Rickey Henderson, who electrified fans with his unparalleled base-stealing ability and scored more runs than any player in baseball history, passed away, according to multiple reports Friday and confirmed Saturday by Newsweek Sports.
Hall of Famer and former teammate Dave Winfield confirmed the sad news Saturday on his Instagram account, as did Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick on Twitter/X:
Saddened by the passing of our friend, Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter in @MLB history! Was proud to induct him into our Hall of Game in 2015 along with Fergie Jenkins, Ozzie Smith and the late Luis Tiant. Condolences to his family, friends and legion of fans! pic.twitter.com/ZlVyjHwETY
— Bob Kendrick (@nlbmprez) December 21, 2024
Winfield, also a special advisor to the executive director of the MLB Players Association, wrote “I still cannot believe I’ve lost one of my favorite teammates and great friend Rickey Henderson. Rest in peace.”
Henderson’s 66th birthday is Wednesday, Christmas Day.
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At the heart of Henderson’s legacy was his ability to steal bases. He stole 1,406 bases in his career, delighting fans in Oakland, New York, Toronto, San Diego, Anaheim, Seattle, Boston and Los Angeles along the way.
Born in Chicago and raised in Oakland, Henderson played 14 of his 25 major league seasons for his hometown Athletics. By the time he played his final game with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003, he was also baseball’s all-time leader in runs scored with 2,295. In 2017, the A’s named the Oakland Coliseum field after Henderson.
Henderson debuted at age 20 with the Oakland A’s. Three years later, he set a modern record by stealing 130 bases in 1982. A talented all-around hitter who blended bat control, power and plate discipline, Henderson batted .300 or more in four of his first nine seasons.
Along the way, Henderson was traded to the New York Yankees in Dec. 1984. Over the next four seasons in The Bronx he made four American League All-Star teams and paced the AL in stolen bases three times.
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Henderson was traded back to Oakland midway through the 1989 season, which allowed him to play in the World Series for the first time that fall. The A’s swept the San Francisco Giants in four games, giving Henderson the first of his two World Series rings.
In 1990, Henderson hit .325 with an AL-leading .439 on-base percentage and stole 65 bases. He won his only career Most Valuable Player award that year, along with the last of his three career Silver Slugger Awards.
Henderson made his 10th and final All-Star team in 1991, and made his final World Series appearance with the A’s that same year, losing to the Cincinnati Reds.
In 1993, as the A’s entered a rebuilding process, they traded Henderson to the Toronto Blue Jays at midseason. That allowed Henderson to capture his final World Series ring when Toronto beat the Philadelphia Phillies for the championship in October.
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Henderson re-signed with the A’s after the season. His third stint in Oakland lasted another two years. That commenced a vagabond tour of the big leagues in which Henderson played for seven different teams over his final eight seasons — including a fourth stint in Oakland in 1998. That year, at age 39, Henderson led the league in steals with 66 for the final time.
Henderson’s larger-than-life personality and showmanship endeared him to fans. He often referred to himself in the third person in interviews, and left a series of apocryphal ancedotes that matched his gaudy statistics.
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The prototypical leadoff hitter, Henderson furthered his playing career with independent minor league teams — the Newark Bears in 2004, the San Diego Surf Dogs in 2005 — even after no major league organizations came calling. Four years later, in 2009, the A’s permanently retired Henderson’s number 24.
“If my uniform doesn’t get dirty,” Henderson is credited with saying, “I haven’t done anything in the baseball game.”
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