“What Jimmy actually beloved to do? What he actually beloved to do was steal. I imply, he really loved it. Jimmy was the sort of man who rooted for the dangerous 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 had been reigning champions and Rickey Henderson was essentially the most electrifying participant in baseball. That was his finest season, too, and initially of the following one, he broke Lou Brock’s profession file for stolen bases.
Henderson yanked the bottom from the Coliseum dust 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: “In the present day, I’m the best of all time.”
That evening, 1700 miles away in Texas, Nolan Ryan broke his personal file 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 dangerous man in that film — and positive, he introduced it on himself. He whined about being underpaid. He usually referred to himself within the third individual. He wore fluorescent inexperienced batting gloves. He popped his collar and shimmied on residence 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 approach of taking part in the sport, folks have known as me a scorching canine,” Henderson as soon as stated. “However I name it (bringing) some model or leisure to the folks. I take pleasure in 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 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, actually, was strikeout sufferer No. 5,000.)
However right here’s the distinction: as freakishly dominant as Ryan was in strikeouts, Henderson was much 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 approach 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 Sport 6 of the World Collection, inflicting the Phillies’ Mitch Williams to attempt a slide-step movement to carry him on. Joe Carter took benefit with a clinching residence run.
(In his absorbing biography of Henderson — “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Authentic” — Howard Bryant tells a terrific story from the next season, after Henderson had re-joined the A’s. On a visit to Toronto, gamers and workers reminisced about the place they had been when Carter hit his homer. Henderson shouted from the again of the bus: “I used to be on second base!”)
By way 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 an additional 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 impartial groups in Newark and San Diego.
All that velocity naturally discovered its approach to the plate. Henderson scored 2,295 runs, one other file, 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 residence.
“It was feet-first and he was at all times a head-first man; that caught us extra off-guard than something,” stated 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 file and he received the all-time runs scored file. The walks file 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 file of 130, set in 1982, has by no means been severely challenged. Even with new guidelines to encourage base stealing, final 12 months’s chief, Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, had simply 67.
Moreover 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 probabilities. He thought he might do it.
“He is aware of I’ll be chasing his file, identical to I’m chasing all the opposite information,” Coleman informed 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. Finally, 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 price. And whereas Bonds is well the sport’s best residing participant, Henderson was most likely the best residing Corridor of Famer on the time of his loss of life. 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 take 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 had been tarnished by ties to steroids. The extraordinary quantity of high-impact efficiency is simply so arduous to attain.
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 price of leadoff homers with a file 81, plus one other within the postseason.
That got here in Sport 4 of the World Collection 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 approach 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 might have labored the depend. As an alternative he swung arduous at a fastball down the center, lashing it over the left area fence. The A’s by no means trailed in that World Collection 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 photograph of Henderson after he broke MLB’s single-season stolen-base file in 1982: Getty Photos)