Rickey Henderson makes his triumphant return to MLB as a coach for the New York Mets.
In a time where many complain about the lack of dedication to sports from athletes, I'm happy to see someone who is clearly as passionate as a human being can be as his profession return to the game.
For those who don't know him or those who do and want to expand their knowledge while laughing, here is a compilation of some of his most famous "Rickyisms".
My favorite:
In the last week of his lone season with the Red Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he wasn’t going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.” Turns out the Sox got Henderson a Red Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?”
"Everybody was asking me for the ball. I said, 'You're not getting this ball. I always wanted to get a foul ball. This one's going on a shelf at home."
-- Rickey Henderson
I think one of my favorites is this: he [Ricky Henderson] called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”
That, and the possibly apocraphal story of Ricky, not paying attention to the on-going game, came in as a pitch-runner. Not noticing that it was in the latter innings, and his team was up by a large margin, told the first base coach "Ricky can't score from first" and promptly stole second...
Thanks for the bright spot, xian, especially after the sturm und drang of the last couple of threads.
HG