Rickey Henderson, arguably the greatest athlete to ever swing a bat, steal a base, or refer to oneself in the third-person, will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday in Cooperstown. On the eve of receiving the sport's highest individual honor, Henderson reminisced with reporters about his playing days:
"He'd run his sprints, and he didn't say much to anybody," Henderson said. "He had his glasses on, and it was like Rickey was in his own world. He was on the field and it was like, 'This is who I am. This is my domain. I'm Rickey Henderson. I'm gonna steal, I'm gonna hit, I'm gonna hit home runs. This is what I do.' I would watch Rickey and be like, 'What is he thinking?'"
Henderson's career, much of which was played in the last clean era of baseball, is without question worthy of first ballot induction. When held against the inflated statistics associated with steroids and other performance enhancing drugs of recent years, what Henderson achieved quickly becomes immortal.
(CORRECTION: The quote included in the above post should be attributed to Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, not Rickey Henderson.)
No comments:
Post a Comment