led the league in SB's every season except 1987, when an injury caused him to lose the title to Seattle Mariners second baseman Harold Reynolds. He had one more league-leading season after that stretch, with 66 steals in 1998 making him the oldest SB leader in baseball history. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Henderson also owns the record for times caught stealing (335). However, his overall 81% success rate on the basepaths is among the highest percentages in history. (Tim Raines ranks first with 84%.)

On July 29, 1989, Henderson stole 5 bases against the Seattle Mariners' left-handed Randy Johnson, his career high, and one shy of the single-game MLB record. Unusually, Henderson was 0-0 in the game (he had four walks). Henderson had eighteen 4-steal games during his career. In August 1983, in a 3-game series against the Brewers and a short 2-game one versus the Yankees, Henderson had 13 stolen bases in 5 games. No surprise; he'd just done the same thing — 13 steals in 5 games — that July.

Henderson was an All-Star in 10 of his first 12 seasons. He went on to have many more good years, and earned a second World championship ring with the Toronto Blue Jays, who acquired him in midseason from Oakland, in 1993 for Steve Karsay. In fact, Henderson was the first of two men on base (the other being Paul Molitor) when Joe Carter hit his legendary walkoff home run to end the World Series. Henderson's stint in Toronto was nevertheless nothing to write home about. After hitting .215 in 44 games, he returned to Oakland where he remained for two years, and made a 3rd return to Oakland in 1998, where he led the American League in stolen bases for a record 12th time at age 39. He also scored 101 runs, his 13th and final season topping 100. That season he also led the league in walks with 118.

Later years — career milestones

Henderson with Boston in 2002

During the 2001 season, as a member of the San Diego Padres, Henderson broke 2 major league records and reached a career milestone. He broke Babe Ruth's all-time record for walks, Ty Cobb's all-time record for runs (doing so with a home run), and on the final day of the season, he had his 3,000th career hit. That final game was also Padre legend Tony Gwynn's last major league game, and Rickey had originally wanted to sit out so as not to detract from the occasion, but Gwynn insisted that Henderson play. At the age of 42, his last substantial major league season, Henderson finished the 2001 season with 25 stolen bases, ninth in the NL. It is a measure of his skill and longevity that his 25 steals increased his existing lead on all nine of the other Top 10 active stolen base leaders. It also marked Rickey Henderson's 23rd consecutive season in which he'd stolen more than 20 bases.

Rickey played with the Boston Red Sox in 2002, where he became the oldest player to play center field in major league history when he stood in for starter Johnny Damon. Incredibly, dating from 1979-2001, Rickey Henderson had stolen more bases than his new team, the Red Sox, had managed over the identical span: 1,395 steals for Rickey, 1,382 for the Boston franchise.

He started 2003 playing in the independent Atlantic League with the Newark Bears, hoping for a chance with another major league organization. Rickey got that chance (after much media attention) when the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him over the All-Star break. Though Henderson continued to put up good walks, runs, and SB totals in limited action, his last four seasons were spent bouncing among five different teams, and with increasingly limited playing time.

So far, Rickey ranks 4th all-time in games played (3,081), 10th in at-bats (10,961), 20th in hits (3,055), and first in runs scored (2,295) and stolen bases (1,406). His record for most walks all-time (2,190) has since been broken by Barry Bonds. He also holds the record for most home runs to lead off a game, with 81. In 1993, he led off both games of a doubleheader with HRs. At the time of his last major league game, Henderson was still in the all-time Top 100 home run hitters, with 297. Bill James wrote in 2000, "Without exaggerating one inch, you could find fifty Hall of Famers who, all taken together, don't own as many records, and as many important records, as Rickey Henderson."

Rickey Henderson is baseball's all-time leader in stolen bases before the age of 30. He is also its all-time leader after the age of 30. He has the most postseason stolen bases, 33 (Kenny Lofton, still active, currently has 32 in about 45% more plate appearances). Henderson also achieved an odd distinction by having four separate playing tenures with the same team-- the Oakland A's.

In 1999, before having broken the career records for runs scored and walks, Henderson ranked number 51 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2005, The Sporting News updated their 100 Greatest Players list, and Henderson had moved up to number 50.

