“What Jimmy really loved to do? What he really loved to do was steal. I mean, he actually enjoyed it. Jimmy was the kind of guy who rooted for the bad guy in the movies.” — Ray Liotta as Henry Hill
That’s a quote from “Goodfellas,” which premiered in September 1990, when the Oakland A’s have been reigning champions and Rickey Henderson was once probably the most electrifying participant in baseball. That was once his easiest season, too, and firstly of the then one, he penniless Lou Brock’s occupation report for stolen bases.
Henderson yanked the understructure from the Coliseum dust and raised it to the sky. He thanked God, the A’s and the town. He thanked crowd, lovers and bosses. Upcoming, with Brock status beside him, Henderson declared: “Today, I am the greatest of all-time.”
That night time, 1700 miles away in Texas, Nolan Ryan penniless his personal report for no-hitters with seven. The impossible to resist distinction made for a idle speaking level: the common-or-garden, stoic Ryan had upstaged the useless, cocky Henderson. Low-hanging fruit at its maximum bitter.
Henderson, who died Friday at month 65, was once the sinister man in that film — and certain, he introduced it on himself. He whined about being underpaid. He incessantly referred to himself within the 3rd individual. He wore fluorescent inexperienced batting gloves. He popped his collar and shimmied on house run trots. He slashed the wind then catching fly balls, his glove like Zorro’s blade.
And it all — the agreement stuff however — was once superior.
“In my way of playing the game, people have called me a hot dog,” Henderson as soon as stated. “But I call it (bringing) some style or entertainment to the people. I enjoy going out there and exciting the fans, because I feel like they come out here to see some excitement.”
Used to be any participant ever more exciting than Rickey Henderson? Used to be any individual a greater entertainer? For sure, no person outdoor of the films cherished stealing up to Henderson or succeeded so grandly at it.
Henderson completed with 1,406 stolen bases. His closing got here in August 2003, for the Dodgers, off a Colorado pitcher named Cory Vance who was once born in June 1979. That was once the similar week as Henderson’s first actual scouse borrow, in his major-league debut for the A’s.
In many ways, Henderson was once a accumulation extra like Ryan than it gave the impression. Each performed in 4 a long time, into their mid-40s. Henderson led his league in stolen bases 12 occasions; Ryan led his league in strikeouts 12 occasions. Henderson is the one participant with greater than 1,000 steals; Ryan is the one pitcher with greater than 5,000 strikeouts. (Henderson, in truth, was once strikeout sufferer Deny. 5,000.)
However right here’s the excess: as freakishly dominant as Ryan was once in strikeouts, Henderson was once way more prolific in stolen bases. Ryan has 17.2 p.c extra strikeouts than Randy Johnson, who ranks 2d. Henderson has 49.8 p.c extra stolen bases than Brock.
Right here’s differently to border that: Let’s say Henderson’s occupation had resulted in 1993, which might were a becoming capper. Henderson, nearest with Toronto, drew a leadoff travel within the base of the 9th inning in Sport 6 of the International Line, inflicting the Phillies’ Mitch Williams to effort a slide-step movement to reserve him on. Joe Carter took merit with a clinching house run.
(In his soaking up biography of Henderson — “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original” — Howard Bryant tells a admirable tale from refer to season, then Henderson had re-joined the A’s. On a shuttle to Toronto, avid gamers and body of workers reminisced about the place they have been when Carter strike his homer. Henderson shouted from the again of the bus: “I was on second base!”)
Via 1993 Henderson had 1,095 occupation steals, about 17 p.c greater than Brock — the similar as Ryan’s strikeout edge over Johnson. However Henderson nearest caught round for some other decade as a speedster for rent.
He bounced again to Oakland, nearest to San Diego, the Angels, Oakland once more, the Mets, Seattle, the Padres once more, Boston and Los Angeles. He stored operating even if the heavy leagues prohibited calling, swiping 53 extra bases for sovereign groups in Newark and San Diego.
