Anything worth having is worth stealing
How time flies. And records are made to be broken. And a slew of other appropriate clichés. Thirty years ago today, the Cardinals’ Lou Brock stole two bases against the Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, raising his career total to 893, a total that made him baseball’s reigning King of Base Thievery. The record he broke was set by an immortal, Ty Cobb, who with sharpened spikes and a hateful grimace had barrelled his way to 892 career steals, a mark that stood unchallenged for 49 years. When Brock retired from baseball, he left the new record at 938 steals, but of course his record would not last so long as Cobb’s. No one could have known in 1979, Brock’s last season, that that the seeds of Lou’s supplanting had already been sown in Oakland, where a flashy rookie named Rickey was already stretching his young legs, notching 33 steals in only 89 games, an auspicious beginning to a record-breaking lifetime of burglary on the basepaths.
August 29th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Ricky Henderson is by far the greatest player of our generation. I want anyone to challenge me on this. I think maybe A-Rod will surpass him, but nobody nor no one could single handedly change a game like Ricky. Plus, he went to Oakland Tech High School…what!what! Please no Barry ballhugger fans come on here and say Barry was better…never was and never will be even with roids. RICKY!RICKY!RICKY!
August 29th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Sorry Ricky for spelling Ricky wrong. For as once you said and I remember this day like it was yesterday, “Lou Brock was a great base stealer but today I am the greatest.” Well said Rickey, you are the greatest not only then…but also now….CHURCH!
August 29th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Rickey on fashion:
I like playing for Oakland, they have a very colorful uniform
August 29th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Rickey talking in Taoisms:
He can steal as many bases as he wants to. The question is whether he wants to.
August 29th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Rickey on running:
You have to stay low, like a sprinter
and
You have to keep running. I always believed I was going to be safe
August 29th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Rickey on how he effected games:
If I hadn’t gotten on base and Molitor singled, Carter wouldn’t have gotten the pitch he got to hit period. Mitch Williams was worried about me stealing third base with one out. He tried to get the ball to the plate with a slider. He hung it, and Joe hit it out of the park
August 29th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Rickey acknowledges greatness when he sees it:
It gave me no chance. He (Nolan Ryan) just blew it (strikeout #5,000) by me. But its an honor. I’ll have another paragraph in all the baseball books. I’m already in the books three or four times
August 29th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Rooster, my man, I’m with you on all the Rickey love, but DID YOU HAVE TO BRING UP THE ’93 WORLD SERIES? There’s so many other things to talk about in the Land of Rickey.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Rickey on earning your salary:
“They want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.”
August 30th, 2007 at 2:33 am
There’re countless guys that he’s been teammates with, he has no idea of their names–countless,” says Colorado Rockies bench coach Jamie Quirk, who played with Henderson for three years in Oakland. “It’s not like if you got brought up from Triple A and walked in the locker room, Rickey’s going to stick out his hand [to greet you].”
Henderson lockered next to Beane, then an outfielder for the Athletics, in 1989. Oakland sent Beane to the minor leagues. Six weeks later, Beane was called back to the Athletics.
“Hey, man, where have you been?” Henderson said. “Haven’t seen you for a while.”
August 30th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Large, as you can see I’m a Rickey fan and I thought he was a God growing up in the Bay. I had the shirt where he had the base held over his head. Only pimps wore that back in the day…the white shoes were the best. Once as kids we went to see the A’s batting practice and a few players came over to talk to us…it was a dream come true for us. Then Rickey came over and we were in awe and he said, I’m from Oakland and I’m the best thing to come out of this city. We all nodded yes…Rickey you are the best..then he pointed to come guy in the batting cage and said, that guy will never be as great as Rickey…serious…the funny shit is that I sitll believe it till this day…nobody and I mean…nobody is as a gifted guy as Rickey.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Number 24 is correct…serious, that really did happen. I love this shit…VIVA LA RICKEY!!!
