“Rickey’s the best! Rickey’s the best!”
Today Rickey Henderson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He played professional baseball for 25 seasons – all of them with mad swagger (and loads of quirks).
Among those seasons I’ll never forget ‘82. I was an awkward 12 year old, and along with my first BMX bike, I had a bad case of Billyball fever.
I also had a stroke of luck that year. A good friend of my father, Sam Olson, was awarded a lucrative contract producing all of the A’s marketing materials. Sam was a big, loud and charming boozer, that, by the start of the season had made friends with half of the A’s organization. I got to attend a heap of games that year and even got to sit in the dug out once. Hella awesome man!
It was also a year that Rickey stole over 100 bases (130 in fact). He was just blazing fast. And when he got rolling, there wasn’t a pitcher that could stop him. This dude knew how to get on base too. Hit, walk, bunt, the Floo Network, you name it. His on base percentage was furious – usually hovering around .400.
I’ll spare you the litany of stats, you can read them here or here.
After Clint Eastwood (who at that time I only knew as Dirty Harry) Rickey Henderson was the most famous cat that ever went to Oakland Tech. And back in those bleak days, we needed some North Oakland pride. But, what I’ll never forget was his “unique” use (and misuse) language and the crazy stories, like this one:
Teammates reported seeing him standing naked in front of a mirror before a game, practicing his swing, and declaring, “Rickey’s the best! Rickey’s the best!”
Look, if racking up more then 1,400 career stolen bases doesn’t get you into the Hall, then I think that probably should.
Gd.
Oh, and did I mention that “I am the greatest of all time?”
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