Rickey Henderson dead at age 65

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He used pace the lockerroom sans clothing and do positive speaking.
 

In the Twins World Series era, the A's were our rival.

I always remember thinking, please get Rickey out. Canseco and McGuire were coming up shortly.
 


I never knew his birth name was "Rickey Nelson" Henley.
 




The active leader in stolen bases is Starling Marte.

With 354.

If he’d stolen another 50 a year, he’d still be 200 behind Rickey Henderson.

RIP to Rickey, a true baseball legend

Jayson Stark (@jaysonst.bsky.social)

The active leader in stolen bases is Starling Marte. With 354. If he’d stolen another 50 a year, he’d still be 200 behind Rickey Henderson. RIP to Rickey, a true baseball legend
bsky.app bsky.app
 

Rickey had wild stats.
Walked more times unintentionally than anyone. (Must have had great knowledge of the strike zone, because you certainly don't want to walk him.)
Scored the most runs ever. (Name of the game.)
Hit more home runs to lead off a game than anyone.
Stole 3 or more bases in a game 71 times, including 4 steals 19 times. Had 5 steals once. (Did it without a hit and did score 4 runs that game.)
Think how many fastballs his teammates got to sit on because of him.
 



OK - true story. I'm living in the Cities in the early 80's and I go to a Twins-Oakland game with some of my buddies. this was back when you could bring a thermos with you for games at the old Met. so my group mixed up a gallon thermos of mixed drinks (and we mixed 'em strong) and brought that with us.

we're sitting in the LF bleachers. Rickey is in front of us. Every time he runs for a fly ball, his hat flies off. So we (being a little inebriated by this point) started yelling "Your head's too big for your hat" at him. after a while, he turned back, looked at us and flipped us the bird.

in retrospect, probably not the best move. but at the time, we thought it was funny.

and that is my Rickey Henderson story.

join us again soon for another episode of "Tales of an Alcoholic."
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Rickey had wild stats.
Walked more times unintentionally than anyone. (Must have had great knowledge of the strike zone, because you certainly don't want to walk him.)
Scored the most runs ever. (Name of the game.)
Hit more home runs to lead off a game than anyone.
Stole 3 or more bases in a game 71 times, including 4 steals 19 times. Had 5 steals once. (Did it without a hit and did score 4 runs that game.)
Think how many fastballs his teammates got to sit on because of him.
Click to expand...

The Career Most Runs Scored Record I think is amazingly underrated.

In my life when the Home Run (Aaron & Bonds), Hit (Rose), Strikeout (Ryan & Carlton) and even Stolen Base (Henderson himself) Records were broken, those were deemed as massive accomplishments that got widespread media attention.

Henderson breaking the Runs Scored record barely even registered. He passed Ty Cobb (2,246) in 2001 while playing for the Padres. He slid into Home after hitting a HR to left field 10/4/2001

In fairness there was a lot going on the in world, less than a month after 9-11.

October 4, 2001: Rickey Henderson slides into record book with 2,245th career run scored to pass Ty Cobb – Society for American Baseball Research

sabr.org sabr.org

Looking at the All Time list, everyone that is in the T30 made it to Cooperstown, will when they are eligible or aren't going to make it because of gambling or embracing the juice/clear.

Stretch it to T75 and the only ones not likely to get in are Johnny Damon, Kenny Lofton, scofflaws and 5 guys that played mostly in the 1800s.

Carlos Beltran is on the list #52 and he got 57% on his 2nd Year on the Ballot (up from 46%).

en.wikipedia.org

List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Anyway, back to Rickey, I was glad this noteworthy accomplishment was mentioned often on the MLB Network coverage of his passing.
 
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Ope3 said:
The Career Most Runs Scored Record I think is amazingly underrated.

In my life when the Home Run (Aaron & Bonds), Hit (Rose), Strikeout (Ryan & Carlton) and even Stolen Base (Henderson himself) Records were broken, those were deemed as massive accomplishments that got widespread media attention.

