Im a lover, Im a fighter
Im a sinner, Im a saint
Im a mover, Im a shaker
Ask your mother if I aint
Im a rumble in the thunder
Im the bolt out of the blue
Fastest Man Alive – Steve Earle
Folk singer Steve Earle has been writing music for decades, releasing his first album in 1982. His songs have been recorded by nearly all the heavyweights of country music, from Johnny Cash to Willie Nelson to Vince Gill to Emmylou Harris.
This song is one on his 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia and is a tribute to Chuck Yeager, the legendary flying ace who was the first recorded pilot to break the sound barrier. It was written to honor Yeager before the former pilot passed away in Dec. 2020, when the song took on new legs and spread across the Internet, reaching my ears for the first time.
While the lyrics are about another person, when I first heard this song, I didnt think about legendary sprinter Usain Bolt, commonly referred to as the fastest man alive; I immediately thought of Rickey Henderson.
Ive written about Rickey in this space before, and many baseball fans would know who he was on first-name-only basis, but to understand how he likely passed off the front page quickly after last weekend, I mentioned him at a family gathering this week, and my father cocked his head and said, Who?
For my dad and for many others who may not be aware, Henderson was an absolute legend in the game of baseball. He was born on Christmas Day, 1958, in Chicago, but he would spend most of his youth living in Oakland. The hometown Oakland Athletics drafted Rickey in the fourth round of the 1976 MLB draft out of high school and he began a quick path through the minor leagues, debuting in 1979 with the As. In a foretaste of what was to come, Rickey stole 33 bases in just 89 games that season.
He didnt stop running.
In the 1980s, Rickey played for the As and the New York Yankees. He made eight All-Star teams in the decade, and his average season in the decade was a .291 batting average, 14 home runs, 112 runs scored and 84 stolen bases! He missed two big chunks of time due to injury in the decade, so his average production over a 162-game MLB season in the 1980s was even more impressive – 98 stolen bases per year!
For context, no one has stolen 80 bases since 1988 (when Rickey led the league with 93), and the 2024 stolen base leader in baseball was Elly De La Cruz with 67.
It wasnt as if he was only good in the 1980s, though. Rickey won his only Most Valuable Player award in 1990 to open that decade, and at the tail end of the decade, in 1998, at 39 years old, he led the major leagues with 66 stolen bases. He followed that up with one of his best seasons in 1999 at 40 years old for the New York Mets, when he hit .315 with 30 doubles, 12 home runs, and 37 steals as the Mets made the playoff for the first time in more than a decade!
Henderson retained enough speed to be a valuable pinch-runner late into his career, though his bat slowed down to the point that he was willing to retire from MLB in 2003 at age 44, though he turned down multiple offers to come back in 2004 as a bench outfielder in order to play full-time in independent baseball for two more seasons, finally retiring after his age-46 season.
In his career, Henderson set the major league records for runs scored and stolen bases. Many will note that he also holds the record for the most times caught stealing, but in more than 1,700 attempts, he was successful 1,406 times, or 80.8%. Even with modern analytics that discount stolen base attempts because theyre more likely to lead to an out, a runner who can be successful 80% or better will always have the green light!
Henderson was known for a bombastic, self-aggrandizing style symbolized by the moment he broke Lou Brocks MLB stolen base record of 938 (yes, Rickey has nearly 500 more stolen bases than the next closest person in the history of the game) on May 1, 1991, Rickey took the base out of the ground and held it above his head. The game was halted and a makeshift podium was brought out to allow Henderson to speak. Known for speaking frequently in third person about himself, Rickey grabbed the microphone and, for once, used first person pronouns, declaring, Today, I am the greatest of all-time.
To get perspective, he broke the all-time record early in his age-32 season. He would go on to play for another dozen seasons.
Rickey Henderson is pretty widely accepted in baseball circles as the greatest leadoff hitter who ever played the game. He also had a habit of having his own style of quotes and comments that endeared him to sportswriters the same way Yogi Berra once captivated the same genre.
However, with all the accolades, millions of dollars in career earnings on the field, on top of his endorsement contracts that continued into his 60s, Rickey was widely considered one of the greatest teammates in the game, willing to go out of his way to make sure not just those on the team, but everyone in the organization was taken care of, financially or otherwise.
My favorite story of Rickey that has circulated since his passing on Dec. 20, is one conveyed by Mets teammate Mike Piazza.
When a team goes to the World Series, there is a pot of money that the teams players get to choose how to distribute. Piazza recalled that Rickey, when having a discussion about a fringe bench player or even a non-player, like a parking lot attendant, would always holler out, Full share!
When players began to debate, Rickey would speak up again and holler out, F that! You can change somebodys life!
Asked about that quote after it came out in Piazzas memoir, Henderson smiled and began telling stories of clubhouse attendants and stadium ushers who cued him into tells in a pitchers delivery that allowed him to be successful stealing so many bases.
If I dont know (that information), we dont win. We dont win, theres no shares to give out, he said. But yeah, it wasnt going to change my bank none, but it could be more than a years salary in bonus for one of the people who was there every day at the park for us.
One of the biggest stars in the game – in the history of the game – recognizing and honoring those who contribute on the margins to the teams success. If there is a better image to take forward with us as we head into 2025, Im not sure what it would be.
Change somebodys life
Leave a Reply