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Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson
Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, 2009
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 105 of 1218 players
Henderson
Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson
Born: December 25, 1958 at Chicago, Ill.
Throws: Left Bats: Right
Height: 5.10 Weight: 190

Rickey Henderson was the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup on January 2, 2013, February 16, 2013, July 11, 2013, January 5, 2014, February 10, 2018, September 21, 2021, and December 26, 2021.

of
Non-playing roles with Mets
  • First Base Coach 2007

First Mets game: April 5, 1999
Last Mets game: May 13, 2000

Share your memories of Rickey Henderson

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Mark Maroon
I'm glad part of his career was spent as a Met. His knowledge of the game is awesome. Not only is Ricky a team player teaching the younger players how to play the game, Ricky can still do it better than anyone else!

Bernard Aguinaldo
Will always be remembered for playing cards in the clubhouse with Bobby Bonilla during Game 6 of 1999 NLCS.

Also for running through Cookie Rojas's stop sign. What was he thinking? Rickey will always be Rickey!

Coach HoJo
December 19, 2000
Henderson epitomizes The "Me First Attitude"

Mr. Sparkle
December 27, 2000
I cringed when one of my all time most hated ball players came to the Mets. OK he's a hall of famer but he's also in the @--hole hall of fame. I've never seen a player more taken with himself than Rickey. All he cares about is his dumb records. He didn't care about the Mets in the post season because non of his stats when toward any record. Thank God we finally got rid of him. When he went to Seattle he saw John Olerud and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. When Olerud explained, Rickey told him he had a teammate on the Mets the year before that did the same thing. Unfriggin' believable that Rickey didn't realize that that was Olerud too!!

Mr. Sparkle
January 22, 2001
Excuse me OmegaRed but talent is no excuse for being a jerk. No one's questioning his talent by it's a shame that someone with his attitude is as gifted as he is and someone like Benny Agbayani has to prove himself every time he takes the field. It's just no fair.

Won Doney
February 4, 2001
More than anything, Rickey Henderson falls under the category of grumpy old man.

Jon
March 18, 2001
Sure, he's a weenie but one of the most accomplished players many of us will ever see. A true original who sparked that exciting 1999 team and caught WAY too much crap for the whole card-playing thing.

Forcing his way off the team in '00 indirectly opened up career opportunities for Agbayani and Payton. I don't have any bad feelings toward him.

Coach HoJo 20
April 26, 2001
Well, Henderson broke the Walks record yesterday. I could careless what that "nomad" Henderson does but it was great to see another Yankee record broken.

Schil
July 12, 2001
As an unabashed fan of Rickey, I'm hoping like hell he doesn't hit another 4 for 62 slump en route to 2246 runs & 3000 hits. Imagine owning records for runs, steals & walks PLUS 3000 hits! It's undisputed this guy's the best leadoff hitter of all time but unfortunately won't get the plaudits of the quintessential All-Americans Cal & Tony largely because of "personality issues." I don't care about his personality - it's just great to watch a 42 year old guy who can still play (albeit with diminished hitting skills) & even make "web gems" - Go, Rickey!!

Shannon
October 20, 2001
The majority of players I have come across the last 9 years have been class acts.But Rickey is a class jerk.Only see him sign autographs for women who dress like hookers.Saw him drunk in a bar once and making passes at every women in the place.This women was ready to slap him in the face.

Mark S.P. Turvin
December 26, 2001
I moved from New York City to Phoenix over a decade ago. In 1999, while attending a Mets/D'backs game at Bank One Ballpark, I found myself the butt of one of Rickey's jokes. I had gotten seats right behind the visitor's dugout, and arrived very early. I was sitting alone in my section with my Mets jersey on, a Mets cap, and a pair of round sunglasses. I had a moustache at the time. I guess I sat there with my arms across my chest and not moving for awhile. I noticed Rickey pulling various players up above the dugout and pointing to me, and they'd laugh. He did this first with Bobby Valentine, then Orel Hersheiser, and then Al Leiter. Finally, when he brought up Matt Franco, and they started to crack up, I yelled out to him, "What's so funny?" Rickey started to shout "Hey, Bernie!" A couple of the other players looked up, and started shouting the same thing. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Finally, a man from the section next to me shouted out "You look like that dead guy from Weekend at Bernie's." They all started nodding and applauding.

