In honor of Rickey, here’s a list of the 25 best Rickey Henderson quotes and stories. We found it at NYSportSpace

1) Rickey… on referring to himself in the third person: “Listen, people are always saying, ‘Rickey says Rickey.’ But it’s been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I’m ticked off, saying, ‘Rickey, what the heck are you doing, Rickey?’ They say, ‘Darn, Rickey, what are you saying Rickey for? Why don’t you just say, ‘I?’ But I never did. I always said, ‘Rickey,’ and it became something for people to joke about.”

2) In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was
freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.

3) In 1996, Henderson’s first season with San Diego, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”

4) This one might be my second favorite. This wasn’t too long ago, I think it was the year he ended up playing with the Red Sox. Anyway, he called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”

5) This one happened in Seattle. Rickey struck out and as the next
batter was walking past him, he heard Henderson say, “Don’t worry,
Rickey, you’re still the best.”

6) Rickey once asked a teammate how long it would take him to drive to the Dominican Republic.

7) Moments after breaking Lou Brock’s stolen base record, Henderson told the crowd – with Brock mere feet next to him – “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.”

8 ) Henderson once fell asleep on an ice pack and got frostbite – which forced him to miss three games – in mid-August.

9) A reporter asked Henderson if Ken Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”

10) Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s career record for runs scored with a home run. After taking his usual 45 seconds or so around the bases, Rickey slid into home plate.

11) On being Nolan Ryan’s 5,000th career strikeout: “It gave me no
chance. He (Ryan) just blew it by me. But it’s an honor. I’ll have
another paragraph in all the baseball books. I’m already in the books three or four times.”

12) San Diego GM Kevin Towers was trying to contact Rickey at a nearby hotel. He knew Henderson always used fake names to avoid the press, fans, etc. He was trying to think like Rickey and after several attempts; he was able to get Henderson on the phone.
Rickey had checked in under Richard Pryor.

13) I didn’t believe this one at first. However, I emailed a few
contacts within the Sox organization and they claim it actually
happened. This is priceless, it really is.

The morning after the Sox finished off the sweep against St. Louis last October, Henderson called someone in the organization looking for tickets to Game 6 at Fenway Park.

14) The Mets were staying in a hotel less than a mile from Cinergy Field in Cincinnati. While some players walked, most took the team bus. A few minutes after they arrived – again it was less than a mile – the last players off the bus noticed a stretched limo that had just pulled up.

Of course, Rickey emerged from the back seat.

15) A reporter once asked Rickey if he talked to himself, “Do I talk to myself? No, I just remind myself of what I’m trying to do. You know, I never answer myself so how can I be talking to myself?”

16) a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the
Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had thesame thing.”

Legend also goes that Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.”

Henderson played with Olerud on the Blue Jays and the Mets.  [Note from Johnny California:  This quote is disputed]

17) Rickey was asked if he had the Garth Brooks album with Friends in Low Places and Henderson said, “Rickey doesn’t have albums. Rickey has CDs.”

18) During a contract holdout with Oakland in the early 1990s, Henderson said, “If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.”

19) In the late 1980s, the Yankees sent Henderson a six-figure bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed the check had not been cashed. Current Yankees GM Brian Cashman – then a low-level nobody with the organization – called Rickey and asked if there was a problem with the check. Henderson said, “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up.”

20) In June 1999, when Henderson was playing with the Mets, he saw
reporters running around the clubhouse before a game. He asked a
teammate what was going on and he was told that Tom Robson, the team’s hitting coach, had just been fired. Henderson said, “Who’s he?”

21) This is my all-time favorite. Rickey was pulled over by a San Diego police officer for speeding. As the officer was approaching Rickey’s car, the window went down a few inches and a folded $100 bill emerged. The officer let Rickey and his money head home without a ticket.

22) When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told
teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.”

23) During one of his stays with Oakland, Henderson’s locker was next to Billy Beane’s. After making the team out of spring training, Beane was sent to the minors after a few months. Upon his return, about six weeks later, Henderson looked at Beane and said, “Hey, man, where have you been? Haven’t seen you in awhile.”

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.

25) In the last week of his lone season with the Red Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he wasn’t going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.”
Turns out the Sox got Henderson a Red Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?”

Congrats Mr. Henderson.

Torre didn’t make a mistake by pulling Derek Lowe too early.  Torre pulled Lowe because of Lowe’s impending nervous breakdown on the pitchers mound.  Or as Torre diplomatically said, Lowe was “battling his emotions” the entire game.    It wasn’t much of a battle, after the first inning, when Lowe stormed off the field and ripped his jersey off his body, it was clear that his emotions had won. Lowe then spent the rest of the game huffing and puffing as he tried to get his sinker down.  Torre knew that aside from the usual big-game post-season pressure there was the added pressure of Lowe’s impending free agency.  Not only was Lowe struggling , but Lowe was struggling on national television in front of in front of every GM in baseball.  Every bad pitch was costing Lowe money, which only seemed to frustrate him more.  A mid-game implosion was brewing and Torre knew it.

