A Tribute To Baseball Legend Rickey Henderson

I know Dante already posted his blog honoring Rickey Henderson, but I'd be remiss to not offer my own farewell. 

Childhood heroes seem immortal. For those of that were children of the 1980's and 1990's, you watched Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Bo Jackson, Jerry Rice and Rickey Henderson as if they half-human/half-Gods. Their abilities seemed limitless. The news broke today that one of those legends, Rickey Henderson, passed away at the age of 65. It's horrible reminder that there is no such thing as immortality. It's also a reminder that those greats were also human beings just like you and I. It makes their accomplishments somehow even greater.

Henderson holds the most important single record in all of baseball. It's not being all the all-time stolen base leader. Of course, that's what he was most famous for, not just now but when he played as well. Watching Rickey Henderson was like watching Michael Jordan dunk. It was the most exciting yet relatively regular thing you could see. Rickey averaged nearly a stolen base every other game for his career. His 1,406 career stolen bases is a record that will be very difficult to even approach, much less break.

So while the stolen base record may be the most iconic all-time record he holds, it's not the most important. Rickey Henderson is the all-time leader in runs. The whole reason you bat at all is to score a run. Rickey has done exactly that the most times of anyone who ever played baseball. More than Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays…anyone. His 2,295 are 50 more than Ty Cobb. Why don't we talk about this more? The stolen base is certainly exciting to watch but for some reason, we don't value runs enough. Henderson led the league five times and was in the top 10 in runs scored 12 times!

Henderson also leads all of MLB in another record: unintentional walks. Bonds has more bases on balls but so many of them were of the intentional variety. I'm not saying that's not important but it does speak to Henderson's amazing batting eye that no one had to wait for an umpire to make a decision to take that base more than Rickey.

Rickey Henderson was a two-time World Series champion (with his hometown Oakland A's in 1989 and with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993). In baseball, more than any other sport, it's not a given that your greatest players will win it all. Ted Williams, Ken Griffey Jr., Ty Cobb, Carl Yastrzemski and Ernie Banks all never won one. Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken,Jr., Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt and George Brett each only won 1. For Henderson to get two (and have a lifetime .339/.448/.607 World Series slash line) is really impressive.

He was the most explosive base runner I've ever seen. Watching him sprint home from second after a Don Mattingly single was something to witness. As a kid, it was like someone had shot him out of a gun. Of course, he was already at second because he walked and stole the base a batter earlier. That speed did erode as got older and then much older, but it never really went away. He led the AL in stolen bases with 66…when he was 39 years old. 

Rickey never wanted to stop playing baseball. The end of his career saw him make stops in a few places including Boston in 2002. At the end of the season, they gave him a convertible as a farewell present. Rickey never intended on retiring and took the car anyway. The next year, he was with the Dodgers until they cut him. I saw him the following year playing for the Newark Bears who were on the road in New Hampshire against the Nashua Pride. Henderson hit a ground ball and was still busting it down the line. Was he as fast as he was with the Yankees? Of course not. But I'd be damned to say he wasn't still fast.

Similar to Bo Jackson, Rickey had this sort of folk hero aura around him. I think it's because he was such a unique player. You look at his career on Baseball-Reference, and it seems bewildering. How did this guy do that? These number don't even make sense. He led the league in stolen bases 12 times? He had over 3,000 hits AND over 2,000 walks? You had another player, a Hall of Fame legend in Tim Raines that was completely overshadowed by Rickey. That's hard to do. It's almost like when you look at pitchers from the Dead Ball Era and none of the numbers make sense. The only difference is Rickey played in this century.

Henderson even has the funny stories surrounding him that you would a Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed. Him telling another teammate that he used to play with a guy who wore a helmet only to have John Olerud remind Rickey that the player was indeed him. Supposedly, that story is just a tall tale but it could be true. Rickey was the rare combination of being a teammate people loved playing with that also knew how good he was. Rickey Henderson never lacked for charm. He also didn't lack for ego. But, is it ego if you are actually that good? Maybe Rickey was just telling us facts? He was that great.

For those of us Gen Xers, Rickey is the first sports icon to die. We lost Kurt Cobain a long time ago and other great actors and musicians since. But it wasn't our athletes. It wasn't the posters taped to our wall or the signatures on the first gloves that we owned. It wasn't the people we pretended to be while trying to steal a base in little league or practicing free throws in our backyard. 

The phrase "lost a piece of my childhood" is overused and not entirely true here. That piece was gone when Rickey retired. I'll give him credit. He made them tear that damn uniform off of him. His passing is instead a cold splash of mortality. 

I mentioned earlier how unique Rickey Henderson's career truly was. The guy who we all pretended to be will now be the guy we tell our kids or grandkids that we saw play. He litters the record book. People will be chasing Henderson's records for years. And let me tell you, he's a tough guy to catch.

So maybe that's the last gift our legends give us. We spend our childhoods trying to be Magic or Larry or Jordan or Rickey or Gretzky but we spend our older years telling others about the amazing things we saw them do. The Sandlot nailed it years ago: Heroes get remembered but legends never die. 

We were right as kids. Rickey Henderson ended up being immortal after all.