Rickey Henderson

He's back in business everybody.

This man is the new hitting coach for the New York Mets.

He's so brilliant, we mortals are incapable of seeing it. Let's go through some of the highlights of this article about Mr. Richard Feynman here.

...when they were teammates on the Padres Gwynn offered Rickey a prime seat on the team bus because, he explained, Rickey had tenure. As the story goes, Rickey responded with something to the effect of, "What are you talking about? Rickey's got 17 years."

Needs no elaboration.

But nothing topped the start of spring training in 1989 for Rickey, considering for the fifth straight season with the Yankees he did not show on the report date. This, however, did not please new manager Dallas Green.

Not that Rickey cared. He had his own explanation, saying he flew from Oakland to Atlanta to Baltimore to Miami to Fort Lauderdale, then found out he had no hotel reservations for spring training. "Yeah, I was ticked off," he said. "I had no place to stay. You're calling me and telling me to come to spring training. You don't have a place [for me] to stay. Why come to spring training?"

The story was vintage Rickey. Told Green was not happy with him, he said, "Upset with me? The manager ain't even met me. How can he be upset? What can he be upset for? I might be early. He said I'm late . . . I have business. I have things I've got to do before I get to spring training . . . My itinerary told me to be here today. Their itinerary told me to be here Wednesday. My itinerary told me to come here Thursday and be dressed Friday. I guess they misprinted it."

How could Dallas Green have been mad at Rickey? I mean think about it? How can you be mad at someone you've never met?! GENIUS!!!

Even then, people were using the Rickey being Rickey phrase, including Rickey himself.

"Rickey's gonna be Rickey. Period. No matter what I'm going to do or play or come here early, I'm gonna be Rickey. Rickey is not going to change and not be himself. I've been in this world too long to try to change Rickey and what he does . . . My mother don't even try to change me. She raised me, but she ain't gonna change me.

"But what is 'being Rickey?' . . . What is 'being Rickey?' . . . Doin' his own thing? What is it I'm doing different? What am I doing? I didn't come on a day that he said. I came when I could make it."

Kindergarden:
Mrs. Carter (taking attendance): Rickey?
Rickey: Rickey's Rickey and Rickey's here...so here is Rickey and Rickey is here.

First MLB game:
Jim Marshall: Alright, Rickey? You ready for your Major League debut?
Rickey: Rickey's Rickey, Jimmy. Rickey always gonna be Rickey and be ready like Rickey's been Rickey the entire time Rickey's been Rickey!

Wedding:
Minister/Priest: Alright, Rickey, do you take Pamela to be your wife?
Rickey (loudly into minister's/priest's mike): Rickey's Rickey and he always gonna be Rickey the way Rickey's always been Rickey!
Minister/Priest (confused, covers mike): Um, Rickey, are you feeling alright?
Rickey: Of course Rickey, who by the way is being Rickey, is alright! Rickey's Rickey!
Minister/Priest: Pamela, is he ok?
Pamela (totally in love): It's just Rickey being Rickey.

Here's a good Rickey being Rickey moment. During the 1992 season Rickey was unhappy with his contract, which was a common theme during his career. He told the Sacramento Bee, "'I'm not happy, so I'm going to ask to be traded. It's been going on too long. I don't think I'm treated fairly. They don't deserve what I do." Of course one day later he back-peddled, saying, "You are fools. It's a big joke. Rickey tricked everybody. Thank you all."

Hilarious and once again, needs no elaboration.

He started camp just 1-for-20, but he wasn't worried. "If Rickey had to get on base right now, Rickey would."

He has a good point here. With a career .401 OBA, he could pretty much get on base whenever he wanted to.

And, one final story I came across was a bizarre shouting match Rickey had with none other than El Duque during a spring training game in 2002. It wasn't clear what exactly bothered El Duque. He began yelling and they eventually had to be held back. "He needs to grow up a little bit," Rickey said. "I ain't a kid. When I broke into the game, he was crawling on his hands and knees. Unless he's as old as I am. He probably is."

Man, Duque got PWWWWNNNN'D!!!! First Rickey nails Duque with a 'you're so young' insult and then wrecks him for being old right after! This guy is genius! I'm going to start doing that.

Rickey Henderson is the Mets hitting coach now. What's frightening is that this man actually got through to Jose Reyes about not swinging at everything and drawing walks. I really think he is brilliant in a way that we cannot understand...but I certainly hope not, as the last thing I want Mets hitters to do is to learn to walk more.