Henderson breaking the Runs Scored record barely even registered. He passed Ty Cobb (2,246) in 2001 while playing for the Padres. He slid into Home after hitting a HR to left field 10/4/2001

In fairness there was a lot going on the in world, less than a month after 9-11.

October 4, 2001: Rickey Henderson slides into record book with 2,245th career run scored to pass Ty Cobb – Society for American Baseball Research

sabr.org sabr.org

Looking at the All Time list, everyone that is in the T30 made it to Cooperstown, will when they are eligible or aren't going to make it because of gambling or embracing the juice/clear.

Stretch it to T75 and the only ones not likely to get in are Johnny Damon, Kenny Lofton, scofflaws and 5 guys that played mostly in the 1800s.

Carlos Beltran is on the list #52 and he got 57% on his 2nd Year on the Ballot (up from 46%).

en.wikipedia.org

List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Anyway, back to Rickey, I was glad this noteworthy accomplishment was mentioned often on the MLB Network coverage of his passing.
Click to expand...
Rickey stole 3rd base 322 times. Geeze.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Rickey stole 3rd base 322 times. Geeze.
Click to expand...
The Walk total is also staggering. He's 2nd now All Time to Bonds, but given how many Barry received were Intentional, it's a rather unfair comparison. It's also amazing he did it pre-Money Ball which later increased the perception for the value of Bases on Balls.

Tim Kurkjian (ESPN) was on Tony Kornheiser's podcast. He has mentioned that he lead off innings with 796 walks. Nobody on base and he still drew that many.

He had him as his #15 Player of All Time, but certainly understood anyone that has him T10. He also listed as the #1 Oakland Athletic, even ahead of any the early 70s or anyone else from the Bash Brother eras.

Bill James, the GOAT for all stat freaks said this about Henderson in his Historical Baseball Abstract, "If you split him in 2, you would have 2 Hall of Famers." Deep thought.
 



Ope3 said:
The Walk total is also staggering. He's 2nd now All Time to Bonds, but given how many Barry received were Intentional, it's a rather unfair comparison. It's also amazing he did it pre-Money Ball which later increased the perception for the value of Bases on Balls.

Tim Kurkjian (ESPN) was on Tony Kornheiser's podcast. He has mentioned that he lead off innings with 796 walks. Nobody on base and he still drew that many.

He had him as his #15 Player of All Time, but certainly understood anyone that has him T10. He also listed as the #1 Oakland Athletic, even ahead of any the early 70s or anyone else from the Bash Brother eras.

Bill James, the GOAT for all stat freaks said this about Henderson in his Historical Baseball Abstract, "If you split him in 2, you would have 2 Hall of Famers." Deep thought.
Click to expand...
109 stolen bases after the age of 40 (Going to be very, very difficult to ever beat that.)
 
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fan of Ray Williams said:
109 stolen bases after the age of 40 (Going to be very, very difficult to ever beat that.)
Click to expand...
Another athletic marvel, Ichiro had 85 after 40, with 20+ in 4 different seasons 37 SBs after 40.

EDIT after call out from Ray W.
 
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Ope3 said:
Another athletic marvel, Ichiro had 85 after 40, with 20+ in 4 different seasons.
Click to expand...
You sure of that? I am seeing 37 after the age of 40 (I think you are looking at RBI's)
www.baseball-reference.com

Ichiro Suzuki Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ichiro Suzuki. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
You sure of that? I am seeing 37 after the age of 40
www.baseball-reference.com

Ichiro Suzuki Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ichiro Suzuki. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
Click to expand...
Nope. My bad. User Error.

I looked at the exact same link, but mis-aligned the column on my phone when scrolling. 85 RBIs. Still a fine athletic achievement for someone over 40 as were the 37 SBs. Makes Rickey's stats even more sick.

Thanks for calling it out.

Just FYI comparison, Paul Molitor had 20 SBs (26 attempts) in his 2 full seasons after turning 40.

www.baseball-reference.com

Paul Molitor Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Paul Molitor. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
 
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