Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson (born December 25, 1958) is an American retired professional baseball left fielder who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four separate tenures with his original team, the Oakland Athletics.Nicknamed the "Man of Steal", he is widely regarded as baseball's greatest leadoff hitter and baserunner. The 39 year-old 'Man of Steal' becomes the oldest player ever to lead the league in purloined bags", "1999 On Base Percentage Leaders: Top 25 in the National League", "Card game: Henderson, Bonilla show up Valentine in Game 6", "Griffey simply breathtaking in his prime", "2000 Stolen Bases Leaders: Top 25 in the American League", "Henderson Breaks Cobb's Record in Style", "October 7, 2001: Rickey Henderson records 3,000th hit in Tony Gwynn's final game Society for American Baseball Research", "A Year-by-Year League Leaders & Records for Oldest Player", "BASEBALL; Mets and Henderson Are Closing In On Deal", "One on one with Rickey Henderson: future Hall of Famer Interview", "Rickey's retirement plans: will he or won't he? Rickey always had to win.". Rickey Henderson Net Worth. Baltimore Orioles third baseman Floyd Rayford described the confusion he felt during a particular game, when Henderson was leading off first base and signalling him with two fingers. "[79], According to Verducci, during one off-season, Henderson called Padres general manager Kevin Towers and left this message: "Kevin, this is Rickey. He often refers to himself in the third person, and sources confirm hestill speaks like that today. When you see Rickey Henderson, I don't care when, the score's already 10. Henderson played for the Athletics from 1979-84, 1989-93,1994-95 and 1998. [23] He also batted .303, had 179 hits (tied for ninth in AL), scored 111 runs (fourth in AL), drew 117 walks (second in AL), had a .420 on-base percentage (third in AL) and led the AL by reaching base 301 times. [28] Sportswriter Jim Murray described Henderson's strike zone as being "smaller than Hitler's heart". He is eligible for parole on the drug charges on June 27, 2022. They exist on the sometimes narrow margin between Fact and Fiction.". When Rickey Henderson went back to Oakland in 1994, his World Series, American League MVP, Silver Slugger, Gold Gloves, and All-Star days were far behind him. They have two children together: a daughter named Riley who was born in 1984 and a son named Rhett who was born in 1990. [91] In 1993, Henderson stole his 1,066th base, surpassing the record established ten years earlier by Yutaka Fukumoto for the Hankyu Braves in Japan's Pacific League. A 12-time stolen base champion, Henderson led the league in runs five times. His father died when he was 7 and his mother married Paul Henderson through which the family adopted the Henderson surname. [8] As a child learning to play baseball in Oakland, Henderson developed the ability to bat right-handed although he was a naturally left-handed throwera rare combination for baseball players, especially non-pitchers. Bill James wrote in 2000, "Without exaggerating one inch, 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. In 71 games for Ogden, he had a batting average of .309 and stole 44 bases.[16]. Ricky Henderson is being held at the Texas Department of Criminals justice's Byrd unit in Huntsville, where he is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2019 to unrelated. [33] His .300 average in 1995 marked his sixth and final season in the AL with a .300 or better average. [9] His mother married Paul Henderson in Rickey Henley's junior year of high school and the family adopted the Henderson surname. [42], Following a mid-season trade back to Oakland in 1989, Henderson reasserted himself as one of the game's greatest players, with a memorable half-season in which his 52 steals and 72 runs scored led the A's into the postseason;[33] his 126 walks for the year were the most for any AL hitter since 1970. [30], Regarding Henderson's 1982 season, the mid-'80s book The Hidden Game of Baseball looked at such statistics as .78 expected runs with a runner on first and no outs, 1.07 expected runs with runner on second and no outs, and only .25 expected runs no one on and one out. His first love was football, and he wrecked defenses as a running back in high school. Those words haunt me to this day, and will continue to haunt me. I can't comprehend that yet. [33], As his muscular frame developed, Henderson continued to improve as a hitter. With head-first I worried about pounding my shoulders and my hands, and with feet-first I would worry about my knees and my legs. CREATIVE. Report an error Policies and Standards Contact Us Tags: Baseball Obituary John Hickey John Hickey. At a press conference two days after his election, the 50-year-old Henderson told reporters, "I believe today, and people say I'm crazy, but if you gave me as many at-bats that you would give the runners out there today, I would outsteal every last one of them they can always ring my phone and I'll come on down and help their ballclub, that's how much I love the game. Over the course of their marital life, the pair gave birth to three daughters, Alexis, Angela, and Adrianna Henderson. ESPN Video ESPN", "Henderson's antics tarnish his brilliant career", "Career Leaders & Records for Stolen Bases", "Year-by-Year League Leaders for Stolen Bases", Glossary of terms; Baseball Statistics.com, "Chris Ballard: More from Rickey Henderson and Jimmy Rollins on the art of the steal", "Progressive Leaders & Records for Power-Speed #", "Kenny Lofton sets postseason record for stolen bases", "Celebrating 40 Years of Oakland Athletics", "Baseball Evolution The 2005 Sporting News Top 100", "Most Times Leading League Batting