Rickey Henderson, Baseball's Career Steals Leader, Dies at 65

[Polybius]

Source: Sports Illustrated

Hall of Famer and Major League Baseball's career steals leader Rickey Henderson has died at the age of 65, according to multiple reports, and confirmed by the New York Post.

Henderson, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest leadoff hitters and base stealers in the history of the sport, played for nine different teams in his 25-year career, compiling 3,055 hits, 297 home runs and 1,115 RBI. His 2,295 career runs and 1,406 stolen bases remain Major League records.

Henderson was a 10-time All-Star, and won the league MVP in 1990 with the Oakland Athletics, when he hit .325 with 28 home runs, 61 RBI and 65 stolen bases. He also boasted a 1.016 OPS (on-base plus slugging) that season and a .439 OBP. He won two World Series titles in his Hall of Fame career, one with the Athletics in 1989 and another with the Toronto Blue Jays in '93.

He was inducted into Cooperstown as a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2009.

Read more: https://www.si.com/mlb/rickey-henderson-baseball-s-career-steals-leader-dies-at-65

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RIP to a legend!

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Cross gently, Rickey.

GREAT ballplayer. ⚾

[underpants]

2. What an incredible player. Unbelievable lead off hitter.

There are lots of stories about Rickey but my favorite is that he stood in front of a full length mirror in the clubhouse and kept repeating “Rickey is great” over and over and over. Oh, he was completely naked when he did this.

[Walleye]

3. I used to watch him play on TV. I enjoyed it every time.

He came to the plate. You were pretty sure he was gonna get on base and if he got on base, you just knew he was gonna steal.

[SheltieLover]

4. Rip

[Marthe48]

5. What a shame

He was something else

[GB_RN]

6. RIP...

Rickey. Hope the ⚾️ fields are green and well manicured.

[maveric]

7. He was fun to watch. Always seemed like he was on top of the world.

Drove pitchers absolutely bonkers when he got on base.

[OnlinePoker]

8. This is him setting the record in 1991

[Rastapopoulos]

9. Had to look it up to jog my memory

Rickey finished his career with the Red Sox. When he joined the team he had more stolen bases in his career than the Red Sox franchise had in their entire history. I'm glad I got a chance to see him in that 2002 season.

RIP, Rickey. You were a lot of fun.

[JMCKUSICK]

10. Truly a great baseball player Rickey was.

[aggiesal]

11. I had dinner with Rickey Henderson, one evening. ...

Last edited Sun Dec 22, 2024, 03:37 PM - Edit history (1)

He was so nice, he answered every question I asked him, because each answer had a story behind it.
He was an exceptional athlete. He said he had a D1 scholarship to play football and got drafted in baseball.
He said, his mom told him, you're not playing football, you're playing baseball.

I asked him what it was like to play for Tony LaRussa?
He said LaRussa wanted to win all 162 games.
He said knowing how Tony is, in a game the A's were losing 10-0, he went into the club house, in the 8th inning, served himself a plate of the post game meal.
Went back out to play the 9th inning.
When the game ended, LaRussa went into the players club house and overturned the table with the post game meal, saying, "You don't deserve a post game meal."
But Rickey had already served himself.

Also surprising was that he liked to go fishing during the off season.

Signed a baseball for me.

I have a ball with Tony Gwynn, Trevor Hoffman & Rickey Henderson.
All Hall of Famers on 1 ball.

RIP Rickey.

[FakeNoose]

12. Great stories! Thanks for sharing

RIP Ricky Henderson

[aggiesal]

13. Here's another story he told me ...

When playing with the A's, in the last year of his contract, they were out of playoff contention.
The GM came to his locker to tell him he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. Rickey was not happy, because he wanted to re-sign with his hometown A's.
The GM told him, "Don't worry, we're only renting you to the Blue Jays for 8 weeks. Go win yourself a World Series. Then we'll re-sign you in the off season."
He goes to Toronto & stays at the hotel that's in the Skydome (now known as Rogers Centre), for 8 weeks. Wins the World Series, then re-signs with the A's, just as the GM told him.

[C0RI0LANUS]

18. Great story indeed, thanks for sharing. I loved watching Rickey play.

[YoshidaYui]

14. I saw Ricky Henderson play ball

[GoYouPackersGo]

15. With apologies to Tim Raines, Rickey was the best leadoff hitter of my lifetime.

I am almost 60. If you like imagining such things (and I do) the heavenly baseball team just got a new leadoff man.

P.S. I didn't mention Gwynn, because usually batted second.

[Bristlecone]

16. One of the greatest players ever.

[the_liberal_grandpa]

17. I remember that RIcky would

always demand a new contract , out of respect if another player made more than him.

[kairos12]

19. Somewhere I read or heard the story about a reporter asking him about

John 3:15 and he said Ricky don't care about no John hitting .315, Ricky's hitting .330.

Love that guy. He will be missed.

[LisaM]

20. He played for the Mariners near the end of his career.

He was past his prime, but his value added to the team was how he mentored younger players and, especially, how he helped them through slumps. I admired that about him.

[DAngelo136]

21. Rickey Henderson died

from pneumonia. As such, I would encourage many of you (Especially within the African American community) who are vulnerable to contracting the disease to get vaccinated against it. Henderson, was a physical specimen as a player and yet was struck by and killed by a short bout of pneumonia.
Many African American former players and athletes have had serious bouts with ill health and disease which have resulted in premature deaths: Jackie Robinson-diabetes and heart disease (53); Dave Henderson-heart attack following a kidney transplant (57); Tony Gwynn-partoid cancer (from tobacco use) (54) to name a few.
So, I would say that in the age of MAGA, maintaining good health and staying out of the clutches of the American medical system is a revolutionary act.
Get regular checkups, keep on top of your health and habits and take all necessary vaccinations (regardless of what RFK, Jr and the anti vaxers say) and take care of yourselves.

[jmowreader]

22. Henderson stole 130 bases in 1982

In that season:
He had 14 more stolen bases than walks.
He had 11 more stolen bases than runs.
He had 26 more stolen bases than singles.

According to MLB.com, since 2000 only five players stole at least half as many bases in a season as Henderson stole in 1982. Neither Mike Trout nor Shohei Ohtani are one of those players, but Elly De La Cruz is.

Between 1980 and 1989, only in 1987 was he not either the SB leader in the American League or the leader in all of MLB.

The one thing he was not renowned for was stealing home plate. He only stole home four times in his career.

Henderson's base-stealing rate is so outrageous we can calculate a Stealing Percentage for him. If you want to do it as (stolen bases/steal attempts) he has an .807 SP which is close to his career .820 OPS, and if you want to do it as (stolen bases/total bases) it's .306 - which is higher than his career .279 BA.

On July 12, 1989, Henderson stole five bases against the Seattle Mariners in Oakland. He also got walked four times and made it home all four times. Eleven years later he signed with the Mariners for part of a season. I guess they figured if he was going to be stealing that damn many bases they'd prefer it not be against them.

Henderson only appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot once, in 2009; 94.8 percent of the writers voted for him. At the time it was the third-highest vote total received.

Henderson is atop the career leaderboard in four statistics: leadoff homers, stolen bases, Caught Stealing (like, whoda thunk?) and also Runs Scored. He's second all-time in walks but was only intentionally walked 61 times in 25 seasons - an average of under three per year, which makes sense because there is no one in the history of baseball less advisable to walk than Rickey Henderson.