well, #4 has been attributed to Yogi, and #10 sounds more like Mickey Rivers

priceless. i heard the one about striking out. the way i heard it was rickey swings and misses at strike one, and gives himself a pep talk: 'that's okay, rickey it only takes one pitch to get a hit.' swings and misses, same pep talk. swings and misses, then tells himself 'that's okay, rickey, you're still the man!'

It's a crime if Major League Baseball doesn't call 2009 the season of Rickey.

He's like the Yogi Berra of my generation.

TWO!-OH!-OH!-OH! CLAP!-CLAP!-CLAP!CLAP!CLAP! loves him some Rickey!

Is there a reason the Yankees traded him for Luis Polonia and a couple of relievers? Besides them being idiots that is.

“Rickey Being Rickey"

This is deserving of summary execution.

As God is my witness, I have no memory of Rickey playing for the Red Sox in 2002. And I was actually paying attention to stuff in 2002.

Can we just all agree to pretend that the Rickey/Olerud story is true?

"Manny being Manny" can't hold "Rickey being Rickey"'s jockstrap.

24) To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, “Ricky’s the best,” for several minutes.

I've always done the same thing.

as far as I'm concerned, all of these stories are battling for second place behind the one about Rickey motivating himself in front of the mirror naked ... every day of his career.

edit: seems I owe Ricky C. a coke

Gamingboy agrees with Leroy Kincaid.

Thanks for the post, Gamingboy, I needed that.

It's a crime if Major League Baseball doesn't call 2009 the season of Rickey.

He's like the Yogi Berra of my generation.

Or he's the Babe Ruth of our generation. I'm currently reading The Big Bam, . In it, author Leigh Montville relates a conversation between Ruth and Waite Hoyt after Hoyt was traded to the Yankees in 1921. "A little young to be playing MLB aren't you kid?" "Same age as you when you came to the Red Sox" replied Hoyt. What Montville leaves out is that Hoyt was a teammate with Ruth for the entire 1919 season, starting 13 games and pitching 103 innings.

That is some seriously funny stuff. #11 is just so Rickey. There will never be anyone like him and I'm glad he'll get his due soon. What an awesome sight to behold on the baseball diamond.

A friend of mine interned with a Bay Area newspaper in summer 1993 when we were in College. Apparently after one game he was in the A's clubhouse. Rickey took a shower, didn't use a towel. He just walked soaking wet and naked to the kitchen, put a pizza in the microwave. Waited for it to be ready. Took it out, hopped up on the counter and ate it.

My friend remarked that Rickey had an unfair advantage. He was running with three legs. Everyone else only has two. No wonder he had so many steals.

Hey, a Eugene Freedman sighting!

I was just reading the Rickey article on Wikipedia, and came across this great interview in Sports Illustrated. I love this quote:

On the philosophy behind running:

"People say I stole a lot of bases. I stole the bases for a reason. I crossed the plate. If I steal a base and my hitter couldn't get me in, then you got to take me out to dinner. You got to do something, because I stole that base, I busted my butt. I need a dinner. I'm giving you a chance to get yourself an RBI. You can't get me in from third base with less than two outs? Oh no, you got to take me out to dinner! Or I'm going to order dinner on you."

"I'm going to order dinner on you" just cracks me up.

What a fantastic article, what a fantastic player. But the article left out my favorite part of the Nolan Ryan story. If I remember correctly, when Rickey was asked how it felt to be Ryan's 5,000th K he said "Hell, if he hasn't struck you out, you ain't nobody."

I fear a lot of these stories are actually "Rickey being someone else" or "A fictional character being Rickey".

Great article anyway.

I don't think everything on this list is completely accurate.
More importantly, it has been posted on various blogs for over two years, I remember reading this in 2006.

I don't think everything on this list is completely accurate.
More importantly, it has been posted on various blogs for over two years, I remember reading this in 2006.
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I imagine

Just so everyone knows, these quotes and stories about Rickey come from Fantistic from back in 2006. But in full disclosure, Fantistic didn't compile the quotes. Someone, somewhere out on the blogosphere did

covers that pretty clearly.

I think the fact it's hard to differentiate between the real rickey and the legend of rickey is part of the charm of rickey, just as with berra.

Rickey didn't say half the things Rickey said.

I did not know that Rickey was named after Ricky Nelson and that he was born in the back seat of a Chevy (per Wikipedia, so who knows!)

I did not know that Rickey was named after Ricky Nelson and that he was born in the back seat of a Chevy (per Wikipedia, so who knows!)

He once stole a base in Reno just to watch the catcher cry.

Has there ever been an article posted that would more make Primates RTFA?

Attention! From now on, all stories about Rickey Henderson shall either be considered true or will be considered as plausible enough to be used anecdotally ("I heard....")! The only exceptions are those that are in direct violation of the Rickey Canon.

This new unofficial Rickey Being Rickey policy takes effect yesterday.

To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, “Ricky’s the best,” for several minutes.

Ricky must be really great for Rickey to notice him when Rickey's naked.