Rickey could steal bases and our hearts

And so once more in this terrible year, we lose another Bay Area baseball legend. This time it was the greatest base stealer of all time and perhaps the greatest Oakland Athletics player of all time. Rickey Henderson died Friday, five days short of his 66th birthday, which would have been on Christmas. Willie Mays died in June, followed by another of the San Francisco Giants Hall of Famers, Orlando Cepeda. Now Rickey, of pneumonia. 

Presumably, Henderson was in a hospital bed. Had he been on the basepaths, the Grim Reaper wouldn’t have caught him. After all, few throws from catchers ever did.

When his 25-year major league career came to a close in 2003, Henderson had 1,406 steals, 130 of which set the single-season record in 1982. Then in 1991, when he broke Lou Brock’s all-time stolen base record, Rickey famously celebrated by grabbing the base and holding it aloft. A fan of Mohammed Ali, Henderson was not exactly a paragon of humility. “I’m the greatest,” he boasted. And he was.

Henderson also is the all-time runs-scored leader with 2,295. And what’s more important in baseball for the team at bat than scoring runs? 

Henderson grew up in Oakland, attending Oakland Tech High and playing both football and baseball. He hoped one day to be on his hometown team, the Oakland A’s, and was wildly successful. The team would name the playing surface at their now departed home, the Oakland Coliseum, Rickey Henderson Field. Sadly, that’s all gone, the franchise having been shifted to Sacramento. 

Henderson and former teammate, Dave Stewart, another A’s star, came to the team’s final game at Oakland in October, remembering the good days, as now we will Henderson.

When he was enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility, Henderson, who also played for the Yankees and several other teams, said, “That was something I always wanted to be, and now that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America has voted me into the Baseball Hall of Fame, my journey as a player is complete. I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time and at this moment, I am very, very humbled.” 

Even though his words don’t make him seem that way, Rickey was a comfortable presence in the clubhouse, a not-unwilling interview. He understood the need for an athlete to be cooperative as well as talented.

Stolen bases became less important in baseball during the middle of the 20th century. Ty Cobb’s record of 96 steals was set in 1915 and was not broken until Maury Wills raised the mark to 104 in 1962. Brock stole 118 in 1974.

And then along came Henderson, dynamic and exciting, winning games and in 1990 winning American League Most Valuable Player Award. 

He didn’t exactly change the game, but he certainly made it more thrilling. He gave opponents a run for their money. He’s gone, and so is the field named for him, but the great memories will always remain.

Thanks, Rickey.