Although he has not played in a major league game since 2003, Henderson has yet to officially retire from professional baseball; for the second consecutive season, he started 2004 with the Newark Bears. On May 9, 2005, Rickey signed with the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Golden Baseball League, a Class-A independent league. This was the SurfDawgs and the Golden Baseball League's inaugural season and Rickey did it again, helping the SurfDawgs to the League Championship.

Henderson was quoted as recently as May of 2005, still insisting that he is capable of playing in the major leagues. Contrary to what some believe, Henderson's refusal to retire is not delaying his eligibility for Hall of Fame induction. Eligibility is based on major league service only, and at this point Henderson's will begin in 2008.

Henderson's last major league game to date occurred on September 19, 2003; he was hit by a pitch in his only plate appearance, and came around to score his 2,295th run. Though it is increasingly unlikely that Rickey Henderson will return to major league action, his status continues to confound. It was reported by NBC and ESPN that Henderson had announced his much-delayed official retirement on December 6, 2005, but this was denied by his agent the following day.

On February 10, 2006, Henderson accepted a position as a hitting instructor for the New York Mets. He has left the door open to returning as a player. [1]

While in attendance at the July 2nd Yankees vs. Mets game, Henderson announced that he was given the chance to return to San Diego Surf Dawgs as a player for the 2006 season, which would be his 31st in professional baseball, but decided he'd had enough. Henderson was sporting a necklace with "1406" written in diamonds on a gold plate.

Unique playing style

Henderson's playing style has one especially unusual feature: he throws left-handed and bats right-handed. Many right-handed throwers bat left-handed, but the opposite is extremely rare, especially among non-pitchers. Another left-handed thrower who batted right-handed was former Yale baseball player and President George H. W. Bush. Explaining how that happened, Rickey once said, "All the other kids playing around me were batting right-handed, so that's the way I thought you were supposed to do it, so that's what I did, too. At one point, I wanted to be a switch-hitter and try the left side, but I was hitting .300, .350 in the minors, and they [the A's] wouldn't let me do it."

Malapropisms

Many stories have been told about Rickey Henderson over the years, both the player and person. He is well known for his malapropisms, for referring to himself in the third-person (for example, calling Padres GM Kevin Towers to inquire about a contract and leaving a message starting "this is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey."), and for talking to himself at length when he is up to bat. He has been known to speak to his bats, asking them which one has the next hit inside them. He once fell asleep on an icepack, thereby contracting a case of frostbite in August. In 2001, he described a long single this way: "I hit it out, but it didn't go out." Another time, Rickey was offered a seat on the team bus, the player saying that he had tenure. To which Rickey replied, "Ten years? What are you talking about? Rickey got 16, 17 years."

Another story occurred while Henderson was playing for the Oakland A's. Team bookkeepers could not account for a $1 million discrepancy in their finances. The mysterious figure was eventually traced to Henderson, who had received the sum as a signing bonus. Instead of cashing the check, he'd had it framed, where it still hung on his wall.[2]

Henderson has also been reported to take practice swings in the locker room in front of a mirror completely naked while repeatedly saying "Rickey's the best! You tha' man Rickey!"[3]

One widely reported story, however, is by all accounts a fabrication. Supposedly while playing for Seattle, Henderson went up to John Olerud, a former teammate then with the New York Mets, and asked why Olerud wore a batting helmet out on the field, noting that he "used to have a teammate in Toronto who did the same thing." To which Olerud was said to have replied, "That was me."

Accomplishments

  • Record for most Stolen Bases in a Career (1,406)
  • Record for most Runs Scored in a Career (2,295)
  • Record for most seasons by a non-pitcher (25)
  • Ten-Time All Star (1980, 1982-88, 1990-91)
  • Led the Major Leagues for Stolen Bases (1980, 1982-83, 1988-89, 1998)
  • Led the Major Leagues for times on base (1980)
  • Gold Glove for Outfielder (1981)
  • Led the American League for Stolen Bases (1981, 1984-86, 1990-91)
  • Led the Major Leagues for Runs Scored (1981, 1985-86, 1989, 1990)
  • Led the American League in Hits (1981, with 135)
  • Three-Time Silver Slugger for Outfielder (1981, 1985, 1990)
  • American League Championship Series MVP (1989)
  • American League MVP (1990)
  • Led the Major League for on base percentage in 1990
  • Oldest Player in the American League (2002, at 43)

Teams

Preceded by American League Championship Series MVP
1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by American League Most Valuable Player
1990 		Succeeded by
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