Some Stats From Oakland A's Legend Rickey Henderson

Jason Burke | 11 Hours Ago

Aug 7, 2022; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics former outfielder Rickey Henderson before the game against the San Francisco Giants at RingCentral Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

For many in Oakland, when you'd ask who their favorite player to watch growing up was, if they were of a certain age, the answer was always Rickey Henderson. It was almost more helpful to ask who their favorite player was after Rickey.

With his birthday coming up on Christmas (of course), let's take a look at some of the incredible stats that one of the greatest of all time put up.

Born in 1958 in Chicago, Rickey made his way to Oakland Tech High School, where he ended up being selected by the A's in the fourth round of the 1976 MLB Draft. Not only was he a fourth round pick, but he was also the last selection of that round. Only six of the 24 (fitting) players taken ahead of him in that round even made it to the big leagues. He was also the first of the A's picks that year to make it to The Show.

If you follow baseball at all, you're probably aware that Henderson is a Hall of Famer, and that he holds the all-time steals record, swiping a total of 1,406 bases in his career. He led the league in steals in 12 different seasons, including three years with 100+, and in his age 39 campaign when he stole 66 bases in 1998 with the A's.

He also holds the record for most times caught stealing with 335, and the most runs scored in the history of the game with 2,295. He won the MVP award just once, in 1990, after his lone World Series title with the A's in 1989. He also hoisted a trophy with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.

Over the course of his career, he accumulated an astonishing 106.3 fWAR (111.1 bWAR), which ranks him No. 17 all time, right behind Mike Schmidt, and directly in front of Frank Robinson. Of the players of the last three decades, only two are above Rickey, and they are Barry Bonds (164.4) and Alex Rodríguez 113.6).

Over the course of a 25-year career, Henderson only put up one negative fWAR season, and it wasn't at age 44 right before he retired. It was his first season in the big leagues as a 20-year-old. He had just three seasons below league average at the plate. One of them was that first year, in 1979, and the other two came two decades later in 2000 and 2003, when he was 41 and 44.

Rickey was just remarkable.

There are so many fun facts about his career, but one of the most fun revolves around his trade from and back to the A's. In 1984, Oakland decided to trade Henderson to the New York Yankees for a package that included Jay Howell, Stan Javier, and Eric Plunk.

Plunk was also part of the package that landed Rickey back in Oakland in 1989.

Another amazing feat, which I was actually in attendance for, was back in 1993 when Rickey, widely considered the best leadoff man of all time, hit a home run in the bottom of the first inning in both games of a doubleheader against Cleveland. He was just the second player in history do ever do that at the time.

Rickey is one of the greatest baseball players to ever put on the uniform, and he grew up and played where so many fans in Oakland also fell in love with the game.