Rickey Henderson, MLB Career Steals Leader, Dies at 65

Rickey Henderson, the MLB Hall of Famer who holds the record for career steals, has died. He was 65.

Henderson, who was described by Sports Illustrated as “one of the greatest leadoff hitters and base stealers in the history of the sport,” played for 9 teams throughout his 25-year career and clocked 3,055 hits, 297 home runs and 1,115 RBI.

He was also a 10-time All Star, was named league MVP in 1990, and won two World Series titles — the first with the Oakland A’s in 1989 and the second with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.

Henderson was drafted by the A’s in the fourth round of the 1976 MLB draft and officially made his debut with the team in 1979. He was traded to the New York Yankees ahead of the 1985 season, but returned to the Athletics in 1989. Henderson played for the Blue Jays in 1993 before heading back to Oakland from 1994-95.

He joined the San Diego Padres for the 1996-97 season before again returning to Oakland in 1998. In 1999, Henderson signed on for one season with the New York Mets, which was followed by a season each with the Seattle Mariners, a return to the Padres, and the Boston Red Sox.

In 2003, Henderson joined the independent Atlantic League before he was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He played 30 games for the Dodgers before his final MLB game on Sept. 19, 2003.

Henderson stole 1,406 bases throughout his career, including 130 alone in the 1982 season. In a 2012 interview, he said the stat “seems like a record that’s going to last a long period of time, basically because the game has changed a lot.”

“You don’t get a player who wants to be a base-stealer, and try to create something on the basepaths,” Henderson added. “You get a lot of players who want to be versatile, based on being a home run hitter and a (high) average hitter, or different ways to excel at the game. I think, from the manager’s side, they got computers now and (they are measuring more closely) the times that a certain guy can run and when they can’t run, and it’s taking away the instincts of the guy who is able to go out and steal bases.”

Rickey Henderson was born Dec. 25, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. His family moved to Oakland, California, when he was two, but Henderson remained with a grandmother in Arkansas until he was seven. As a child, he learned to bat right-handed despite throwing the ball with his left hand, a rare combination for the sport.

Henderson is survived by his wife, Pamela, and their three daughters.

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