Rickey Henderson

Rickey Nelson Henley was born on December 25, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois, in the back seat of an Oldsmobile on the way to the hospital. He was the son of John L. Henley and Bobbie Henley and was named after singer and actor Ricky Nelson. When he was two, his father moved to Oakland, California, and Rickey lived with his grandmother in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, until he was seven, when he joined his family in Oakland. His father later died in a car accident. During Rickey's junior year of high school his mother married Paul Henderson, and the family adopted the Henderson surname.

Growing up in Oakland, he learned to bat right-handed even though he threw left-handed, because all his friends batted that way. It is a rare combination, and Henderson became by far the most successful player ever to bat right and throw left.

Henderson graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1976. He played baseball, basketball and football there and was an All-American running back with two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He also ran track briefly. He received more than a dozen football scholarship offers and dreamed of playing for the Oakland Raiders, but followed his mother's advice that baseball careers last longer and signed with the Athletics after the 1976 draft.

Oakland drafted Henderson in the fourth round of the 1976 MLB draft. In the minors he set a California League record with 95 steals for the Modesto A's in 1977. He debuted for Oakland on June 24, 1979.

Oakland Athletics (1979 to 1984): He stole 100 bases in 1980, breaking Ty Cobb's American League record, and finished second in MVP voting in 1981 while winning a Gold Glove. In 1982 he stole a record 130 bases, breaking Lou Brock's modern single-season mark. He stole 108 more in 1983.

New York Yankees (1985 to 1989): In 1985 he led the league with 146 runs and 80 steals and won a Silver Slugger. He set the Yankees franchise steals record of 326.

Oakland again (1989 to 1993): Traded back in June 1989, he was ALCS MVP and helped Oakland win the 1989 World Series. He was the 1990 AL MVP, hitting .325 with a .439 on-base percentage. On May 1, 1991, he broke Lou Brock's career record with steal number 939, and on July 16, 1993, he passed Yutaka Fukumoto's world record.

Toronto Blue Jays (1993): He scored ahead of Joe Carter's walk-off home run that won the 1993 World Series.

Later years: He played for Oakland again (1994 to 1995 and 1998), San Diego (1996 to 1997 and 2001), Anaheim (1997), the New York Mets (1999 to 2000), Seattle (2000), Boston (2002) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2003). At 39 he became the oldest player to lead a league in steals. In 2001 he broke the career records for walks and runs and reached 3,000 hits. His final MLB game was September 19, 2003. He played for the independent Newark Bears in 2003 and 2004 and the San Diego Surf Dawgs in 2005.

Coaching: The Mets hired him as a special instructor in 2006 and made him first base coach in July 2007. He later worked as a spring training instructor for the Athletics, teaching base stealing and outfield play.

In 1983 Henderson married his high school sweetheart, Pamela. They had three children. He was famously careful with money in quirky ways. He framed a $1 million signing bonus check instead of cashing it, and he saved his road per diem envelopes in a box, letting his children pick one when they did well in school. He was asthmatic and had related sinus problems.

Henderson believed passionately in playing the game hard and for as long as he could. He refused for years to accept that his career was over, saying in 2007, "I want to play again, man." He valued his career runs record above his other achievements, explaining, "You have to score to win." His hero was Muhammad Ali, which inspired his famous "I am the greatest" line in 1991, a remark he later felt overshadowed his achievements.

Henderson is widely regarded as the greatest leadoff hitter and baserunner in baseball history. His 1,406 career steals are nearly 50 percent more than Lou Brock's previous record of 938, and he led the American League in steals 12 times. He also holds the records for runs scored, unintentional walks and leadoff home runs, and he posted an on-base percentage of at least .400 in 16 seasons. Bill James wrote that "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." Teammate Mitchell Page said that when Henderson came to bat, "the score's already 1 to 0." His larger-than-life personality made him one of baseball's most quoted characters, and a bobblehead of him even appeared in Toy Story 4.

National Baseball Hall of Fame (inducted 2009, first ballot, 94.8 percent) American League MVP (1990) ALCS MVP (1989) World Series champion (1989 Athletics, 1993 Blue Jays) 10-time All-Star (1980, 1982 to 1988, 1990, 1991) Gold Glove Award (1981) 3-time Silver Slugger Award (1981, 1985, 1990) 12-time AL stolen base leader Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award Oakland Athletics No. 24 retired Athletics Hall of Fame Sporting News NL Comeback Player of the Year (1999)

Henderson was one of baseball's most quoted personalities, known for speaking about himself in the third person. Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci compared him to figures of American folklore and called him "the modern-day Yogi Berra, only faster." The Athletics held a Rickey Henderson Bobblehead Day in 2011 on the 20th anniversary of his record steal, and a Henderson bobblehead appears in the film Toy Story 4.

Henderson clashed at times with clubs and the press. In 1987 Yankees owner George Steinbrenner publicly accused him of "jaking it". With the Mets, he was criticised for playing cards with Bobby Bonilla in the clubhouse during the end of the 1999 NLCS, and he feuded with manager Bobby Valentine before being released in May 2000. His 1991 "I am the greatest" remark was seen by some as arrogant, though Henderson said it was inspired by Muhammad Ali.

Rickey Henderson died on December 20, 2024, five days before his 66th birthday, at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, following a bout of pneumonia. According to his former teammate Dave Stewart, Henderson was admitted to hospital that day for a related procedure but did not recover. News of his death circulated that evening and was confirmed by his family the following day. Major League Baseball, the Athletics, Yankees, Blue Jays, Padres, Mets and the National Baseball Hall of Fame all paid tribute.