Alan
January 19, 2002
OK, he's a Hall of Famer, but what a jerk!!!!!! Pete Rose(who I dispised as a player)deserves better than him......That's Right!!!!

sal
February 18, 2002
I was sitting in the good seats by the Mets dugout, and Rickey trotted down to first base on a routine 6-3. As he peeled back to the dugout, a fan near me was hollering at him stuff like, "You gotta run those out, Rickey!" and to my astonishment, while the inning was still going on, Henderson conversed with this fan:

Rickey: "Why you say that?"
Amazed Fan: "Because--you just gotta run balls out!"
RH: "Why?"
AF: "Because--maybe there'll be a wild throw."
RH: "Then I'm safe anyway, right?"
AF: "Yeah, but Rickey, it don't look nice."
RH: shrugs, goes back into dugout.

Shari
April 9, 2003
What do you expect? Instead of looking to their own minor league system, they trade for a fossil that was a head case before he became a fossil. Typical Met deal-making. Granted the man is in amazing shape and he did some good things while he was here like lighting a fire under Roger Cedeno's ass that one year. And when he wasn't being a selfish, pompous ass he probably did more in the lead-off spot than all of the other "lead-off" hitters they tried in the past, but still and all I would have shied away from getting him, but hey I'm just someone who thinks logically.

paul esmond
June 12, 2003
I remember at the beginning of the 2000 season going to Shea and seeing Rickey get booed because he wasn't in it so to speak. It was a shame because in 1999 this guy had a hell of a year for the Mets and I think the fans in Flushing really liked him. But after that 99 season a lot of things changed for people like Rickey. It got harder for players not to have their head in it. The 2000 team really was on a mission. Quite simply he's a player who performs for himself. Even now he's in Newark hoping to impress a team into signing him. It's not going to happen cause he's a good player, rather cause he may draw some fans to a second rate team who need the attention. Rickey's a crowd pleaser and a shoe-in for the Hall also. I wish him luck and I miss his exciting performance for the Amazins.

Kiwiwriter
September 13, 2003
I always look at Rickey Henderson and his...uh...play and say..."Imagine what a career he would have had if he had just hustled."

And the irony is, he's going to Cooperstown anyway.

Steven Gallanter
September 21, 2003
Only a book-length biography could do justice to the "Rickey Saga."

I am a native Long Islander living in Boston who had the good fortune to tend bar at Fenway Park in '02. Rickey was given a Thunderbird at the end of the season because Rickey had told Sox owner John Henry that he wanted "his car."

When Rickey got his car he commented that what he had wanted was John Henry's PERSONAL CAR!!!

How about "I'm Rickey, Dammit," as a title for a direct-to-video biopic?

Mets2Moon
April 1, 2004
Rumor has it that in 2000, Rickey, after being released, was signed by the Seattle Mariners, who had recently signed Rickey's former teammate John Olerud.

Olerud, as we all know, wears a helmet in the field due to a brain aneurysm he suffered and subesequent migrane headaches.

Upon arriving in Seattle, Rickey noted that his first baseman always wore a helmet in the field. He approached him and asked "Why do you always wear that helmet in the field?"

The first baseman explained why.

"You know, I had a teammate in New York who used to do the same thing."

"No kidding, Rickey."

Classic Rickey. Off in his own spaceworld.

Maxwell Kates
July 1, 2004
Here's a Rickey Henderson story which I know was true. How do I know? I was there. Amid a backdrift of a beautiful Orange County sunset, there I was, watching the Angels play the Red Sox at Enrico Palozzo Stadium. I was sitting along the third base side near left field, a few rows from the fence. You could practically touch Rickey Henderson. Some guys start hollering at him, and you know how Rickey is...during the game when there's no action, he starts hollering back. So I tried one on for size. "Hey Rickey! Is it true you were born in the back seat of a car!?" Rickey stops, stunned. He moves his head very slowly in my general direction. Here I am thinking he's gonna kill me, but instead, he just quips back "Y- YUP!"

Later on, I tried to trade my Angels cap for his Red Sox cap, but he nixed the deal. Big surprise. By the way, I've seen him sign autograph for male fans who look like truckdrivers.

Jonathan Stern
February 12, 2006
What is going on here? First, the Mets hold a starting pitcher firesale. Then they hire Juan Samuel to manage in Binghamton. Now, they bring in Rickey to serve as a Spring Training coach? Six years ago, they exiled him faster than he ran around the bases. They didn't even give him a 2000 pennant ring. This has been an interesting off-season.

JD
March 7, 2007
Greatest leadoff hitter ever! And one magical year with the Mets. Clutch hits, steals, and runs. To those who say he didn't try, I say he hustled his way to 3055 hits, 1406 stolen bases, 2295 runs, and two World Series titles. Best memory on Rick: The late, great Ralph Wiley: espn.go.com/page2/s/wiley/010322.html

Damion
October 6, 2007
They brought back a selfish player who was playing cards in the clubhouse while the Mets were losing the most important game of the season. They brought this guy back to coach and mentor young players. I think we can all trace the demise of Jose Reyes this year to his arrival.








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