Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00and I'm like, you know, baseball player, high school baseball player, and I just grew up
00:07watching Ricky on those A's teams of the Earthquake Series, 89. I think he's part of the reason
00:13why I wanted to move out here. It just looked so cool. And I met him at a gas station in
00:20San Mateo, I think it was like a couple weeks before he was about to get in the Hall of
00:24Fame. So I had an excuse to like say something to him. And he was just so cool. He was exactly
00:30he was like, just so cool, man. And I said, well, it's like playing for the Yankees. And
00:36he said, Yeah, man, I play with Don Mattingly. So I guess he had a lot of respect for Don
00:40Mattingly. And then I said, What about all this Barry Bond steroids stuff? And he was
00:44like, man, he goes, I would have done him. I didn't need him.
00:49Yeah, that sounds like Ricky. That sounds like Ricky. Appreciate it, Alex.
00:55Appreciate it. Yeah, I just remember the conversation you and Evan had when I was out when Reggie
01:02Jackson joined when Mays passed. And I just would, you know, guys like that, they did
01:09have their stories about Ricky Henderson starting. But I'm just telling you, man, this this was
01:13my guy. I know you had Larry Bird and the Bay Area, even young Evan A's fan, you know,
01:19knew what Ricky Henderson meant. And, you know, I don't want to go too street on your
01:24pop culture, Stani, but there was just a thing in like the late 2000s with the rappers all
01:29out through the bay and pop your collar and and oh, boy, and be cool. And Ricky was doing
01:35that in the late 70s and early 80s right there on 66 Ave. And to do what he did and be known
01:41for, you know, the stolen brace record and the run scored is just and always just had
01:47a smile on his face and would be at the Warriors games. It just as you talk about and never
01:52didn't have time and took the picture with me and Bonte that that I posted on my socials,
01:57man. So I'm hurt, but I don't believe they'll ever. And I know it's easy for me to say now,
02:03Stani, be a leadoff power, a leadoff hitter with with what he possess, the speed, the power,
02:10the flair. And I'll never forget him, man. Yeah. Five times Ricky Henderson led the league in runs
02:17stolen bases. He led the league. Wow. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
02:23eleven times led the league in stolen bases, led the league in walks three times on base
02:29percentage once just an unbelievable Hall of Fame career. And now it's just a matter of
02:38essentially where you put him in the pantheon of the greatest players of all time.
02:41Can I tell you what in this? Obviously bad news. Can I tell you as a sports fan what makes me feel
02:48good? Stani, how many times do we see guys and gals, the great ones pass and not get their
02:54flowers? Ricky did get elected in the Hall of Fame in 09. So he got to experience first ballot. You
03:00know what I mean, Stani? So that's just, you know, they get he got his flowers from the game.
03:05Yeah. Yeah. Still only 65, 65. Let's go to Tom. Tom's in Sonoma. Hey, Tom, how you doing?
03:13Hey, Stani. Hey, Guru. How you doing, man? Hey, happy holidays. Yes. Very, very, very sad day in
03:21the bay, man. You know, I was honored and pleasure to meet Ricky Henderson about seven years ago.
03:28He loved our wines, man. Big, bold reds. He just enjoyed him so much. But every time he came in,
03:35he wanted to talk about wine. I want to talk baseball, but time flew. What he is the gentle
03:42giant, man. Shaking this man's hand was like shaking a vice grip, man. I swear to God,
03:49the strongest man I've ever felt ever in my hands. I had an opportunity to ask him a question.
03:55What was your top two awards that he's ever gotten with the Stolten Bases was number one.
04:00He he really cherished that. He told me, I don't think anybody will be able to beat it. I believe
04:06that is true, especially since they've changed the rules. His his singles were also his number two.
04:12But class act, man. Great guy. You know, love the game. We have a Mr. October. I want to give this
04:19man Mr. Baseball. Thank you guys for letting me talk. And I want to may God bless Ricky Henderson.
04:28And I send my love and my my prayers and thoughts to Pam and his three beautiful children. You have
04:34a great day, guys. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate the call. Yeah, I mean, the other thing about Ricky
04:40was watching him play. Just love to play. Love to play. And it was obvious watching him that he
04:46loved to play baseball. And, you know, we question a lot about how much our pro athletes
04:53love the game these days, but you never had to ask that with with Ricky Henderson and in his prime
04:58study, I can remember them going up against the Blue Jays, the A's when they were dominant in
05:02the late 80s. And the old adage was, if you walked him, it was like a triple study because he was
05:07going to steal second and damn sure probably still third. But Stani, he was a bad dude that had it
05:14all physically. And the other part we're hearing and which is obvious, he also had the personality
05:21and it was infectious and people loved him and people are hurt. Yeah, this is this is Harold
05:26Reynolds, formerly VSPN, telling a little Ricky Henderson story. Take a listen. It came down the
05:33last day of the year and Willie Wilson and I were tied with fifty nine and we're playing the same
05:40time zone at this time because I'm in Texas playing against the Rangers and Willie's at
05:44home in Kansas City. And I steal a base like early in the game and ticker tape. No, ticker tape.
