“What Jimmy actually beloved to do? What he actually beloved to do was steal. I imply, he truly loved it. Jimmy was the type of man who rooted for the unhealthy man within the films.” — 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 essentially the most electrifying participant in baseball. That was his greatest season, too, and initially of the subsequent one, he broke Lou Brock’s profession document for stolen bases.
Henderson yanked the bottom from the Coliseum grime and raised it to the sky. He thanked God, the A’s and town. He thanked household, followers and managers. Then, with Brock standing beside him, Henderson declared: “At this time, I’m the best of all time.”
That evening, 1700 miles away in Texas, Nolan Ryan broke his personal document for no-hitters with seven. The irresistible distinction made for a lazy speaking level: the common-or-garden, stoic Ryan had upstaged the useless, cocky Henderson. Low-hanging fruit at its most bitter.
Henderson, who died Friday at age 65, was the unhealthy man in that film — and positive, he introduced it on himself. He whined about being underpaid. He typically referred to himself within the third particular person. He wore fluorescent inexperienced batting gloves. He popped his collar and shimmied on dwelling run trots. He slashed the air after catching fly balls, his glove like Zorro’s blade.
And all of it — the contract stuff however — was superior.
“In my means of taking part in the sport, folks have known as me a sizzling canine,” Henderson as soon as mentioned. “However I name it (bringing) some fashion or leisure to the folks. I get pleasure from going on the market and thrilling the followers, as a result of I really feel like they arrive out right here to see some pleasure.”
Was any participant ever extra thrilling than Rickey Henderson? Was anybody a greater entertainer? Actually, nobody outdoors of the flicks beloved stealing as a lot as Henderson or succeeded so grandly at it.
Henderson completed with 1,406 stolen bases. His final got here in August 2003, for the Dodgers, off a Colorado pitcher named Cory Vance who was born in June 1979. That was the identical month as Henderson’s very first steal, in his major-league debut for the A’s.
In some methods, Henderson was much more like Ryan than it appeared. Each performed in 4 a long time, into their mid-40s. Henderson led his league in stolen bases 12 instances; Ryan led his league in strikeouts 12 instances. Henderson is the one participant with greater than 1,000 steals; Ryan is the one pitcher with greater than 5,000 strikeouts. (Henderson, in reality, was strikeout sufferer No. 5,000.)
However right here’s the distinction: as freakishly dominant as Ryan was in strikeouts, Henderson was way more prolific in stolen bases. Ryan has 17.2 % extra strikeouts than Randy Johnson, who ranks second. Henderson has 49.8 % extra stolen bases than Brock.
Right here’s one other strategy to body that: Let’s say Henderson’s profession had resulted in 1993, which might have been a becoming capper. Henderson, then with Toronto, drew a leadoff stroll within the backside of the ninth inning in Recreation 6 of the World Sequence, inflicting the Phillies’ Mitch Williams to attempt a slide-step movement to carry him on. Joe Carter took benefit with a clinching dwelling run.
(In his absorbing biography of Henderson — “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Authentic” — Howard Bryant tells a fantastic story from the next season, after Henderson had re-joined the A’s. On a visit to Toronto, gamers and employees reminisced about the place they have been when Carter hit his homer. Henderson shouted from the again of the bus: “I used to be on second base!”)
By means of 1993 Henderson had 1,095 profession steals, about 17 % greater than Brock — the identical as Ryan’s strikeout edge over Johnson. However Henderson then caught round for one more decade as a speedster for rent.
He bounced again to Oakland, then to San Diego, the Angels, Oakland once more, the Mets, Seattle, the Padres once more, Boston and Los Angeles. He saved operating even when the massive leagues stopped calling, swiping 53 extra bases for unbiased groups in Newark and San Diego.
All that velocity naturally discovered its strategy to the plate. Henderson scored 2,295 runs, one other document, simply above Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. When he set the mark in 2001, with a homer for the Padres, Henderson trotted across the bases – after which slid into dwelling.
“It was feet-first and he was all the time a head-first man; that caught us extra off-guard than something,” mentioned Ben Davis, a catcher on that crew. “However you by no means put something previous Rickey. I imply, that 12 months, give it some thought: he received his 3,000th hit, he received the all-time walks document and he received the all-time runs scored document. The walks document was damaged by Barry, however that’s unbelievable, to do all that in a single 12 months.”
Henderson was 42 then however nonetheless managed 25 stolen bases, essentially the most ever for that age. His single-season document of 130, set in 1982, has by no means been significantly challenged. Even with new guidelines to encourage base stealing, final 12 months’s chief, Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, had simply 67.
Apart from Henderson, just one different fashionable participant, Vince Coleman, has three seasons with 100 steals. After Henderson handed Brock, Coleman, then with the Mets, mused about his personal possibilities. He thought he may do it.
“He is aware of I’ll be chasing his document, identical to I’m chasing all the opposite information,” Coleman instructed the (Bridgewater, NJ) Courier-Information. “If I keep wholesome, I’m gonna common 80, 90, 100 steals a season.”
Coleman by no means topped 50 steals once more. He completed tons of shy of Henderson, and but nonetheless had a standout profession: his whole, 752, is sixth all-time. In the end, Coleman lacked the on-base element that eludes so many base stealers. Of the 20 gamers with 500 steals since 1930, greater than half had a profession OBP below .350.
Henderson’s was .401. Just one fashionable participant with 500 stolen bases, Bonds, reached base extra at a better fee. And whereas Bonds is definitely the sport’s best residing participant, Henderson was most likely the best residing Corridor of Famer on the time of his dying. The one others even within the dialog would have been Mike Schmidt or a pitcher like Johnson, Greg Maddux or Steve Carlton.
It’s jarring now to have a look at the profession leaderboard in wins above alternative. The one residing gamers above Schmidt, who’s tied for twenty fourth with Nap Lajoie, are Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez, whose careers have been tarnished by ties to steroids. The extraordinary quantity of high-impact efficiency is simply so exhausting to realize.
Henderson did it. He hit from a crouch with a refined strategy that may play in any period: a seven-time league chief in walks, he additionally slammed a half-season’s value of leadoff homers with a document 81, plus one other within the postseason.
That got here in Recreation 4 of the World Sequence in 1989, the 12 months the A’s introduced Henderson again from the Yankees in a midseason commerce. That October was his showcase: a .441/.568/.941 slash line with 11 steals in 12 tries. The A’s misplaced simply as soon as on their strategy to a championship.
Henderson led off the clincher in opposition to San Francisco’s Don Robinson. He took two balls. With a thunderous lineup behind him, he may have labored the depend. As a substitute he swung exhausting at a fastball down the center, lashing it over the left area fence. The A’s by no means trailed in that World Sequence as they romped to a sweep.
It was their final title representing Oakland, Henderson’s hometown. Ultimately the crew named the Coliseum’s area in his honor, although he by no means received his personal statue — an excessive amount of permanence, maybe, for a franchise with a wandering eye.
Now the A’s are gone, off to Las Vegas by the use of Sacramento, and Henderson is gone, too. Wednesday will mark 66 years since his delivery, on Christmas evening 1958 within the backseat of an Oldsmobile on the best way to a hospital in Chicago. He was a person on the transfer from the very begin.
Sprint away, sprint away, sprint away all.
(High picture of Henderson after he broke MLB’s single-season stolen-base document in 1982: Getty Photographs)
