Aging Thief Still a Good Catch

There was a time when the most exciting moment in baseball was watching Rickey Henderson take ball four. The tension began as soon as he tossed down his bat, and by the time he took that long, daring leadoff from first base, the ballpark buzzed with anticipation.

Would he try to steal second or wouldn’t he? When would he go? Could the catcher throw him out?

He wreaked havoc on the basepaths and tormented the minds of opposing pitchers. They took one glance at Henderson threatening to steal and looked as if they couldn’t wait to call their therapist.

These days, crowds get more excited when the scoreboard says “Noise.” That eagerness doesn’t accompany every Henderson at-bat. There’s no sense of wonder that every stolen base is history in the making.

At 38, Henderson remains a disruptive threat. He’s seen as a good acquisition for an Angel team in a pennant race and, as General Manager Bill Bavasi says, “He’s still one of the best, one of the better players out there in the leadoff role.”

That’s all good that he’s recognized as such. The concern is that Henderson will slip through here after a month-and-a-half (he was acquired from the San Diego Padres on Aug. 13 and his contract is up after the season) and leave with no fanfare.

Here’s a chance to watch one of the all-time greats who still has more than just his name. He redefined the leadoff position with an unprecedented combination of speed and power and became one of the game’s most dynamic players. Now it’s as if he is just another player to rent in the stretch run; he’s playing for his fourth team in five years.

Of the major career offensive records, his is the least recognized, the least immortalized in that limited loop of baseball nostalgia. You’ve seen the clip of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run so many times you probably know every piece of clothing on the fans who joined him for his run around the bases, but when was the last time you saw a replay of Henderson’s record-breaking steal? In the number-obsessed sport of baseball, fans can easily match milestone numbers such as 2,131 and 4,190 with the men who reached them, but do you know how many stolen bases it took for Henderson to break Lou Brock’s career record?

The number is 939. That was almost 300 stolen bases and more than six years ago. Pete Rose surpassed Ty Cobb’s hit mark by only 1.6%, and Hank Aaron’s home run total is only 5.7% better than Babe Ruth’s. Henderson has pushed the stolen base record ahead by more than 30%. Every time he steals a base, it’s a record, yet for some reason the accomplishment is celebrated less and less.

Perhaps it’s because the act is associated with the core of what’s wrong with the game today: greed. What’s the matter, first base wasn’t good enough for you? Perhaps people have a lower tolerance of risk these days.

“Some of the young runners, they steal a base and then they get thrown out twice, then they don’t want to steal no more,” Henderson said. “What happened, you became afraid? At first you were excited to steal; you stole one. Then the next two you got thrown out. Now, you’ve got to get back up. Until you do that, you’re going to be afraid. Some of the runners now, they’ve got great speed. But they don’t steal bases. Why? ‘I’m afraid I’d get thrown out. I don’t know the situation?’

“Huh? You’re afraid? You’re not afraid to go up to the plate and swing a bat, so you shouldn’t be afraid to run. People say ‘cocky,’ I always felt it was confident.”

That last sentence is what defines Henderson’s career. Sports fans like players who show their greatness, not those who proclaim it.

The day he set the record, Henderson said, “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today I am the greatest of all time.”

That on top of all the strutting and tapping and “snatch” catches, in addition to complaints about his contract, was enough to cause fans and columnists to conclude that Henderson represented all that was bad with baseball.

They reveled in the fact that Ryan pitched his seventh no-hitter the same day Henderson broke the record, and that Ryan received the bigger headlines and led the sportscasts. Good ol’ Nolan got the credit, Henderson got what many felt he deserved: a snub.

“You figure out in this game, all the great things you’ve accomplished in this game, then you look at all the negative things that people write about or talk about,” Henderson said. “You try to figure out: how do you change that, because you’re not a negative person. You’re a hard-working player, you’ve been successful and proven that. So why do you get the bad rap? Because they say you’re cocky?”

Don’t let the style obscure the achievements. (And wouldn’t life be boring if every football player handed the ball to the referee after touchdowns and every baseball player put his head down and circled the bases after a home run?)

Henderson says he’s not trying to show up any pitchers when he does his little jumping and self-tapping routine after he hits one out of the park. It just feels so good.

Sometimes there’s no method of describing your own accomplishments except to brag. Henderson was talking about his first year with the New York Yankees the other day when he said, matter-of-factly, “I was dominating the game.” When you hit .314 with 24 home runs and 80 stolen bases, as he did in 1985, there’s no other way to put it.

Someone recently sent Henderson a photo from those New York days, and he pulled it out and laughed and made fun of his old hairstyle. He has ditched the old curls, thankfully, but aside from the hair, not much has changed.

The body looks as tight as ever. He runs 7-10 miles a day and does hundreds of daily sit-ups and push-ups in the off-season to keep it that way. You could scratch off lottery tickets on his stomach. From the center field camera angle, he practically disappears behind those huge quadriceps muscles when he goes into his batting crouch.

Of course, the Angels got Henderson at age 38. Just like they got Reggie Jackson at 35 and Dave Winfield at 39 and Bo Jackson with an artificial hip and Fernando Valenzuela after 11 big-league seasons and countless screwballs thrown by that left arm.

With the exception of Nolan Ryan, this franchise has never enjoyed the services of one of game’s greatest or most exciting players at their peak.

But Henderson has shown he can still take over a ballgame. Against Cleveland last week, he scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth by walking, stealing second and taking third on catcher Sandy Alomar’s bad throw, then coming home on a short pop fly when first baseman Jim Thome inexplicably tried to catch the ball while running away from the infield.

First of all, never turn your back on a thief. And Angels fans would be just as remiss if they let the master stealer sneak out of town before they take just a little moment to think about whom they’re watching.