What Is Rickey Henderson Doing In Newark?

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

There was another time....

Art Kusnyer was a coach on the Athletics staff. One day during die season, after Kusnyer threw batting practice, Henderson told him, "You throw good BP. Are you comin' on the road with us?"

A similar thing happened with the New York Mets....

In June 1999, when Henderson was playing for the Mets, the club fired hitting coach Tom Robson. Henderson saw reporters scurrying around the clubhouse and asked a teammate, "What happened?"

"They fired Robson," was the reply.

"Robson?" Henderson said. "Who's he?"

Which calls to mind another story about how when Henderson joined the Seattle Mariners in 2000 he saw first baseman John Olerud, his former Mets teammate, fielding grounders while wearing a batting helmet and remarked, "That's strange. I played with a guy in New York who did the same thing." Alas, the story, though it appeared in many publications, is one of the rare Rickey tales that falls entirely on the side of Fiction, having been fabricated by members of the Mets' training staff.

Then again, in San Diego....

Padres G.M. Towers is often called KT. Fred Uhlman Jr. is his assistant. The two of them would often walk into the clubhouse together to meet with manager Bruce Bochy. Whenever Henderson saw Towers and Uhlman he would say to his two bosses, "Hi, Kevin. Hi, KT."