OAKLAND — Rickey Henderson typically slipped into third-person when discussing himself. He’d carry a base plate triumphantly into the air prefer it was a trophy he’d stolen, which he did extra occasions than anybody else ever.
Oakland residents attest to having seen him in every single place — at Safeway, in eating places, exiting a racquetball courtroom.
“There was no separation,” mentioned Oakland A’s superfan Dave Peters, who not too long ago bumped into Henderson at wine bar Vino Volo within the metropolis’s airport. “He’d just talk to you.”
Henderson wasn’t simply one of many best to play baseball, as he as soon as acknowledged about himself. He was certifiably cool, radiating with the swagger Oaklanders see in themselves and their city. He had grown up taking part in at Bushrod Park and didn’t simply swimsuit up for the town’s MLB workforce — he turned its most treasured member and foremost participant.
The braggadocio, the charisma and the grit beneath all of it is what the town remembered of Henderson, who died at 65, days shy of his birthday on Christmas.
Henderson’s dying snuck up on those that bear in mind the Man of Steal as match, wholesome and a simple dialog in his last years.
“Any time we had little kids there for some kind of youth event, Rickey was around to play with them and talk to them,” former A’s proprietor Lew Wolff recalled Saturday.
“He always talked about being proud to be a member of the Athletics,” Wolf added. “You don’t find that too much, especially with all the players moving around these days.”
Oakland, CA June 12, 1990: Oakland Athletics’ Rickey Henderson slides into third base on the Oakland Coliseum after being caught in a rundown throughout a recreation in opposition to the Texas Rangers. (Tom Duncan / Oakland Tribune)
Henderson remained an A’s worker in his last days. There was the pure management high quality to Henderson that made him invaluable to youthful generations, those that knew him mentioned.
“Every team he was with, he ended up being like the coach,” recalled Dennis Gilbert, the sports activities agent who represented Henderson for years.
However there was additionally the on a regular basis high quality to Henderson that reminded Oakland followers of the “pause your day and hold a conversation with a passerby” spirit of the town that its residents nonetheless see in it, regardless of current struggles.
At a workforce occasion final fall, superfan Jorge Leon watched Henderson and fellow baseball legend Jose Canseco snort it up, cracking jokes like younger males in a dugout.
He confirmed as much as spring coaching, simply to hang around and clarify the artwork of stealing bases. He threw the primary pitch on the A’s last recreation in Oakland. For some time, he was a neighborhood landlord.
One among his tenants, Thomas Corridor, recalled how “Rickey” would wake him up.
“He would be mowing my yard randomly at 6 a.m. by himself,” Corridor recalled. “The whole thing was a theater of the absurd.”
“If we ever do build a stadium in Oakland, whether it’s at the Coliseum or somewhere else, there should be a statue of him,” Leon mentioned.
Longtime Oakland A’s govt Andy Dolich was looking at a baseball signed by Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock as he recalled in an interview the day Henderson broke Brock’s stolen base report on Could 1, 1991.
“Who represented the city, its spirit, its incredible level of success any better than Rickey?” Dolich mentioned. “We remember the smile, the first step to second base.”
On Saturday afternoon, a single bouquet of flowers and an outdated Oakland A’s hat adorned the fence of Rickey Henderson Subject off forty fifth Avenue in North Oakland, the house diamond for Henderson’s alma mater, Oakland Tech Excessive College.
Stopping by to pay his respects, Tom Murphy, 54, expressed shock at Henderson’s passing. He recalled watching Henderson play all through a lot of his youth whereas working concessions from 1983 to 1995 on the Coliseum and at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
“He’s the greatest of all time,” Murphy mentioned. “He’s a GOAT for what he did. And it was all the time enjoyable to look at him, as a result of every time he’s at first base, you’re like, ‘Is he going to steal second?’”
“He was just a magical player,” Murphy added. “And he was a great ambassador for Oakland.”
Across the street from the field, a man in an all green A’s cap sat in his automobile and ate his lunch as he listened to highlights of the Man of Steal on his iPhone.
“I’ve been in Oakland for 25 years. I grew up in New York in the 1980s,” Marc Acheson, of Rockridge mentioned. “I appreciated him as a Yankee and know what he meant to everyone here. I’m here because I was thinking of him and what he meant and it’s my tribute to him.”
Oakland Metropolis Corridor provided no official remark, although Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan referred to as the A’s icon a “true Oakland legend.”
“Rickey brought warmth and inspiration to so many people,” she mentioned in a textual content message, “and (he) shared his pride in Oakland.”
Initially Printed: December 21, 2024 at 5:08 PM PST