Torre also made the right move by giving the ball to Kershaw. Yes, it was a calculated risk, but Kershaw has the most raw talent of any young pitcher in the game.   Torre had to balance that against the fact that the guy is only 20 years old, has not spent a full season in the majors, and was going up against Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell.

Wade and Broxton should not be faulted either.   Remember that Wade was a call-up from AA, he’s pitched great for us all year. He finished the season with a .93 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), as the Philadelphia Daily News points out, that’s lower than un-hittable robo-closer Brad Lidge, who finished the year with a 1.23 WHIP.

Broxton stepped into the closer role brilliantly during the regular season when Saito went on the  DL. When Saito looked shaky against the Cubs and Torre declared that he “lost his command”, everybody agreed that Broxton was looking unbeatable and needed to be the NLCS closer.   Sure giving up a home run to nine- hundred-year-old Matt Stairs is embarrassing, but statistically, it’s going to happen. It was just bad timing.

Overall the Dodgers have played well throughout the NLCS. We lost last night’s game by two bad pitches, we lost game 2 because Blake’s drive to center wasn’t an inch higher, and we lost game 1 because of Furcal’s one bad throw to first.  Oh and let’s not forget Chase Utley’s what-the-hell-was-that unassisted double play last night.

All season long, Torre held the Dodgers together with toothpicks and hot glue. Torre got the team this far despite the Andruw Jones disaster and a DL that read like an all-star team roster. Remember when we were so short on decent players that Russell Martin had to play 3rd base?

The Dodgers are loaded with talent and exciting to watch, but they’re a young team.   They were unlikely to get this far and we all know that Torre (and of course Manny…and yes, even Casey Blake) got them there.  And ask yourself this, even with Manny, do you think we’d be watching the Dodgers in October if Grady Little was still calling the shots?

Whether we win or not, it should be clear to everyone that the Dodgers are one starting pitcher short of greatness, which is why I’m against re-signing Manny for anything longer than a 2 year deal (which he won’t take…so I guess I’m against re-signing Manny). I know the Billy Beane gospel says “never spend money on a starting pitcher”, but we’re seeing what happens when we don’t have a true #1 starter. More on that later. Right now, the only thing that matters is Wednesday.

The timing of Obama’s TV extravaganza makes the world series match-up potentially important to the outcome of the election.  If the series is Los Angeles vs Boston, the campaign won’t care if everyone in those markets is watching baseball instead of Barack, they’ve got both cities and states locked up.

But if we end up with a  Philadelphia vs. Tampa Bay world series, it’s a different story — millions of swing state voters will be watching the game and, understandably, they will not change the channel mid-inning for 30 minutes of up close and personal with Barack Obama (I don’t think it’s going to be on the top of anyone’s Tivo list either).

But if we do end up with a Red Sox-Rays-game six-scenario, maybe they can stick Obama in the booth to do play by play with Tim McCarver; even people who won’t vote for Obama would agree that he’d be an improvement over Joe Buck.

One more Dodger thing.  Favorite part of the game last night:   Watching Davey Lopes trying to fight Larry Bowa over something that happened 31 years ago.

Happy Santa Ana season.  We’re on fire.  Hope everyone stays safe.   Look to your right for the updates from the California Fires blog.

Today, I want to talk about the DODGERS.  Actually, no, I don’t want to talk about it — the pictures from the fan forum at Dodger Blues are worth more than $7 billion worth of words:

My friend Lenny Los Feliz and I went to a Dodgers game shortly after the Manny trade.  As we approached stadium grounds, we spotted two “unofficial” vendors selling this Manny/Marley mashup masterpiece. In thick Bostonese, these rogue garmentos told us how they sold these shirts in Boston for years; they followed Manny out here to the promised land so they could unload the rest of their inventory.

Go to a playoff game wearing your unbuttoned Dodgers’ jersey with this shirt showing underneath and *alakazam* you’ll be the coolest cat in Chavez Ravine.*

As much as I enjoy my status as one of the lucky few Dodger fans who own this shirt, in the spirit of Dodgers post-season camaraderie, here’s a link to some nightmare Boston-sports dungeon where you can buy one of your very own (you ‘ll need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page);  Supahfans Store

*Warning;  If you wear this same outfit to a westside bar you will not be the coolest cat in the room, you will be a doofus.  You will also embarrass your wife when she introduces you to her old friends that she has not seen in 15 years and who are meeting you for the first time.  If you are going out after the game, bring a change of clothes.  Trust me on this one.