This post may look familiar to you, because I have posted it before (back in January). But since it got more hits than any other of my posts combined, I figured I'd post it again, especially since Rickey will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this Sunday. (Also, I'm looking to drive some readers to my blog). So please enjoy, and take a look at some of my other posts, while you're at it...
Again, this is a list of 25 Rickey Henderson quotes and stories I've seen posted on numerous sports sites and blogs. I'm not sure of the origin of this list (or if all of these are true) but it certainly shows that Rickey is quite the character, and also not the sharpest knife in the drawer. One thing's for sure: his speech on Sunday will be a must-watch event:
1) Rickey, on referring to himself in the third person:“Listen, people are always saying, ‘Rickey says Rickey.’ But it’s been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I’m ticked off, saying, ‘Rickey, what the heck are you doing, Rickey?’ They say, ‘Darn, Rickey, what are you saying Rickey for? Why don’t you just say, ‘I?’ But I never did. I always said, ‘Rickey,’ and it became something for people to joke about.”
2) In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.
3) In 1996, Henderson’s first season with San Diego, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”
4) This one supposedly happened the season Rickey ended up playing with the Red
Sox. Henderson called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”
5) This one happened in Seattle. Rickey struck out and as the next batter was walking past him, he heard Henderson say, “Don’t worry, Rickey, you’re still the best.”
6) Rickey once asked a teammate how long it would take him to drive to the Dominican Republic.
7) Moments after breaking Lou Brock’s stolen base record, Henderson told the crowd – with Brock mere feet next to him – “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.”
8) Henderson once fell asleep on an ice pack and got frostbite – which forced him to miss three games — in mid-August.
9) A reporter asked Henderson if Ken
Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”
10) Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s career record for runs scored with a home run. After taking his usual 45 seconds or so around the bases, Rickey slid into home plate.
11) On being Nolan Ryan’s 5,000
th career strikeout: “It gave me no chance. He (Ryan) just blew it by me. But it’s an honor. I’ll have another paragraph in all the baseball books. I’m already in the books three or four times.”
12) San Diego GM Kevin Towers was trying to contact Rickey at a nearby hotel. He knew Henderson always used fake names to avoid the press, fans, etc. He was trying to think like Rickey and after several attempts; he was able to get Henderson on the phone. Rickey had checked in under Richard Pryor.
13) The morning after the
Sox finished off the sweep against St. Louis last October, Henderson called someone in the organization looking for tickets to Game 6 at
Fenway Park.
14) The
Mets were staying in a hotel less than a mile from
Cinergy Field in Cincinnati. While some players walked, most took the team bus. A few minutes after they arrived — again it was less than a mile – the last players off the bus noticed a stretched limo that had just pulled up. Of course, Rickey emerged from the back seat.
15) A reporter once asked Rickey if he talked to himself, “Do I talk to myself? No, I just remind myself of what I’m trying to do. You know, I never answer myself so how can I be talking to myself?”
16) According to both parties involved, this one's not true. But here is is anyhow. The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to
Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field.
Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.”Legend also goes that
Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.”Henderson played with
Olerud on the Blue Jays and the
Mets.
17) Rickey was asked if he had the Garth Brooks album with Friends in Low Places and Henderson said, “Rickey
doesn’t have albums. Rickey has
CDs.”
18) During a contract holdout with Oakland in the early 1990s, Henderson said, “If they want to pay me like Mike
Gallego, I’ll play like
Gallego.”
19) In the late 1980s, the Yankees sent Henderson a six-figure bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed the check had not been cashed. Current Yankees GM Brian
Cashman – then a low-level nobody with the organization – called Rickey and asked if there was a problem with the check. Henderson said, “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up.”
20) In June 1999, when Henderson was playing with the
Mets, he saw reporters running around the clubhouse before a game. He asked a teammate what was going on and he was told that Tom Robson, the team’s hitting coach, had just been fired. Henderson said, “Who’s he?”
21) Rickey was pulled over by a San Diego police officer for speeding. As the officer was approaching Rickey’s car, the window went down a few inches and a folded $100 bill emerged. The officer let Rickey and his money head home without a ticket.
22) When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.”
23) During one of his stays with Oakland, Henderson’s locker was next to Billy
Beane’s. After making the team out of spring training,
Beane was sent to the minors after a few months. Upon his return, about six weeks later, Henderson looked at
Beane and said, “Hey, man, where have you been? Haven’t seen you in awhile.”
24) To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, “Ricky’s the best,” for several minutes.
25) In the last week of his lone season with the Red
Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he
wasn’t going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.” Turns out the
Sox got Henderson a Red
Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?”
How about a few that aren't so funny? I found these on Baseball Almanac:
"I don't want to be one of those great players who never made it to the (World) Series."
"If my uniform doesn't get dirty, I haven't done anything in the baseball game."
"Lou Brock was a great base stealer but today I am the greatest."
Congrats Rickey! You are still (and may always be) the great base stealer in Major League history.
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