Cup of Coffee Extra: Rickey Henderson: 1958-2024

News broke early this afternoon that the great Rickey Henderson has died at the age of 65. He would've turned 66 on Christmas Day. TMZ is reporting that he died following a bout with pneumonia. His last public appearance that garnered any significant press came in late September at the Athletics' final home game in Oakland. He seemed to be in good health and his usual good spirits then.

To say this is a massive loss is about as big an understatement as is possible. Henderson was the biggest and brightest star of his generation. There may not have been any player in history who was better at more things than Rickey Henderson was.

Henderson was, without question, the greatest leadoff hitter of all time and the greatest base-stealer of all time. He, arguably, possessed the greatest combination of power and speed of any player in the history of the game as well. Perhaps the best characterization of Henderson’s career came from Bill James who once wrote that, “if you could split Rickey Henderson in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers.”

His story is, by now, well known.

Born on Christmas Day in 1958 in Chicago, Henderson spent most of his childhood in Oakland, California. Despite being offered multiple football scholarships as a running back, Henderson excelled in baseball as well and chose the National Pastime instead after being drafted by his hometown Athletics.

In 1980, his first full major league season, Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s 65-year-old American League record for stolen bases by swiping 100 bags to Cobb’s 96. In 1982 he stole 130 bases, breaking Hall of Famer Lou Brock’s all-time single-season record of 118. Henderson’s 130 steals that year stands as the record to this day. He would lead the American League in stolen bases in each of his first seven full seasons and nine of his first ten. He’d lead his league in steals in 12 seasons in all, the last of which came in 1998 when he was 39 years-old.

On May 1, 1991, Henderson broke Brock’s all-time stolen base record with his 939th steal and would go on to steal an astounding 1,406 bases before he retired. No player has come anywhere close to Henderson’s mark in the three decades since he set it and many doubt anyone ever will.

Henderson could not have stolen all of those bases, however, if he was not on base to begin with and it was that ability to get on base that set him apart from other speedsters.

Part of that was because he was a great hitter, having finished in the top 10 in batting average on multiple occasions. It was also because of his extraordinary batting eye. Henderson led the league in walks four times, finishing in the top-10 on 17 occasions, and placed in the top-10 in on-base percentage in 16 different seasons. As a result of being on base so often – and because of his tremendous conditioning which allowed him to play for 25 seasons – Henderson is the all-time leader in runs scored, passing Ty Cobb’s mark in 2001.

Henderson’s power was considerable as well, as evidenced by his nearly 300 career homers, which is a tremendous number for a leadoff hitter. Eighty-one of those home runs led off games, which is yet another record he holds. His status as a great all-around player is also evidenced by his ten All-Star selections, his winning the MVP Award in 1990, and by the fact that, not coincidentally, every one of the many teams he joined during his career seemed to immediately improve once he arrived. He won World Series rings with the 1989 Athletics and the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays.

Henderson’s career cannot be boiled down to mere statistics, however. He was a larger than life star known for his colorful quotes, flamboyant personality, and no small amount of self-promotion. None of that self-promotion was unearned, however. Indeed, while some critics took issue with what they perceived to be Henderson’s ego and the attention he paid to his personal style, Henderson backed it all up with a phenomenal work ethic, evidenced by one of his most famous quotes: "If my uniform doesn't get dirty, I haven't done anything in the baseball game"

Rickey Henderson’s uniform was almost always dirty because Rickey did it all. He was and always shall be one of the game's towering legends. An inner-circle talent and one of its greatest personalities and ambassadors. Also, as is evidenced by a story I post annually when the playoff shares are announced, he was a thoughtful human being. From Mike Piazza in his 2013 memoir:

“Rickey was the most generous guy I ever played with, and whenever the discussion came around to what we should give one of the fringe people — whether it was a minor leaguer who came up for a few days or the parking lot attendant — Rickey would shout out “Full share!” We’d argue for a while and he’d say, “Fuck that! You can change somebody’s life!”

Rest in peace, Rickey Henderson. Thank you for everything you gave us.

Goddamn this one hurts.