Remembering Rickey Henderson, MLB’s Ultimate Leadoff Man

As a pitcher for the Kansas City Royals in the early to mid-1980s, current Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black saw plenty of Rickey Henderson during his time with the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees.

Those moments when Black not only faced Henderson at the plate but also sweated him being on the bases molded his perception as a player of the problems that a leadoff hitter of Henderson’s magnitude could cause. It also impacted Black years later as a manager when he looked to see which of his players could even cause a fraction of the problems that Henderson did.

“He’s a fast guy and it’s troublesome,” Black recalled about Henderson in July. “It puts pressure on you. It puts pressure on so many facets of the game. A guy who can steal puts pressure on the pitcher. It puts pressure on the defense because maybe they have to play a little closer to second base. It puts pressure on the outfielders because they know if the ball is hit, he might go first to third.

“Speed is unsettling. It makes you uncomfortable.”

Henderson made Black and so many other MLB pitchers uncomfortable during his Hall of Fame career that spanned 25 years and 3,081 games. The 1990 American League Most Valuable Player and baseball’s all-time stolen base leader passed away on Friday, just five days shy of his 66th birthday.

A fourth-round draft pick of the A’s in the 1976 MLB draft, Henderson made his debut on June 24, 1979, going 2-for-4 with a stolen base. That first game would be a precursor for his career, a highlight-filled journey that saw him steal 1,406 bases and score 2,295 runs, both numbers that top the list of all MLB players who have ever stepped onto the field.

Year after year throughout his career, Henderson continued to redefine what a leadoff hitter was. In 1998, his age-39 season, Henderson led all MLB players with 66 stolen bases and paced the AL with 118 walks. He also scored 101 runs, marking his 13th campaign in which he scored 100 or more times.

Simply put, there has never been, and perhaps nor will there ever be another Henderson. Sure, there are current players who show those flashes of speed, such as Ronald Acuña Jr., Elly De La Cruz and even Shohei Ohtani. But to continue to be a weapon over the span of two-plus decades? That’s something that was innately Rickey.

Henderson wasn’t just a weapon with his legs. He amassed more than 3,000 hits, one of just 33 players to ever accomplish the feat. Put all of that together and it’s easy to see why 94.8 percent of BBWAA voters checked the box in 2009 to send him to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Henderson was the best … and he knew it as much as anyone else. One can find many quotes where Henderson referred to himself in the third person and many tales of just what a character he was, on and off the field.

Earlier this year, one of my Just Baseball colleagues, Jason Tabrys, discussed how today’s MLB needs “swaggerstars” like Henderson. He went through a list of current players who could potentially steal 100 bases in a season (something Henderson did three times during his career). However, Tabrys found issues with each of the candidates, ranging from playing time to health to on-base percentage.

Those issues magnify the talent that Rickey Henderson was and highlight exactly why the greatest leadoff man ever will likely be looked up to by many future generations and have a place on an MLB pedestal that will withstand the test of time.