Rickey Henderson Quotes

These are a few quotes from everyone's favorite leadoff hitter:

"Oakland is home, and you always want to go home. Anytime you get the chance, you're happy to go home."

---Said after joining the Mets on December 13, 1998.

"Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest!"

---Said May 1, 1991, after stealing the 939th base of his career to overtake Lou Brock atop the all-time list, with Brock looking on from the stands.

"All the other kids playing around me were batting right-handed, so that's the way I thought you were supposed to do it, so that's what I did, too. At one point, I wanted to be a switch-hitter and try the left side, but I was hitting .300, .350 in the minors, and they (the A's) wouldn't let me do it."

---Rickey explaining why it is that he throws lefty and bats righty.

"Managing is all about personality. What I'd like to do, what I'd be good at: I could be a first base coach. I'd have some great knowledge to share doing that. Show them what to do, work on reading pitchers and timing on those guys. Is there anyone you'd want more than me over there?"

---Rickey responding to a question about whether he can see himself managing someday.

"It gave me no chance. He just blew it by me. But its an honor. I'll have another paragraph in all the baseball books. I'm already in the books three or four times."

---Rickey on becoming the victim of Nolan Ryan's 5000th strikeout.

---Rickey when asked if he owned the Garth Brooks album with the song Friends in Low Places.

``If he doesn't respect me, then tough luck.  He should be happy he's in this position. He wouldn't be here if not for me.''

---Rickey responding to comments made by teammate Turk Wendell questioning his work habits in the 1999 NL Championship Series.

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

---Rickey when asked why he hadn't cashed a six-figure bonus check from the Yankees in the late 80's.

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

---Rickey expressing his unhappiness with his contract.

"Oh, that?  I canceled that contract."

---Rickey after being reminded by Red Sox GM Mike Port that the $350,000 contract he was complaining about was the one he had agreed to.

"Rickey's the best."

---The mantra he repeats while flexing and swinging a bat naked or in his underwear in front of a full-length mirror as part of the routine he goes through before each game.

"Hey, man, where have you been?  Haven't seen you for a while."

---Rickey to Billy Beane, who had the locker next to him in 1989, after Beane returned from six week stint in the minors.

"You throw good BP. Are you comin' on the road with us?"

---Rickey to A's coach Art Kusnyer after Kusnyer threw batting practice.

"Robson?  Who's he?"

---Rickey's response when informed that Mets hitting coach Tom Robson was fired in June 1999.

"A lot of times people talk about [my using the] third party."

---Rickey when asked about referring to himself as Rickey.

"One time, Rickey came walking into the clubhouse with this denim outfit and big suede hat. And he goes, 'Rickey got a big ranch [in California]. Rickey got a big bull. Rickey got horses. Rickey got chickens and everything. 

And Rickey got a 20-gallon hat.'"

---Mariners catcher Ben Davis, who played with Henderson on the Padres.

"I learned that the more closer to the ground [you are], the less pounding you take. We were going to Kansas City in an airplane, and we came in and bounced. Boom, boom, boom. Then we left there, came in I don't know where, and the plane came in smooth. I thought [the pilot] got lower to the ground, and that's how I developed my slide. I started to see how low I could get to the ground."

---Rickey on where he learned his sliding technique.

"I always wanted a mobile home."

---Rickey's response when asked by Red Sox owner Tom Werner what he wanted as a gift from the team.  When Werner asked him for another suggestion, Rickey asked for "John Henry's Mercedes," referring to the vehicle of another of the team's owners. Werner explained the club might have difficulty finding and taking delivery of the same make and model on short notice. 

"No, I mean John Henry's Mercedes," Rickey said.

"Well, I'm not, so that's 49 [percent] right there."

---Rickey when asked what he thought about speculation that as many as 50% of big leaguers used steroids.

"What is Rickey, a guinea pig?"

---Rickey after he developed frostbite in August. The Blue Jays had used a new type of ice treatment on his ankle.

"Let bye-byes be bye-byes."

---Rickey as he settled a feud with Yankees manager Lou Piniella.

"I can see the Entire State Building."

---Rickey bragging about the view from his Manhattan apartment.

"I don't want to break nobody's bank."

---Rickey expressing his willingness to accept a 2-year deal in 1993.

"Sure.  You got to turn the other cheekbone.  I don't hold no gritches."

---Rickey when asked whether he would ever play for Sandy Alderson again after Alderson traded him to Toronto.

"I want everyone to know that I'm not such a bad guy.  There's nothing wrong with me. Ask anybody in the club-house. I'm good! I cause no problems. I just want to play the game."

---Rickey when asked what message he has for prospective clubs that are thinking about signing him.

"Everyone looked silly, but they went overboard on me. The umpires were laughing at me!"

---Rickey on the infamous New York Mercury Mets uniform he wore on "Turn Ahead the Clock Night" in 1999.

"It's all natural: push-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, sit-ups--and a lot of running. I barely lift weights. The strength coaches get mad because I don't go into the weight room. They beg me to go in. Body-building people say that if I used the weight room, I could be a Mr. America. When I'm finished playing, I just might."

---Rickey on his workout regimen.

"I don't want to be a distraction."