05:56Anyway, I find out Willie goes over five. He does not steal the bag.
06:02I end up being the stolen base champ. So Ricky probably had, I think, 30 stolen bases that year
06:08by May and he got injured and he's on his way to another hundred stolen base year. And he used to
06:15get on base at second. I would hold him on like a pitcher, like a like a first baseman. And he'd
06:20turn around and go, we're getting ready to go now. We're getting ready to run. What are you going to
06:24do, Reynolds? We're getting ready to run. And I'd be like holding him on the pitcher. He's running,
06:29he's running. And he'd just take off, do his thing. So I get home. I win stolen base title,
06:3660. Phone rings. Hello? No caller ID in those days. So hello? Henderson here. So what up,
06:45Rick? I'm thinking Ricky's calling to congratulate me. This is unbelievable.
06:50What's going on, Rick? How are you doing? I'm like, what you got? 60 stolen bases? You ought
06:56to be ashamed. Ricky, a 60 at the All-Star break. Click, hung up the phone. I just hear a
07:03new on the other end. That's it. So in my office at MLB Network, he signed a poster for me years
07:10later. And it says, you know, stolen base champ Ricky Henderson. That was Harold. He's competitive.
07:18Ricky had he would go third person. Ricky had 60 at the All-Star break, man. They that was 87
07:26that Harold Reynolds stole 60 bases to lead the league. Ricky had 41 steals, but he only played
07:3395 games that particular year. So that's what Harold Reynolds was was referencing. Let's go
07:40to City Boy. What's up, City Boy? How you doing, man? What's going on? Hey, what up, fellas? What
07:45up? Hey, Merry Christmas to both of you. I hope you really enjoy it. You know, I wanted to talk
07:51a little bit about Ricky because a lot like Gu, Ricky was my favorite player of all time. He still
07:57is when it comes to baseball. I just love everything he brought to the game. You know,
08:00he was the first player to really bring, you know, flair and excitement in a game that had this sort
08:07of, you know, sort of stale, you know, no fun allowed kind of thing where you couldn't show
08:16anybody up. You couldn't show emotion. And, you know, Ricky would backflip and he would pop his
08:21collar and he would do the snap catch in the outfield. And, boy, he was just fun to watch.
08:27And, you know, he got a lot of guff for that at the time. And now I think it's one of the
08:32things we appreciate most about him. You know, I wanted to say just shout him out as a four-time
08:38Oakland Athletic, which I thought was cool because, you know, when he first left and went to
08:43the Yankees, it broke my heart, man. And, you know, it just really showed his heart was here,
08:47you know. So he played for the A's four times. Let's not forget his birthday's on Christmas,
08:52so keep him in your thoughts on Christmas as well. And I just wanted to say one thing,
08:57you know, I know the stolen bases is what we'll remember him for. And it was kind of an outlier.
09:02It's kind of like Steph with the three-point record, right? It's like you don't really think
09:05about how amazing what he did was because it wasn't one of those stats that was the most
09:10important stat. But once he started doing it on a level that we had never seen before,
09:15I think it really shined a light on how cool it was. But, you know, in 140 years of baseball,
09:21no player to put on a pair of cleats has ever touched home plate more times than Ricky Henderson.
09:26And to me, that's the most impressive. I mean, you know, you've got guys like Babe Ruth and
09:30Stan Musial and Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. I mean, these are the greatest of the great.
09:36And all those dudes played 22, 23, 24 seasons, and none of them hit home plate more than Ricky. So
09:43I just want to shout out Ricky, man. I love that guy. Greatest player I ever watched,
09:47hands down. And yeah, he'll always be appreciated by me and lots of others. So
09:54I just wanted to say that, fellas. And Merry Christmas. Appreciate you guys.
09:57Yeah, thanks, Sidney. Appreciate it. Yeah, 2,295 runs scored. That's the all-time leader.
10:05Man.
10:051,406 stolen bases. All-time leader.
10:09Analytics has killed that. That's going to be forever, I believe, Stanley.
10:12335 caught stealing. The all-time record for caught stealing, which you'd expect.
10:22If you ever look at the great NBA players, I bet you if you look at the top five in turnovers,
10:27they're all in the Hall of Fame.
10:29Yeah, go ahead.
10:30Let's go to Antonio. Antonio's in Oakland. What's up, Antonio? How you doing, man?
10:37Oh, I'm doing pretty good, man. Yeah, Ricky Henderson, most walks, stolen bases, runs scored.
