RIP Rickey Henderson
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rickey Henderson, Hall of Famer and MLB’s all-time stolen bases leader, dead at 65 <a href="https://t.co/e554V5CzCU">https://t.co/e554V5CzCU</a> <a href="https://t.co/IwUTZnZZQ0">pic.twitter.com/IwUTZnZZQ0</a></p>&mdash; New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1870546219786793283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

RIP

RIP. Hated him when he was playing. But a hell of a player.

oh well.

Top 20 career in baseball history, Blue Jays WS legend. What a player.

Thats pretty damn young for a former pro athlete, RIP

Dude had unreal numbers. Incredible player.

one of the greatest personalities in sports history. the stories out there about him are so wacky and awesome

RIP Ricky.

Whoa, hes stayed out of the news. RIP, guy was an amazing player

How did he go? Thats young for a guy of his size

When he was on the cusp of breaking Brock's record, Brock attended his games so he could be there when it happened. And when it did, Henderson didn't even acknowledge him. That's what I remember most about Henderson.

The Bay Area News Network is reporting he was hospitalized with pneumonia.

Most athletes grow a belly after they play. Rickey remained in tip top shape.

Pneumonia, just a few days before his birthday, on Christmas.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And this right here folks will forever be my favourite Rickey Henderson story <a href="https://t.co/CQsPK1tdwW">pic.twitter.com/CQsPK1tdwW</a></p>&mdash; BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) <a href="https://twitter.com/nut_history/status/1870554378463256785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

RIP, an all time great

RIP...rooted against him but he was a hell of a player and much too young to pass.

First little league glove was a Rickey Henderson model. RIP.

RIP to a legend.

Oh that sucks. There's a real good podcast about Ricky playing baseball well into his 40s. No money, no cameras..: dude loved baseball and had the ego to believe he was great even when his best years were behind him. Love or hate the guy, you have to respect him

A buddy and me attended the Cactus League one spring training.

Rickey Henderson was walking from one backfield to another backfield early in the day where the fans were standing. My buddy walked up to Rickey and said, "hey, Rickey. Can I get a picture?"

Rickey happily obliged. He stopped walking, put on a pose with a smile. And then he kept walking.

Immediately afterwards, this mother was with her two daughers. One of the daughters was an attractive 19-year-old looking brunette wearing a skimpy dress. Her mother said, "go talk to him."

The daughter in the skimpy dress walked up to Rickey and said "hi Rickey" in this flirty voice. Rickey didn't even break his strut, didn't even turn his head toward her and he said nonchalantly "Rickey don't have time. Rickey gotta go to work. Rickey gotta go to work."

RIP To young

I was convinced after he played that he could still help a team. You're down 1-2 runs in the ninth, you send in Rickey to lead off the inning and he gets the walk you need to start the rally. I thought he could still impact an MLB team in that fashion.

R.I.P.

Damn, helluva player. RIP

Absolute legend. RIP

Sad. Really admired his talent.

One of those unforgettable players. RIP

****ing LEGEND

Seriously, one of the greatest players I've ever seen play.

Rickey is an inner circle HOFer, you don't see guys that great hardly ever. Matter of fact his numbers are so good if you cut them in half you'd have 2 HOFers.

A 1 of 1 player and shitty he's gone soon.

RIP

This one hurts... One of my all-time favorite players growing up. So many great stories about the guy, some true, some embellished, some outright lies that you almost wish were true, especially the Olerud story.

Could've probably been a two-way player, as he was probably as good a football player as he was a baseball player, but his mother prevented him from taking it any further than high school.

And I know a lot of people get rubbed the wrong way about him. A lot of stories of him always complaining about being underpaid. He once famously framed a bonus check for $1 million, losing out on months of interest, and only cashed it after the team's accounting dept got on his case about their bookkeeping being messed up. The whole "greatest of all-time" thing. Hell, Lou Brock and Rickey actually got together before the game when he broke the SB record and went over what Rickey wanted to say together. And Rickey even mentioned how he wished he had that one to do over, and even went so far as to sorta include it in his HOF induction... "and today I am among the greatest players of all time, and today I am... very, very humble".

Married his high school sweetheart, had three lovely daughters, never heard a whisper of any trouble off the field, and you had to tear the guy's jersey off before he would retire, even playing for the independent Newark Bears before one last shot with the Dodgers. He wouldn't actually officially retire until 4 years after his last game, and he would even dispute that just in case someone wanted to sign him for the minimum!