---Rickey, after speaking with reporters for a half-hour about what a loss he would be for the Mets and how they can't replace someone like him.  He was angry because he said his agent, Jeff Borris, told him the Mets said they were trying to trade him, which Borris and Mets GM Steve Phillips both later denied.
 

Henley

---Rickey Henderson's middle name.

"I can't say I was born that way, because I was a little chubby. Like, they used to call a little tree trunk or little round bowling ball little kid. And I didn't really like it, so I started working out."

---Rickey upon being told that he does not have an ounce of fat on him.
 

"I've got to get on that bus, or else they're aren't going to have any fun on there.''

---Rickey (to no one in particular) after hearing the call go out that the Dodgers team bus would soon be departing for the airport in August of 2003.

``I'm going to do it over again if I feel I hit a home run.  I know more baseball than you can think about. You probably were a baby when I first started playing this game."

---Rickey, to the NY Post's Andrew Marchand, 25, after Marchand wrote an article criticizing him for not running out a ball that bounced off the wall.  Rickey added, "The only reason I wouldn't beat you up is because I have respect for people."

"You want to do this, you pay the price. Some year I'd love to forget the basestealing and just go out and hit. Let my fingers and wrists and shoulders and knees have a year off, and I think I could hit .330, .340, with 30, maybe 35 home runs. But Rickey Henderson is expected to steal."

---Rickey commenting on his late-season injuries in 1990.

"If some pitcher throws over 20 times in a row, I say to the first baseman, `Tell your friend I don't care if he throws over 100 times, I'll dive back safe every time. And when he finally throws to the plate, I'll steal on him. He'll never beat me. And when he does throw to the plate, he'll have wasted the equivalent of 100 pitches.'"

---Rickey on pitchers trying to pick him off.

"I've seen just about everything over the years. They've watered down the dirt, especially in Chicago. Eddie Murray once grabbed my back pocket to hold me up. George Brett was the one guy who used to get me once in a while. He'd get me to talking, and I'd lose my concentration. A lot of first basemen have tried to get me talking, but only one has done it, George Brett. Heh, heh, heh."

---Rickey on how opponents try to stop him.

It happened on August 24, 1982, when Henderson was in the fourth year of his first tour of duty with the Oakland Athletics and well on his way to establishing the single-season record for stolen bases.

The A's were playing the Tigers in Oakland on the final day of a homestand.

Henderson had stolen 117 bases and needed to steal one more to equal the record Brock had established in 1974. Billy Martin was the A's manager and Henderson's primary promoter. And as a native of Northern California, Martin wanted Henderson, an Oakland resident then, to break the record at home, or at least tie it at home.

The A's led 3-0 as they batted in the eighth. And Martin knew Henderson probably wouldn't have opportunities in subsequent innings.

Before Henderson could try to reach base, Fred Stanley, the A's shortstop, singled, and he was on first base when Henderson batted and hit a sharp single to left.

"Billy told that Chicken (Stanley) to get his butt thrown out, so he wouldn't be on second in my way," Henderson said. "But I hit the ball too hard, and he had to stop at second. Billy wants me to run, but Chicken's in the way.

"So Billy tells him to get picked off. Get caught. So they throw a pitch and Chicken is way off base, and they don't even try to get him. We're playing Detroit and (Tigers manager) Sparky (Anderson) didn't want me to get it. So he wouldn't let them tag Chicken.

"He's way off the base, and no one's even trying. And that old Durwood Merrill (the second-base umpire) is getting madder and madder. He knew what was going on. He didn't like it. He made them make the play on Chicken. I think Sparky was mad.

"I go on the next pitch. And I make it, I'm in there. And that old Durwood, he called me out because he was still mad at Billy and Sparky.

"But Billy was mad, and you know that Billy, he got run (ejected) the next inning. He did and (center fielder) Dwayne Murphy. They got on old Durwood. But I think Durwood was still mad the next time we had him. I wanted to get the record at home, too. But I had to get that record in Milwaukee."

Henderson did, of course, stealing three bases on August 27 to equal and surpass Brock's record. But he had set a record when Merrrill called him out as well. It marked the 39th time he had been thrown out that season. Ty Cobb had held the record of 38.

Henderson would be thrown out three more times on his way to 130 steals.

The 130 and the 42 still stand as records. "We don't need to be talking about that other record," he said. "And you know it should have been 41. Old Durwood owes me."

---The story of Rickey's favorite steal, as told to Marty Noble

"He'd always be on me about it.  He'd be in my face, saying, 'You're not supposed to sign where my name goes,' and I'd just go yeah, yeah, yeah and keep signing."

---Rickey on Billy Martin's anger at him for signing baseballs on the "sweet spot," which is that vacant part of the ball where the seams pass both above and below. Traditionally, the manager, and only the manager, signs the sweet spot.   When asked in 1998 whether he still signs the sweet spot, Rickey said,  "I stopped doing it after Billy Martin died.  He always treated me right. He was my second manager, and we hit it off from the beginning. He was special to me."

"About half a second."

---Rickey, when asked how long it took him to find his way around the famously inane town of Port St. Lucie upon his first spring with the Mets in 1999.
 

"What have we got here, about 72 guys?  That means I'm going to have to make up about 50 nicknames.''

---Rickey upon his arrival to Red Sox camp in 2002.

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