10:42He's definitely the GOAT leadoff hitter of all time, man. So blessed. He's Mr. Pop His Collar,
10:47man. All of us out here in the Bay, you know what I'm saying? That's what we do is pop our
10:50collar. He's probably the king of that. And then E-40 is like the prince, so on and so forth, man.
10:55But honestly, man, when he stole a base, it was like Steph Curry's three-point shot. And the way
11:00he used to snatch a fly ball in the outfield, that was kind of the equivalent of a Jordan
11:04Palm on the ball, to be honest with you, man. Like, it's on that level. But anyway, man,
11:08Ricky Henderson, so blessed that he's from our area, man. Class back, I met him a couple times,
11:12super humble, and, you know, excellent player, excellent person. So, you know, shot to him.
11:16And Antonio, a couple things I got to ask you. How are we feeling about the Niners, though?
11:24Say that again?
11:25How are we feeling about the Niners?
11:28Oh, man, we may make a lot of changes, man. We definitely got to draft, you know,
11:32pass rusher in the first round. We got to get another tight end to help kiddo out. Everything,
11:36man. We got some issues, but we're going to be okay, man. Don't try to reinvent himself.
11:40And then real quick, what about the Warriors? They got a nice win on Saturday against the
11:45Timberwolves.
11:47Oh, man, they got to make a trade, man. Trade the young core. That's how I'm feeling right now,
11:52man. We need a vet. Don't get Jimmy Butler, though.
11:55Oh, okay. Appreciate Antonio weighing in. He's still optimistic.
12:00Yeah, he got me thinking about where the game's at right now, right? I feel like the phones and
12:06social media have killed baseball because it's trying to reinvent itself with fans or whatnot.
12:12But back in Ricky's era, Stani, what if I told you the stolen base was damn near
12:17as exciting as the home run and nobody mastered it like the man of steel.
12:22So the game was in a beautiful place as he went on to break records and just be
12:28a stress bomb to pitchers, man. Just everything he did was he was before his time. And I keep
12:35saying that, Stani. What do we say now when a guy's cool or a gal's cool? Oh, they got swag.
12:41Ricky had it before we even knew what it was. And it is funny because I tried to make that point.
12:46I do wonder how much E-40 of the Bay Area rappers got the pop your collar.
12:51Did they pay homage? Did they get it from Ricky? Because he was doing it, Stani,
12:55coming out of the batter's box when he would display that power that he had, man. But
13:00I just the Bay came together, unfortunately, due to this heartbreaking news. But man,
13:07all of the friends, the guys and gals that have come before me, Stani, all their pages just
13:12plastered and rightfully so with love to one Ricky Henderson.
13:17This is when he set the all time steals record.
13:21He's having come from behind a three, a one, nothing deficit. Ricky goes,
13:26a pitch take and he's going to have it. He does. Ricky Henderson,
13:30no contest, steals third base, jerks the bag from its moorings and holds it aloft.
13:36Bill King, the great Bill King on the call there.
13:39Two greats.
13:40You want to hear Ricky's speech after he broke that record?
13:43Took a long time, huh?
13:45First of all, I would like to thank God for giving me that opportunity. I want to thank
13:53the Haas family, the organization, the city of Oakland and all your beautiful fans for supporting
13:59me. First of all, I would like to thank my mom, my family, friend and loved one for their support.
14:10I want to give my appreciation to the late Tom Trevor and the late Billy Martin.
14:19Billy Martin was a great manager. He was a great friend to me. I love you, Billy. I wish he was
14:25here. Luke Brock was a symbol of great base stealing, but today I'm the greatest of all time.
14:35Wow. All right. That was from Ricky Henderson breaking the all-time steals record.
14:42Man, it showed his love for Billy Martins, Donnie.
14:45He sure did. And the city of Oakland, which was always a big part of who Ricky Henderson was.
14:51Let's go to Rich. Rich is in San Jose.
14:54Rich.
14:54Rich, how you doing, man?
14:55Hey, hey, what's happening, fellas?
14:57Talk to us.
14:59Hey, so there's one stat that I haven't heard you guys mention that it's huge, huge.
15:05Talk about power, all this and that. How many times did Ricky Henderson lead off the game?
15:09First inning, boom, home run. I can't even count. It's a record that will not be broken.
15:15That's all I got to say.
15:16I appreciate it, Donnie. I appreciate it.
15:19Evan, you have that number off the top of your head? I'd like to guess.
15:22I don't. You know what? I can pull it up.
15:25All right. No, I'm asking Evan.
15:27Rich.
15:27You just said you wanted to guess.
15:29I do, but I was wondering, do you know the answer?
15:31What do you think?
15:32I think you probably do.
15:34I'd look. Let me guess, too. I cheated. I looked it up.
