RIP Rickey Henderson

[plugboots]

I completely forgot he was at this game, (which was the last OAKLAND A’s game in Seattle). We were actually joking about how he wore the split jersey when he was barely with the Mariners. We were just kidding that he’s good at promotion. He looked great. There was absolutely no indication he was going to die a few months later.

[MakersTeleMark]

I thought cocaine made you immortal?

[4matic]

Style before it was cool.

https://x.com/MNTwinsZealot/status/1870828596274827675

[4matic]

Suggestion to rename Oakland International Airport to Rickey Henderson international. I’m in!

[half-fast]

Love the Olerud story. Have heard a couple versions

[alias_rice]

Love the Olerud story. Have heard a couple versions

It’s actually not a true story. From Joe Posnanski:

“All right, the rest of this will be a series of Rickey stories. That’s what you want. That’s what I want. We can only assume that’s what Rickey wants. Rickey loves a good Rickey story. We’ll get the most famous one out of the way first because it isn’t even true. The story goes that when Rickey joined the Seattle Mariners in 2000, he saw John Olerud taking some groundballs while wearing his batting helmet.

“Huh,” he said, “I played with a guy in New York who did that.”

“Yeah,” Olerud said. “That was me. Last year.”

As mentioned, the story isn’t true. Olerud and Henderson have debunked it. Apparently, it was a gag the Mariners’ assistant trainer came up with and it soon spread around the clubhouse, as good gags will.

But even an untrue Rickey story leads to a great tale. When Rickey was debunking the story, he made the point that while it was funny, it was also silly because he’d known Olerud years before they played on the same team. Of course he did. Olerud played first.

And, as Rickey said, “I was always on base.””

[plugboots]

The Ricky part where he says “I was always on base”, makes it even funnier than the original story