Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson’s election into the Baseball Hall of Fame made me think of his role in one of my alltime favorite sports stories.  Keep in mind that Rickey can be “Yogi Berra-like” in his personality and behavior.

This story is so much a favorite of mine that I actually have the clip from Sports Illustrated hanging on my desk.  I’ll read it every once in a while for a good laugh.

Rickey played with 9 teams, so he came across a lot of players.

On his tour of duty with Seattle in 2000, he came across John Olerud at batting practice.  Olerud wore a batting helmet in the field because of a brain aneurysm suffered in 1989.  Rickey asks Olerud “What’s up with the helmet?”  Olerud explained to Rickey why he wears it, telling him the story of the brain aneurysm.

“I’ll be damned,” said Rickey, “I used to play with a guy in New York who did the same thing.”

Olerud, who was also Henderson’s teammate with the Mets the year before, responded:

“That was me.”