A’s Legend Rickey Henderson Passes Away

The greatest of all-time

We received awful news this morning that Oakland Athletics legend Rickey Henderson passed away last night, according to former teammate and longtime friend Dave Winfield, later confirmed by the New York Post. He was 65.

The loss of one of the greatest of all time at just 65 is shocking. Henderson was one of the biggest and best personalities in all of baseball, someone that everyone always wanted to be around. As I write this I am still in shock and disbelief. The world got a little darker with the loss of our friend today.

Henderson will go down as the greatest Athletic to don the Green & Gold. The all-time steals champion played 14 seasons for the Athletics over four separate stints in Oakland. Henderson grew up in Oakland and graduated from Oakland Tech, where he was a baseball, football, basketball, and of course track star. He could have gone into any of those sports but we were lucky enough that he chose baseball. His hometown team drafted him in the fourth round and it took him just three short years for him to be in the Green & Gold. He quickly ran right into the record books, leading all of baseball in steals in nine of his first ten seasons (1987 saw him play only 95 games due to a hamstring injury, but he still stole 41 bags!).

Henderson spent 3 ¹⁄₂ years with the Yankees before returning to Oakland during the summer of ‘89, right in the middle of their title run. Rickey was invaluable to that championship-winning team, taking ALCS honors and hitting .474 with two triples and a homer in the World Series victory over the San Francisco Giants (with of course a few steals). Henderson stuck around for 3 ¹⁄2 more years after that championship before the A’s traded him to Toronto in the summer of ‘93. Toronto would go on to win the World Series that year for Rickey’s second ring. He was even involved in arguably the most famous baseball play of all-time as he scored on Joe Carter’s Series-ending home run in Game 6. Rickey was everywhere.

Henderson came right back to the A’s that offseason and spent the next couple years in Oakland before moving on again. playing for the Padres and then the Angels before again finding his way home to Oakland for the ‘98 season. By that point he was 39 and his age was showing, but dang it he could still play baseball. The 10-time All-Star bounced around after that, spending the next few seasons with five different teams before hanging up his cleats after the 2003 season.

When all was said and done, Henderson finished his career as the all-time stolen base king with 1406, a record that many today think may never be broken. He also holds the record for leadoff home runs with 81, with the next closest (George Springer) a full 21 bombs behind him. He also holds the record for most runs scored in a career with 2295. The things he’s done on a baseball field are too long to list but here’s one stat that’s always been hysterical:

While we loved what he did on the baseball field he was an even better man off of it. Rickey spent lots of time in the community volunteering and was a constant fixture at Spring Training, helping young base stealers hone their game and learn the tricks of the trade. There wasn’t a bone in his body that didn’t want to help people, even if others didn’t see it right away, He was a true icon of baseball and of Oakland. We will all miss our dear Rickey immensely, and we at Athletics Nation offer our condolences to his family.