"Kevin, this is Rickey. Calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball."

the new yorker does a great job with a rickey henderson feature this week, but they won't let me link to it. so i have compiled some of my favorite rickey stories from a couple of s.i. stories. not only was rickey one of the greatest players ever, but he was the first guy to refer to himself in the third person, which is pretty ground breaking. enjoy.



Nobody in baseball history has scored more runs, stolen more bases, drawn more walks or provided more entertainment (some of it unintended) for so many teams than Rickey Henley Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter ever, a superstar so big that his middle and last names became superfluous. Rickey is the modern-day Yogi Berra, only faster. Whereas Berra contributed a new noun to the English language (Yogiism), Henderson inspired that classic rejoinder muttered by many a manager, teammate, sportswriter or, especially, general manager come contract time, "Rickey is Rickey."

Once in the late 1980s, the New York Yankees sent Henderson a six-figure signing-bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed that the check had not been cashed. Brian Cashman, then a low-level executive with the club, called Henderson to ask if there was a problem with the check.

"No problem," Henderson said. "I'm just waiting for the money market rates to go up."

Over 24 seasons in the major leagues, Henderson never spent his meal money. Before each trip players get an envelope filled with cash equal to the daily rate as negotiated by the Players Association ($ 73 this year), multiplied by the number of days on the road. Henderson would take the envelopes home and put them in shoe boxes. Whenever his daughters, Angela, now 18, Alexis, 11, and Adriann, 9, did well in school, Henderson would allow them to choose an envelope from a shoe box, a little game he called Pick It. The jackpot was getting an envelope from one of those 13-day, four-city trips. The girls would keep the money.

"They do what they want with it," he said. "It gives them motivation for their school and something to do, like a job."

Rickey's Best Lines about Money

1. "If they're going to pay me like [Mike] Gallego, I'm going to play like Gallego."

2. "All I'm asking for is what I want."

Rickey's Favorite Pregame Routines

1. Flexing and swinging a bat naked or in his underwear in front of a full-length mirror, saying, "Rickey's the best."

2. Playing cards.

3. Playing dominos.

4. Ignoring meetings to review opposing pitchers. Henderson prefers knowing nothing about what they throw.

Which calls to mind another story about how when Henderson joined the Seattle Mariners in 2000 he saw first baseman John Olerud, his former Mets teammate, fielding grounders while wearing a batting helmet and remarked, "That's strange. I played with a guy in New York" who did the same thing. Alas, the story, though it appeared in many publications, is one of the rare Rickey tales that falls entirely on the side of Fiction, having been fabricated by members of the Mets' training staff.

Rickey's Rules for a Long Career

1. Run three to five miles every other day. "Some guys, once the season starts, they relax, eat, do nothing. I feel sluggish that way. I got to get up and do something, get the blood back circulating and get the oxygen back in my body."

2. Do 200 sit-ups and 100 push-ups a day. "I don't do a lot of weights. Some guys, they want to be Hulk Hogan. Not me."

3. Stretch before bedtime. "Do your stretching before you sleep. That way you wake up loose."

4. Eat plenty of ice cream. "I like to eat ice cream at night. I got to have something sweet before I go to sleep."

Or the time

Rickey was asked if he owned the Garth Brooks album that has the song Friends in Low Places. "Rickey doesn't have albums," he answered. "Rickey has CDs."

Or the time someone asked him what he thought about speculation that as many as 50% of big leaguers used steroids. "Well, I'm not," he said. "So that's 49 [percent] right there."

Or the time he developed frostbite in August. The Blue Jays used a newfangled ice treatment on his ankle. "What is Rickey, a guinea pig?" he asked.

Or the time he bragged that his Manhattan apartment had such a great view he could see "the Entire State Building."

Or the time he settled a feud with Yankees manager Lou Piniella, saying, "Let bye-byes be bye-byes."