As baseball comes together at the Oakland Arena to celebrate the life of a legend, those who knew him best share tales of his talent, flair and friendship.
teammate Mike Cameron would reach for the bus microphone as the team lumbered from airports to hotels, and he read aloud some of the recent achievements of his fellow players from the media relations notes.
Those who knew him are saturated with stories about the Hall of Famer, about his devotion to excellence, his acumen, his persona and those moments when he transcended the sport. "The legend of Rickey Henderson still lives on through the numbers of the game," said Cameron, "and the legendary stories.
Cameron had always been a base stealer in his rise to the majors and felt he understood the art, but Henderson gave him a more enhanced view. With a right-hander on the mound, Cameron had been taught to look for the collapsing right leg as the first move. Henderson narrowed that focus: The back heel. With left-handers, watch his left shoulders.
Cameron once asked him how he could hit so well from that stance. "That's how Rickey see the game," Henderson replied. "I see the game small." "His schooling was limited," La Russa continued. "He did not have a classic education. He talked in the third person. People did not understand. Rickey's IQ is not just a baseball IQ. Rickey is a very intelligent guy. If you're around him, you realize how smart he is."
Tim Kurkjian once asked him how he got so strong. "You must lift weights all the time," Kurkjian said.Cameron backed this up: "I never saw him lifting weights. The prison workout: Pushups and sit-ups. And a hand grip." "So we were there for five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. Almost half an hour, and then a courtesy cart came to get us at the gate. He wouldn't let me leave so he could save his legs. That was his way of teaching me to be a big leaguer."
As Rodriguez related the memory, he moved into an imitation of Henderson's distinctive voice, as so many of his teammates and friends do. "Hey, hey, Rod," Henderson said to Rodriguez, mixing in his trademark third-person usage of his own name. "Listen -- Rickey's back hurts. I'm going to walk, and I already talked to -- he's going to move me over. Make sure you get me in. Rickey don't get paid for overtime.
Ibanez often watched Henderson in batting practice, working through his swing among teammates like Edgar Martinez, making adjustments, sometimes talking to himself. "Rickey is trying to hit like Edgar," Henderson once said. "Rickey can't hit like that." "I tried to convince him and the others that my locker was next to his. I had scored a lot for him as the nine-hole hitter and him leading off. I had flown with him. I had worked out in the offseason with him at the complex. Yet they were not convinced. Roberto put his money where his mouth was and told me he had $1,000 if Rickey referred to me by name when we went out there. I asked if it counted if he used any initial -- JP, DJ, PJ, AJ, any of them. Roberto said, 'Nope, has to be A.J.
According to stat guru Craig Wright, Henderson drew 2,129 unintentional walks, the most in history. An amazing 796 times, he drew a walk to lead off an inning, almost 200 more than any other player. There are 152 players in the Hall of Fame elected as position players who played in at least 1,500 major league games. Sixty-eight of them drew fewer intentional walks in their careers than Henderson did just leading off an inning.
Said La Russa: "With Rickey ... there's no doubt you can get to that greatest list of all time, with Willie and Hank , and Rickey is right in the middle of it. He is right on that club. That's his greatness. He compares to all of them, Babe Ruth, all of them."
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