I couldn’t believe when I heard the news: Rickey Henderson died at the age of 65. Wow.
It’s inevitable. We get older, more and more people that we know die; I took one to the jugular this year in that category. Not only with family and friends, and people who are family and friends to your friends and people you know, but it’s the people many of us knew, like the sports stars we watched growing up. Earlier this year, my son and I were at Wrigley Field for the Cubs game when it was announced that Willie Mays died. Now I didn’t see him play, but everyone knows about Willie Mays; he was a legend of the game no doubt. There have been others, too many to mention here, but now Rickey? I watched him play.
I may have been a little too young when he started doing his thing, but Rickey did his thing for a good long time. He was one of the many guys we impersonated in our back yard wiffle ball games, with his very unique batting stance. Of course, I sometimes caught the ball like he did, with the one hand, snatching it, to the dismay of my father who always taught me to catch with two hands. I couldn’t dream of being as fast as Rickey, but when you say stolen base you think Rickey Henderson. He was electric, and now… he’s gone.
The good thing about someone like Rickey dying, if there is one, is that here comes the shower of highlights and stories about Rickey. Of course, there was the day when he broke Lou Brock’s single season record; I didn’t remember the details around that one. There was the other time when he broke the all-time record and lifted up 3rd base in the air, saying he was the “greatest of all time”. That may have been a little cocky, but it was true. Rickey was definitely cocky; he had swagger… the bat flips, etc… he was a bit before his time. Now, this is widely accepted, not criticized; even some of the old school heads are accepting of some of it now, rightfully so. Do it to show passion; do it to pump up your teammates and the fans. Don’t do it to show the other guy up. I saw when he got his 3,000 hit in San Diego; I listened to Tony Gwynn say some words about him. I saw when he broke the all-time runs scored record, by hitting a home run; he still slid into home plate… awesome. I saw a picture of him with Mike Tyson. Although we was born in Oakland and played for the As multiple times in his career, he got around too; I saw many teams post pictures of Rickey in their uniform, passing along condolences.
Like many, he was gone too soon. There are those people, those athletes that you feel like will always be around; you feel like they are invincible. Mr. Henderson falls into that category, but just like others before him, and many of those to follow, everybody has their time. Why does this happen when it does? I’ve asked myself that question many times, and there is no answer, other than… it was their time. RIP Rickey.
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