Quite a character, and the game sorely lacks people with his quick wit, his humor and his enormous ability. Absolutely one of the very, very best to ever do it, and he's gonna be missed. The man of steal indeed...

RIP Rickey, and thanks for the memories...

god he was so awesome

So many classic Rickey stories. Like when he set some milestone hits record with a home run and cleared his teammates away from home plate so he could slide. Or when he broke Lou Brock's stolen base record and declared himself the greatest of all-time. Or this classic story from Tony Gwynn...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3WFW8uO8Jcw?si=EgfrvYdCGZyKjv8r&amp;start=197" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Henderson sent me home, very unhappy, from many Royals games. That being said, he was still one of the greatest.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">OTD in 1991, Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock&#39;s all-time record for stolen bases �� <a href="https://t.co/bF5WtnOLka">pic.twitter.com/bF5WtnOLka</a></p>&mdash; Athletics (@Athletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/1653118804388634624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Rickey was one of the all-time greats.


Thing I remember the most about him, was the same night he broke the steals record, Nolan Ryan threw his 7th no-hitter.

There's actual real life video of Rickey hugging his mother and Lou Brock moments after stealing 3rd base. See above.

Now this is very Rickey Henderson. Yeah, he spoke of himself in the 3rd person quite a bit, but not nearly as often as people would like to think. And he would typically speak in the third person like he was talking to himself, usually to keep himself focused or out of trouble. This story aligns very well to Rickey's persona. He wasn't out there chasing women, even if it was friendly.

Speaking of Nolan Ryan... Rickey was coincidentally Nolan's 5000th strikeout victim. Rickey congratulated Nolan after the game.

Also growing up, my dad hated Rickey Henderson because of how he played and of course I loved him.

I wish we could have Ricky Henderson give his eulogy. He could talk about Ricky Henderson and what Ricky Henderson did in Ricky Henderson’s career.

Legend and RIP.

"Tenure? What are you talking about I've been around this league for fifteen years."

This is a shocking one. RIP.

Back in the day you barely saw people pimp homruns. Ricky did it al the time and it was awesome

There will never be another player with his combination of abilities, let alone one with those capabilities that also have the personality and off field awesomeness. I was always sad I never got to see him or Nolan Ryan when I was a kid.

RIP Ricky Henderson
 

'Man of Steal' Dies

Wow, a legend passes at only 65.

Major League Baseball legend Rickey Henderson died Friday at age 65. Known as the "Man of Steal," the Hall of Famer holds the all-time stolen base record with 1,406 and runs scored with 2,295, and was widely considered the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history.



Henderson ended his 25-season career in 2003 after playing for nine teams—the longest tenure with his hometown team, the Oakland A's. In that time, Henderson won two World Series titles: his first with the A's in 1989 and his second with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993. Henderson also held the all-time record for walks (2,190) before Barry Bonds surpassed him in 2004. He was a 10-time All-Star and became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2009.



Henderson was also known for his style and eccentricity, often celebrating home runs with a signature jersey tug or finger dance.

RIP Rickey. You were a great one.

Was a footnote for my favorite baseball player of all time, Nolan Ryan.
Rickey was Nolan's 5000 strikeout victim.

Did they bring him back from the dead and he died again? Wow!

Again??

Oh don't act so shocked. John Goodman has died about 124 times at this point

If Beric Dondarrion can do it, so can Rickey

Wow!

Oops, sorry. I missed the other thread and found it.:banghead:

I remember hating him, but he was an incredible talent.

Former Mets GM Steve Phillips said on MLB Network Radio on Sunday that Rickey Henderson didn't know him by his name, would just refer to him as "hey GM".

Phillips said Henderson wanted the Mets to do something special for him in 1999 when he reached the all-time runs record and all-time walks record.

Phillips said the Mets would have a pregame ceremony and present him with some tiffany. Henderson replied, "Who's Tiffany?"

Phillips said it's made of crystal. Henderson asked, "who's Crystal?"

When Henderson understood what Phillips and the Mets wanted to do for him, he wasn't interested. Phillips asked what he wanted.

Henderson wanted the Mets to get him a Madden cruiser lol

He was the guy who framed a million-dollar check, right? I think it was him. He got a huge paycheck and thought the check was ceremonial, so he framed it. The team eventually called and asked why he hadn't cashed it.

ROFL



ROFL

Here’s another story:

When Henderson joined the, I think it was the Mariners, he noticed John Olerud wore a helmet instead of a hat in the field. Ricky approached Olerud and said “I played with a guy last year who did the same thing” to which Olerud replied “yeah Ricky, that was me. We were teammates on the Mets last year”

Lol