Rickey Henderson, Oakland baseball legend, dies at 65

Rickey Henderson, thought-about by baseball consultants, together with journalists and fellow gamers, as one of many biggest to ever play the sport, died Friday, Dec. 20 on the age of 65. 

Henderson moved to Oakland along with his household when he was 7 years outdated and grew up on 61st and Dover streets close to Bushrod Park. He attended Oakland Technical Excessive College, the place he performed soccer and baseball. In 1976, as an Oakland Tech senior, he was named “California State Baseball Participant of the 12 months” whereas additionally enjoying soccer and working observe. 

A number of sources confirmed Henderson’s passing to The Oaklandside. His demise, which led to hours of hypothesis on social media, was additionally confirmed by the East Bay Instances.

Henderson began within the main league with the Athletics in 1979 and performed within the massive leagues for twenty-four years, setting information that may doubtless by no means be matched. Amongst them are stolen bases. Henderson electrified followers with 1,406 stolen bases, 50% greater than the variety of bases stolen by the participant in second place, Lou Brock. He was additionally thought-about the best leadoff hitter of all time, with essentially the most house runs main off a sport, 81, and an uncanny means to get on base. And coaches and fellow gamers relied on him as a constant scorer with essentially the most runs – the core statistic of baseball. Henderson tapped house base 2,295 occasions in his day. 

Maybe most extremely from the angle of the sentimental, storytelling nature of the sport, Henderson performed for his hometown group in Oakland, the Athletics, for almost all of his profession. Though he had a number of stints in different cities, together with an extended and fanciful stretch with the New York Yankees, it was in Oakland the place he enthralled followers. Oakland remained his house after he retired.

Affectionately referred to as “The Man of Steal,” Henderson was inducted into the Baseball Corridor of Fame in 2009 alongside Jim Rice, one other ballplayer who got here of age within the late 70s and 80s. The quantity “24” was retired by the Athletics the identical 12 months. 

In his induction speech, Henderson thanked an extended checklist of coaches, teammates, and his household. Poignantly, he spoke with emotion concerning the function that his mom, Bobbie Henderson performed in his upbringing and the way she pushed him to be the very best participant he may very well be. 

In 2006, the Oakland Unified College District decommissioned the playground of the previous Carter Center College in North Oakland. Shortly after, neighbors, group leaders, mother and father of Oakland Tech college students and alumni shaped the “Subject of Goals Committee.” A 12 months later, the sphere turned a typical venue for Oakland Tech and native sports activities nonprofits. In 2009, it was renamed because the “Rickey Henderson Subject.” Henderson spoke on the renaming ceremony, saying, “Perhaps now native youths would possibly grow to be extra concerned with baseball, permitting them to pursue and notice their very own goals a lot as a teenage Rickey Henderson did so a few years in the past.”

In 2017, the Athletics renamed the Oakland Coliseum’s area “Rickey Henderson Subject” to honor the Oakland legend and Corridor of Famer. 

“It’s virtually too laborious to consider that in 2024, the ultimate 12 months [of the A’s] in Oakland, #24 would now not be with us,” Bryan Johansen, co-founder of the baseball fan group The Final Dive Bar, and one of many first to announce the information of Henderson’s passing, informed the Oaklandside. “He was and can at all times be the best of all time. I’m completely heartbroken.”

Considered one of Henderson’s final public appearances was on the closing Athletics sport on the Oakland Coliseum. Henderson and Dave Stewart threw the final ceremonial pitch. They wore the group’s beloved kelly inexperienced “Oakland” jersey. The 2 Oakland natives grew up enjoying on native grime playgrounds and gained a championship collectively in 1989 within the earthquake-rattled basic sequence in opposition to crosstown rivals, the San Francisco Giants. 

“The followers got here out right here at the moment to recollect all the good occasions they’ve had,” Henderson informed The Oaklandside on the final sport. “It is a special occasion. We’re all right here at the moment collectively as soon as once more.”

Apart from his spectacular achievements on the sphere, Henderson was identified for his offbeat persona, sprinkled with an Oakland-type of dry, chill humor. Through the years, tons of of gamers informed anecdotes of Rickey interactions later outlined as “Rickeyisms” — laborious to consider, partly true, and at all times entertaining. 

One story concerned Toronto Blue Jays first baseman John Olerud assembly Rickey at first base. Olerud, who uncommonly wore a helmet on the sphere as a precaution after struggling an aneurism in faculty, performed with Henderson within the early Nineties within the Canadian metropolis. They even gained a championship collectively. Rickey apparently smiled at him and guilelessly informed Olerud, “You understand, I used to play with a man who wore a helmet on the sphere, too!” Olerud stated, “Rickey, that was me.” 

Generally, his statements and actions didn’t go over nicely. Through the years, together with throughout his time with the A’s, Henderson typically clashed along with his managers, notably Corridor of Famers Billy Martin in Oakland and New York and Tony La Russa in Oakland. La Russa, the long-time A’s boss, criticized Henderson throughout contract negotiations in 1992 and publicly known as him out different occasions for not being a group participant. 

Henderson disputed this by talking about himself within the not-quite-so-selfless third individual, saying, charmingly, that “Rickey is a group participant.” 

La Russa, for his half, usually let Rickey do what he wished on the sphere. In the course of the group’s high-flying seasons within the late Eighties and early Nineties, he famously stated he didn’t give Rickey any working indicators. “He had the inexperienced mild,” La Russa informed reporters. 

Henderson had sufficient alternatives to outline himself as a singular participant throughout one of many sport’s hottest eras. His efficiency within the 1989 playoffs, following a re-acquisition by the A’s in the course of the summer time commerce deadline, was elegant, with Sports activities Illustrated reporter Peter Gammons saying his output in the course of the American League Championship Sequence “could go down as the very best particular person efficiency because the playoff system started in 1969.” Rickey led all gamers in that sequence in runs, slugging, homers, on-base proportion, complete bases, steals, walks, “and conversations with followers,” Gammons wrote. He additionally generally taunted the Jays gamers, calling his two-homer efficiency the day earlier than it occurred. 

Henderson additionally set the usual for skilled monetary independence. On November 28, 1989, he signed a four-year contract with Oakland value $12 million, then a file for the game. 

On the Athletics final sport in September, Henderson signed autographs and chatted with followers. He embraced Athletics participant, Max Schuemann and different present gamers and joked round with Dave Stewart.

As information of his passing first circulated Friday evening, long-time Henderson, A’s, and baseball followers all over the place mourned the Oakland baseball legend. 

“I used to chop out the each day stolen base counts from the paper the 12 months you broke Lou Brock’s file. You had been my first sports activities hero!” learn one tweet from a fan within the Philippines.