Rickey says Rickey is Humble

From his white suit to his one-liners, former Oakland Athletics left fielder Rickey Henderson put on one hell of a show during his MLB Hall of Fame speech.  I have always supported the white suit and thought Henderson was the perfect person to rock the all white style. Whether he was talking in third person or proclaiming that he was the world’s greatest, Henderson always knew hot to entertain.  When Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez does something outlandish, people say, “Manny is being Manny.” Sunday, Rickey was  just being Rickey and I loved every bit of it.

Henderson didn’t say his whole speech in third person like I wanted him too, but his one-liners made up for it.  He told a story of a counselor in high school that paid him a quarter for every hit, run and stolen base. (That year Henderson had 30 hits, 25 runs and 33 steals. That might be a full-time job in today’s economy.) The best leadoff hitter of all time holds the record for steals with 1,406, runs scored with 2,295, unintentional walks with 2,129 and homers that lead off a game with 81. [NY Daily News]

For a guy that wanted to play for the Oakland Raiders, Henderson’s back-up plan worked out for him.  Stolen bases are becoming a bigger part of the game recently, but we will never see a leadoff hitter that intimidates  pitchers the way Henderson did. I hate when cocky people talk in third person but for some reason I never had a problem with Henderson. Swagger is becoming such an over-used word when it comes to athletes, but Henderson and Muhammad Ali are the two people that come to mind when I hear the word swagger. Henderson said he was the world’s greatest when he broke Lou Brock’s stolen break record and yesterday Henderson’s hall of fame speech was the best of all time.