Rickey Henderson
1958 - 2024
The greatest leadoff hitter, and the greatest baserunner that the sport has ever seen passed away today, just four days before what would have been his 66th birthday.
The first ballot Hall of Famer is one of the greatest players who ever set foot on a baseball diamond. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Mr. Henderson has set records in baseball that may never be broken, including most career stolen bases (1,406), most seasons leading the league in stolen bases (12), most runs scored (2,295), most unintentional walks (2,129), most games led off with a home rum (81), and most consecutive seasons in which he hit a home run (25). He's also the only player in the 123 year history of the American League to steal over 100 bases in a single season, and he did it three times.
Calling Rickey Henderson the all-time stolen base king doesn't do justice to this man's dominance on the basepaths. This chart that was put together by jletha on Reddit tells the story better than words could. He isn't just the greatest base stealer of all time - he's the greatest by a mile. His career total is just one shy of putting him at a 50% lead over Lou Brock, who has the second most stolen bases of all time. He broke Brock's all-time record on May 1, 1991, which is around the halfway point of his Major League career which began in 1979 and ended in 2003.
Here's a number that puts Rickey's dominance on the basepaths in perspective. He played for the New York Yankees from the start of the 1985 season until June 21, 1989 when he was traded to the Oakland Athletics. In his four and a half seasons with the Yankees, he set the record for most stolen bases in franchise history with 326. Derek Jeter broke that record on May 28th, 2011. Jeter debuted with the Yankees on May 29, 1995 and became the team's starting shortstop the following year. It took Derek Jeter 16 years (over 1,700 more games played in a Yankee uniform) to accomplish on the basepaths what Rickey Henderson did in just four and a half seasons. Incidentally, after the Yankees traded him to the Athletics, he went on to lead the team to a World Series Championship, winning the ALCS MVP in the process.
Here's another statistic that absolutely blows my mind. In 1982, Rickey Henderson stole 130 bases in a single season. That was two more stolen bases than the Philadelphia Phillies entire team had that season. It's more stolen bases than 13 entire teams had in a 2024 season, which took place after the bases were enlarged and the rules were changed to limit a pitcher's attempts to pick off a batter.
In a 2008 article for Sports Illustrated in which it was argued that Mr. Henderson should be the first person to receive 100% of the vote for their Hall of Fame candidacy, Joe Posnanski shared this observation:
I'm about give you one of my all-time favorite statistics: Rickey Henderson walked 796 times in his career leading off an inning. Think about this again. There would be nothing, absolutely nothing, a pitcher would want to avoid more than walking Rickey Henderson to lead off an inning. And yet he walked seven hundred ninety six times to lead off an inning.He walked more times just leading off an in inning than Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg and more than 50 other Hall of Famers walked in their entire careers.I simply cannot imagine a baseball statistic more staggering.
There will never be another Rickey Henderson.
