[jjgold]

Runs scored (most important stat of them all) 1st
walks 2nd
lead off hrs 1st
stolen bases 1st
at bats 10th
plate appearances 4th
Hits 21st

[gummo]

The guy had an amazing career.

[smitch124]

Very unique and great player.

[Fishhead]

Best player I ever witnessed...........anyone that knows baseball will say the samething.

Thing is, very few know the game as fans.

FH

[Fishhead]

Ricky is way more legendary than Micheal Jackson(and I doubt he ever inserted a screwdriver up a widows butt or molested a child)...........Ricky is the greatest.

FH

[head_strong]

Runs scored (most important stat of them all) 1st
walks 2nd
lead off hrs 1st
stolen bases 1st
at bats 10th
plate appearances 4th
Hits 21st

Anybody can do it in the regular season, it's the post season that counts.....Derek Jeter holds MLB records with 150 career postseason hits, most postseason singles 108 and runs scored 85. But as Ricky said "he is the greatest of all-time".Although statistician Bill James had a classic quote, when asked if he thought Henderson was a Hall of Famer, James replied, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers."

[head_strong]

Top 25 Ricky Henderson Quotes:

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) I think it was the year he ended up playing with the Red Sox. Anyway, he 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 5,000th 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) I didn’t believe this one at first. However, I emailed a few contacts within the Sox organization and they claim it actually happened. This is priceless, it really is.

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) OK, I know everyone has been waiting for it. Alas, according to both parties involved, it’s not true. I wish it were. Heck, both Rickey Henderson and John Olerud have said they wish it were true. But it just didn’t happen.

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) This is my all-time favorite. 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?”

[Fishhead]

Jeter better than Ricky............


Thanks for the laugh.

[head_strong]

Jeter better than Ricky............


Thanks for the laugh.

I'll take that as sarcasm, did anything in my previous post state Jeter is better than Ricky, didn't think so. They are 2 completely different players, just posting the facts, JJ said most runs scored was the most important stat of them all, so what's better than the most runs scored in post season history? O' and Jeter also has twice as many rings as Ricky.

[yisman]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...nderson/090112

[SBR_John]

Loved watching Ricky steal 3rd on the next pitch after stealing 2nd.

A great moment to me was when Nolan Ryan struck out Ricky on 3 pitches, all 3 swinging strikes and all 104 mph to get the 5,000th strike out of Nolan's career.

[yisman]

Top 25 Ricky Henderson Quotes:

from a blog post:

Just so everyone knows, these quotes and stories about Rickey come from Fantistic from back in 2006. But in full disclosure, Fantistic didn't compile the quotes. Someone, somewhere out on the blogosphere did.

Lou Blasi of Fantistics wrote: "The following stories come from a blog post I ran across last month. I wish I knew who collected and posted his top 25 Rickey stories so I could give him credit. As it is all I can do is thank him for the memories."

[InTheHole]

[head_strong]

from a blog post:

Just so everyone knows, these quotes and stories about Rickey come from Fantistic from back in 2006. But in full disclosure, Fantistic didn't compile the quotes. Someone, somewhere out on the blogosphere did.

Lou Blasi of Fantistics wrote: "The following stories come from a blog post I ran across last month. I wish I knew who collected and posted his top 25 Rickey stories so I could give him credit. As it is all I can do is thank him for the memories."

correct....here is the link I copied it from http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=160837

[lakerboy]

rickey was one of a kind. his first pitch swings for homers to lead off games was unreal cause it happened over and over and over and over again. he was one of a kind. i loved him.

[reno cool]

I hope he slides into the podiumthat would be cool.

was never a big fan of his, but wouldn't argue against him being considered the best.

[Bogart45]

no doubt, he's one of the best players ever.

[Fishhead]

Loved watching Ricky steal 3rd on the next pitch after stealing 2nd.

A great moment to me was when Nolan Ryan struck out Ricky on 3 pitches, all 3 swinging strikes and all 104 mph to get the 5,000th strike out of Nolan's career.

I posted odds on who would be RYANS 5,000th strikeout victim when I was oddsmaker at the Sands..........believe we were the only place in town that had such a prop.

FH

[InTheHole]

I posted odds on who would be RYANS 5,000th strikeout victim when I was oddsmaker at the Sands..........believe we were the only place in town that had such a prop.

FH

Curious as to whether Henderson was on the radar

[james4512]

well his stats are so good because he played into his 50s

[reno cool]

He was barely past his prime when he broke Brock's record. You just don't see many speedy lead-off hitters that can hit with such power and be a general pain in the ass.

[shooterman]

Too bad no one ever locked Ricky and Yogi in the same room and taped the conversation...