Rickey Henderson, Oakland baseball legend, dies at 65

Rickey Henderson, considered by baseball experts, including journalists and fellow players, as one of the greatest to ever play the game, died Friday, Dec. 20 at the age of 65.

Henderson moved to Oakland with his family when he was 7 years old and grew up on 61st and Dover streets near Bushrod Park. He attended Oakland Technical High School, where he played football and baseball. In 1976, as an Oakland Tech senior, he was named “California State Baseball Player of the Year” while also playing football and running track.

Multiple sources confirmed Henderson’s passing to The Oaklandside. His death, which led to hours of speculation on social media, was also confirmed by the East Bay Times.

Henderson started in the major league with the Athletics in 1979 and played in the big leagues for 24 years, setting records that will likely never be matched. Among them are stolen bases. Henderson electrified fans with 1,406 stolen bases, 50% more than the number of bases stolen by the player in second place, Lou Brock. He was also considered the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, with the most home runs leading off a game, 81, and an uncanny ability to get on base. And coaches and fellow players relied on him as a consistent scorer with the most runs – the core statistic of baseball. Henderson tapped home base 2,295 times in his day.

Perhaps most incredibly from the perspective of the sentimental, storytelling nature of the game, Henderson played for his hometown team in Oakland, the Athletics, for the majority of his career. Although he had several stints in other cities, including a long and fanciful stretch with the New York Yankees, it was in Oakland where he enthralled fans. Oakland remained his home after he retired.

Affectionately known as “The Man of Steal,” Henderson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009 alongside Jim Rice, another ballplayer who came of age in the late 70s and 80s. The number “24” was retired by the Athletics the same year.

In his induction speech, Henderson thanked a long list of coaches, teammates, and his family. Poignantly, he spoke with emotion about the role that his mother, Bobbie Henderson played in his upbringing and how she pushed him to be the best player he could be.

Former A’s members Rickey Henderson, left, and Dave “Smoke” Stewart before the Oakland Athletics’ final game at the Coliseum on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. Credit. Amaya Edwards Credit: Amaya Edwards

In 2006, the Oakland Unified School District decommissioned the playground of the former Carter Middle School in North Oakland. Shortly after, neighbors, community leaders, parents of Oakland Tech students and alumni formed the “Field of Dreams Committee.” A year later, the field became a common venue for Oakland Tech and local sports nonprofits. In 2009, it was renamed as the “Rickey Henderson Field.” Henderson spoke at the renaming ceremony, saying, “Maybe now local youths might become more involved with baseball, allowing them to pursue and realize their own dreams much as a teenage Rickey Henderson did so many years ago.”

In 2017, the Athletics renamed the Oakland Coliseum’s field “Rickey Henderson Field” to honor the Oakland legend and Hall of Famer.

“It’s almost too hard to believe that in 2024, the final year [of the A’s] in Oakland, #24 would no longer be with us,” Bryan Johansen, co-founder of the baseball fan group The Last Dive Bar, and one of the first to announce the news of Henderson’s passing, told the Oaklandside. “He was and will always be the greatest of all time. I’m absolutely heartbroken.”

One of Henderson’s last public appearances was at the final Athletics game at the Oakland Coliseum. Henderson and Dave Stewart threw the last ceremonial pitch. They wore the team’s beloved kelly green “Oakland” jersey. The two Oakland natives grew up playing on local dirt playgrounds and won a championship together in 1989 in the earthquake-rattled classic series against crosstown rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

“The fans came out here today to remember all the great times they’ve had,” Henderson told The Oaklandside at the last game. “This is a special day. We are all here today together once again.”

Former Athletics members Dave “Smoke” Stewart, left, and Rickey Henderson, right, throw the final ceremonial pitch at the Coliseum on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. Credit: Amaya Edwards Credit: Amaya Edwards

Besides his spectacular achievements on the field, Henderson was known for his offbeat personality, sprinkled with an Oakland-type of dry, chill humor. Over the years, hundreds of players told anecdotes of Rickey interactions later defined as “Rickeyisms” — hard to believe, partly true, and always entertaining.

One story involved Toronto Blue Jays first baseman John Olerud meeting Rickey at first base. Olerud, who uncommonly wore a helmet on the field as a precaution after suffering an aneurism in college, played with Henderson in the early 1990s in the Canadian city. They even won a championship together. Rickey apparently smiled at him and guilelessly told Olerud, “You know, I used to play with a guy who wore a helmet on the field, too!” Olerud said, “Rickey, that was me.”

Sometimes, his statements and actions didn’t go over well. Over the years, including during his time with the A’s, Henderson sometimes clashed with his managers, notably Hall of Famers Billy Martin in Oakland and New York and Tony La Russa in Oakland. La Russa, the long-time A’s boss, criticized Henderson during contract negotiations in 1992 and publicly called him out other times for not being a team player.

Henderson disputed this by speaking about himself in the not-quite-so-selfless third person, saying, charmingly, that “Rickey is a team player.”

La Russa, for his part, often let Rickey do what he wanted on the field. During the team’s high-flying seasons in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he famously said he didn’t give Rickey any running signs. “He had the green light,” La Russa told reporters.

Henderson had enough opportunities to define himself as a singular player during one of the game’s most popular eras. His performance in the 1989 playoffs, following a re-acquisition by the A’s during the summer trade deadline, was sublime, with Sports Illustrated reporter Peter Gammons saying his output during the American League Championship Series “may go down as the best individual performance since the playoff system began in 1969.” Rickey led all players in that series in runs, slugging, homers, on-base percentage, total bases, steals, walks, “and conversations with fans,” Gammons wrote. He also commonly taunted the Jays players, calling his two-homer performance the day before it happened.

Henderson also set the standard for professional financial independence. On November 28, 1989, he signed a four-year contract with Oakland worth $12 million, then a record for the sport.

At the Athletics last game in September, Henderson signed autographs and chatted with fans. He embraced Athletics player, Max Schuemann and other current players and joked around with Dave Stewart.

As news of his passing first circulated Friday night, long-time Henderson, A’s, and baseball fans everywhere mourned the Oakland baseball legend.

“I used to cut out the daily stolen base counts from the paper the year you broke Lou Brock’s record. You were my first sports hero!” read one tweet from a fan in the Philippines.

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