Rickey Henderson Dead at 65

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There is a peculiar and painful symmetry here: the Oakland Athletics and the Oakland Athletics’ all-time greatest player, Rickey Henderson, have both departed from the scene within two months of each other.

Henderson, one of the most talented, accomplished, and exciting baseball players who ever lived, has died at age 65. The transformational baseball analyst Bill James was once asked if he thought Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer; James responded that “if you could split him in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers.” Indeed. What Rickey Henderson did was as eye-popping and unprecedented as what Babe Ruth did in his day.

What Ruth did for home runs, Rickey Henderson did for stolen bases. In 1980, Henderson became the first American League player in the modern era to steal 100 bases in a single season; two years later, he set a new all-time record with 130 stolen bases, a record that is likely never to be broken. (In 2024, Elly De La Cruz of the Reds led the majors with 67 base thefts.) Rickey ended up with 1,406 lifetime stolen bases, obliterating the previous record by nearly five hundred (Lou Brock had 938). Amid all this, Henderson was also a power hitter who revolutionized what it meant to bat leadoff.

Rickey Henderson was an outsized personality; his character was as big and grand as his accomplishments on the field. When he stole his 939th base to set a new all-time record, he announced modestly: “Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing, but today, I’m the greatest of all time.” What would have been arrogance coming from anyone else was just Rickey being Rickey; after all, he really was the greatest of all time.

Everyone knew it, too. Rickey played for nine different teams during his major league career, but he was most closely identified with the Oakland Athletics, with whom he spent twelve of his 25 seasons in the big leagues and parts of two more. When young Henderson was trying to break into the big leagues, A’s manager Billy Martin told him that he could teach him how to steal bases, and not only that, but if he followed Billy’s advice, he’d steal a hundred bases in a year. Rickey followed Billy’s advice. And he stole 100 bases in a year, three times.

Henderson had a less happy stint with the New York Yankees, where injuries limited his effectiveness, although suspicious Big Apple fans suspected that he just wasn’t giving it his all. I was in the Yankee Stadium bleachers one day in 1989 when the entire outfield crowd was booing and jeering mercilessly at Rickey, who was a damp squib at the plate that year for the Bronx Bombers, hitting only .247. Still, his abilities were undeniable. Everyone knew they’d be seeing them again. Amid all the jeers, which were mostly profane variations on “Ya bum, ya!,” one man got off the best taunt of all, yelling at Henderson: “You Hall of Famer!”

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