1) In June 1999, when Henderson was playing with the Mets, he saw reporters running around the clubhouse before a game. He asked a teammate what was going on and he was told that Tom Robson, the team’s hitting coach, had just been fired. Henderson said, “Who’s he?â€
2) Rickey… on referring to himself in the third person:
“Listen, people are always saying, ‘Rickey says Rickey.’ But it’s been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I’m ticked off, saying, ‘Rickey, what the heck are you doing, Rickey?’ They say, ‘Darn, Rickey, what are you saying Rickey for? Why don’ you just say, ‘I?’ But I never did. I always said, ‘Rickey,’ and it became something for people to joke about.â€
3) In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.
4) In 1996, Henderson’s first season with San Diego, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.†Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.â€
5) This one might be my second favorite. This wasn’ too long ago, I think it was the year he ended up playing with the Red Sox. Anyway, he called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.â€
6) This one happened in Seattle. Rickey struck out and as the next batter was walking past him, he heard Henderson say, “Don’ worry, Rickey, you’re still the best.â€
7) Rickey once asked a teammate how long it would take him to drive to the Dominican Republic.
9) Henderson once fell asleep on an ice pack and got frostbite , which forced him to miss three games — in mid-August.
10) A reporter asked Henderson if Ken Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.â€
11) Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s career record for runs scored with a home run. After taking his usual 45 seconds or so around the bases, Rickey slid into home plate.
12) On being Nolan Ryan’s 5,000th career strikeout: “It gave me no chance. He (Ryan) just blew it by me. But it’s an honor. I’ll have another paragraph in all the baseball books. I’m already in the books three or four times.â€
13) San Diego GM Kevin Towers was trying to contact Rickey at a nearby hotel. He knew Henderson always used fake names to avoid the press, fans, etc. He was trying to think like Rickey and after several attempts; he was able to get Henderson on the phone.
Rickey had checked in under Richard Pryor.
14) I didn’ believe this one at first. However, I emailed a few contacts within the Sox organization and they claim it actually happened. This is priceless, it really is.
The morning after the Sox finished off their 2004 World Series sweep against St. Louis, Henderson called someone in the organization looking for tickets to Game 6 at Fenway Park.
15) The Mets were staying in a hotel less than a mile from Cinergy Field in Cincinnati. While some players walked, most took the team bus. A few minutes after they arrived — again it was less than a mile , the last players off the bus noticed a stretched limo that had just pulled up.
Of course, Rickey emerged from the back seat.
16) A reporter once asked Rickey if he talked to himself, “Do I talk to myself? No, I just remind myself of what I’m trying to do. You know, I never answer myself so how can I be talking to myself?â€
17) OK, I know everyone has been waiting for it. Alas, according to both parties involved, it’s not true. I wish it were. Heck, both Rickey Henderson and John Olerud have said they wish it were true. But it just didn’ happen.
The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.†Legend also goes that Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.â€
Henderson played with Olerud on the Blue Jays and the Mets.
18) Rickey was asked if he had the Garth Brooks album with Friends in Low Places and Henderson said, “Rickey doesn’ have albums. Rickey has CDs.â€
19) During a contract holdout with Oakland in the early 1990s, Henderson said, “If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.â€
20) In the late 1980s, the Yankees sent Henderson a six-figure bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed the check had not been cashed. Current Yankees GM Brian Cashman , then a low-level nobody with the organization , called Rickey and asked if there was a problem with the check. Henderson said, “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up.â€
21) This is my all-time favorite. Rickey was pulled over by a San Diego police officer for speeding. As the officer was approaching Rickey’s car, the window went down a few inches and a folded $100 bill emerged. The officer let Rickey and his money head home without a ticket.
22) When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.â€
23) During one of his stays with Oakland, Henderson’s locker was next to Billy Beane’s. After making the team out of spring training, Beane was sent to the minors after a few months. Upon his return, about six weeks later, Henderson looked at Beane and said, “Hey, man, where have you been? Haven’ seen you in awhile.â€
24) To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, “Ricky’s the best,†for several minutes.
25) In the last week of his lone season with the Red Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he wasn’ going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.†Turns out the Sox got Henderson a Red Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?â€
August 30th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Also, Rickey was born on December 25, just like Jesus (Christ, not Alou).
August 30th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Come on, everybody knows Joe Orsulak is the greatest of all time
October 14th, 2010 at 1:19 am
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