All that pace naturally discovered its approach to the plate. Henderson scored 2,295 runs, some other report, simply above Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. When he i’m ready the mark in 2001, with a homer for the Padres, Henderson trotted across the bases – and nearest slid into house.
“It was feet-first and he was always a head-first guy; that caught us more off-guard than anything,” stated Ben Davis, a catcher on that staff. “But you never put anything past Rickey. I mean, that year, think about it: he got his 3,000th hit, he got the all-time walks record and he got the all-time runs scored record. The walks record was broken by Barry, but that’s unbelievable, to do all that in one year.”
Henderson was once 42 nearest however nonetheless controlled 25 stolen bases, probably the most ever for that month. His single-season report of 130, i’m ready in 1982, hasn’t ever been critically challenged. Even with unused laws to inspire understructure stealing, closing life’s chief, Cincinnati’s Elly De L. a. Cruz, had simply 67.
But even so Henderson, just one alternative fashionable participant, Vince Coleman, has 3 seasons with 100 steals. Nearest Henderson handed Brock, Coleman, nearest with the Mets, mused about his personal possibilities. He idea he may do it.
“He knows I’ll be chasing his record, just like I’m chasing all the other records,” Coleman instructed the (Bridgewater, NJ) Courier-Information. “If I stay healthy, I’m gonna average 80, 90, 100 steals a season.”
Coleman by no means crowned 50 steals once more. He completed loads shy of Henderson, and but nonetheless had a standout occupation: his overall, 752, is 6th all-time. In the long run, Coleman lacked the on-base detail that eludes such a lot of understructure stealers. Of the 20 avid gamers with 500 steals since 1930, greater than 1/2 had a occupation OBP beneath .350.
Henderson’s was once .401. Just one fashionable participant with 500 stolen bases, Bonds, reached understructure extra at the next fee. And month Bonds is well the sport’s largest dwelling participant, Henderson was once top-of-the-line dwelling Corridor of Famer on the past of his loss of life. The one others even within the dialog would were Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols or a tumbler like Johnson, Greg Maddux or Steve Carlton.
It’s jarring now to take a look at the career leaderboard in wins above replacement. The one dwelling avid gamers above Schmidt, who’s join for twenty fourth with Nap Lajoie, are Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez, whose careers have been tarnished through ties to steroids. The bizarre quantity of high-impact efficiency is in order that juiceless to succeed in.
Henderson did it. He strike from a crouch with a sophisticated manner that may play games in any presen: a seven-time league chief in walks, he additionally slammed a half-season’s virtue of leadoff homers with a report 81, plus some other within the postseason.
That got here in Sport 4 of the International Line in 1989, the life the A’s introduced Henderson again from the Yankees in a midseason industry. That October was once his exhibit: a .441/.568/.941 slash form with 11 steals in 12 tries. The A’s misplaced simply as soon as on their approach to a championship.
Henderson led off the clincher towards San Francisco’s Don Robinson. He took two balls. With a thunderous lineup in the back of him, he may have labored the depend. Rather he swung juiceless at a fastball indisposed the center, lashing it over the left farmland fence. The A’s by no means trailed in that International Line as they romped to a sweep.
It was once their closing name representing Oakland, Henderson’s homeland. Ultimately the staff named the Coliseum’s farmland in his honor, although he by no means were given his personal statue — residue permanence, in all probability, for a franchise with a wandering visible.
Now the A’s are long past, off to Las Vegas by the use of Sacramento, and Henderson is long past, too. Wednesday will mark 66 years since his beginning, on Christmas night time 1958 within the backseat of an Oldsmobile on the right way to a clinic in Chicago. He was once a person at the walk from the very get started.
Sprint away, sprint away, sprint away all.
(Govern picture of Henderson then he penniless MLB’s single-season stolen-base report in 1982: Getty Photographs)