Statistics", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rickey_Henderson&oldid=1141440627, September 19,2003,for theLos Angeles Dodgers, Most seasons leading the league in stolen bases, Most stolen bases in a single postseason series, Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 02:26. Henderson had such a dynamic stature that it prompted sabermetrics guru Bill James to conjecture: " if you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers.". Ronnie Lee Henderson was born to the union of Early and Shirly Henderson on January 25, 1962, in Melbourne, FL. Advertise with us Few names in the history of baseball evoke the excellence and dynamism that Rickey Henderson's does. Rickey wanted $1.2m. Ricky John Henderson (born 11 September 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). At the time of his last major league game in 2003, the ten-time American League (AL) All-Star ranked among the sport's top 100 all-time home run hitters and was its all-time leader in walks. Statistics. The stats arestill on his side. Evan and his roommates were in their early- to mid-twenties at the time, and knew what they needed to do. Same goes for Johnny Cooney. The best, however, is yet to come. About Us Characteristically, he added, "If it was a situation where we were going to win the World Series and I was the only player that they had left, I would put on the shoes. They have three daughters together, Angela, Alexis, and Adriann NM-MT. Those advanced statistics suggest Henderson may have done more damage than good with all his failed base stealing attempts. He signed a $12 million, 4-year contract with the Oakland Athletics on November 28, 1989. Since the 1970s, the five-year waiting period has been based on major league service only. If I don't, just get rid of me, release me. Pamela Palmer. He probably is." Ricky Don Henderson, 58, pleaded guilty December 17, 2019, in the 286th Judicial District Court to the Second Degree Felony charge of Delivery of a Controlled Substance to a Minor and was . Henderson eschews the modern statistics that made his former club famous in Moneyball. Helping them have success feels just as good. Henderson had a persona that he was just as often swept up in as he was in control of it. [21] He batted .274 with 33 stolen bases in 89 games. Once asked if he thought Henderson was a future Hall of Famer, statistician Bill James replied, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers. In 1987, he had a below-average season by his standards, fueling criticism from the New York media, which had never covered Henderson or his eccentricities kindly. After learning the reason -- Olerud suffered an aneurysm in college, and wore the helmet to protect his head -- Henderson said, "Man, I played with someone like that in New York." And Olerud's response: "Yeah, Rickey, that was me." Long thought to be apocryphal, the story was explained by Olerud. Here he is taking home third base, his 1000th base stolen: Talk about salt in the wound -- it's basically a staged robbery. After being named the Atlantic League All-Star Game MVP and receiving much media attention, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him over the All-Star break.[60][61]. 127. Henderson was an All-American running back in football as a high school athlete in Oakland, California. With runners in place, nearly every at-bat for Rickey was an RBI. You continue playing, you accomplish a lot, and you'd think people would look at it as a fantastic career. OAKLAND, CA - CIRCA 1992: Outfielder Rickey Henderson #22 of the Oakland Athletics dives into third base, stealing it against the New York Yankees during an Major League Baseball game circa 1992 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California. [16][19], Henderson spent the 1978 season with the Jersey City A's of the Eastern League. I guess that's how they want to judge me, as a character."[79]. "[29] However, Henderson denied that this happened in a February 26, 2009, interview on Mike and Mike in the Morning. And that's just Henderson's birth. The two men had been together the previous season with the 1999 Mets, as well as with the 1993 World Champion Blue Jays. He is also one of the best base stealers in baseball history. Rickey and his wife Pamela knew each other since their high school days. At 43, Henderson was the oldest player in the American League. [102][103] His record for most career walks (2,190) has since been broken by Barry Bonds; Henderson is now second but continues to hold the record for most unintentional walks (2,129). "[29] Padres general manager Kevin Towers said, "I get e-mails daily from fans saying, 'Sign Rickey.' I also knew it threw the pitcher off. And tell him dont be upset with me, weve got to much history together for that. Last year Ed Ott of the Angels got so frustrated because the umpire was calling balls that would've been strikes on anybody else that he stood up and shouted at me, "Stand up and hit like a man." Rickey lived with his grandmother in Pine Bluff, Arkansas from when he was two until he was seven, when he migrated to Oakland with his family. He again performed well in the World Series (.333 batting, .667 slugging, a home run and three steals in four games), but the A's were swept by the underdog Cincinnati Reds. We'll talk about a home run hitter 24/7. Advertisement While it's been years since Rickey Henderson stepped on the field to play baseball, he remains to be one of the greatest players to ever play. But when you're the Stolen Base King, you've earned the right. Henderson had one more league-leading season after that stretch, when his 66 steals in 1998 made him the oldest steals leader in baseball history. 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