15:38Seventy-seven.
15:39Little higher.
15:41Ninety-two.
15:42Little lower.
15:42That's what you shot yesterday.
15:43In between those two.
15:46Eighty-one.
15:47That's a lot.
15:48That's a half a season.
15:50Springer's pretty close, though.
15:51How many does he have?
15:52George Springer has 60.
15:55I think Ricky's safe.
15:56Let's go to Word. Word is in Oakland. Hey, Word, how you doing, man?
16:01Hey, I'm good, fellas. I hope you guys are doing well.
16:06Yeah, the Ricky Henderson thing is a tough one to process.
16:11So I was like 1982. I was an eight-year-old and like my first
16:16sports heroes or memories were favorite players were Will B. Free with the Warriors,
16:22Joe Montana and Ricky Henderson.
16:25Sorry, excuse me, y'all.
16:27When I was a kid in San Francisco, this lady, Miss Hunt, used to take all the kids
16:33in the neighborhood to A's and Giants games in the church rands in the summer.
16:38So, you know, I couldn't ever go to a baseball game, but she would take us in the summer.
16:45And, you know, I'd come home and watch Ricky and I'd try to like who was saying,
16:49you know, I'd try to mimic his exaggerated batting stance.
16:53You remember his batting stance with one leg?
16:55Yes.
16:55Way out and squatting real low.
16:58And I was like, dude, I can't do this with my legs hurt. Like I'm not that strong.
17:01You know, I'd exaggerate his leadoff, take huge leadoff, legs spread, fingers wiggling
17:06between my legs like Ricky slide headfirst. My coach would tell me that's not smart.
17:13And it just reminds me, man, as a 50-year-old, I just turned 50 this year,
17:18what kind of fan I was as a kid, man.
17:21Sports was so much more fun as a kid.
17:24I just sat there and watched.
17:25I love commentary like you, who I was raised on commentary on TV.
17:29I know it's a tiny handful, but those were my company watching games.
17:35So, you know, I'd sit by myself and listen to games and it felt like, you know,
17:40Madden and Summerall were talking to me.
17:42I was talking to them.
17:42I was talking to Ricky.
17:43I was talking to Joe.
17:45You know, they were my friends in the screen.
17:47Uh, so hearing about Ricky just reminds me that at 50, like, wow, I'm not a kid anymore.
17:53I'm an adult.
17:54And all we do is adult sports fans and get pissed at everybody who doesn't make us happy.
17:59We want to fire people, cut players.
18:01We hate this dude.
18:02We hate that player.
18:03He's overrated.
18:04Man, I didn't know anything about the A's when I was a kid.
18:07I don't know if they were winners or losers.
18:09I don't know what Ricky's stats were like, man.
18:11That dude just, he was just, you know, special to a kid, man.
18:17It's crazy at 50 when I really stepped back out of my current mindset and think about,
18:22you know, what it was like to just be a little kid watching this stuff, man.
18:26It just makes me appreciate sports because it's really made, you know,
18:32it's just kind of shaped the way I, um, the way I get down.
18:35Like, I don't even, I hardly even trust a dude who's not a sports fan.
18:38Like he's a weirdo, but thank y'all for letting me vent.
18:43No, we're here about Ricky.
18:45Cause it really just reminds me about what I was like when I was a kid.
18:49And you know, like Willard talks about watching games with his kids and
18:53they probably don't process the Niners failures anywhere near the way we do.
18:58Like they're just watching their teeth.
19:00Um, and it's such a, that's where we are.
19:02Obviously that's your job.
19:03Um, but I hate frustration of the call and the anger.
19:09Like I just love my Niners and I know they're like,
19:11I told my friends when they were, when the winners won their first title and lost
19:15to the Cavs the next year, I was like, look, dude, when your team is as good as it is,
19:19you appreciate coming out of these runs with at least one, they got four.
19:24And so fast forward, I had to say the same thing to myself when the Niners were balling
19:28from 2019 till now, at the end of this, I got to at least be able to appreciate getting one.
19:33I don't care if we don't get, you know, we don't get any, I'm still going to be a Niner,
19:37but it'd be great to get one.
19:39That sucks.
19:40And I firmly believe that like, that was our run.
19:43That was our window.
19:44And I'm not a pessimist.
19:45I'm more of a realist.
19:46That's how me and Steinie met when we were two and 14, one year, I think I remember starting
19:51walking up on me on his tippy toes and pushing me.
19:54And he's like, Hey, what?
19:55So what's up with your Niners?
19:56What's your Niners going to do this year?
19:58And I was like, man, they want to just double it.
20:01I've never been that fan.
20:03I don't know if you remember that conversation, but we were right in front of the bear.
20:07But I'm not the fan that's like, yeah, next year we're going to the bowl somehow.
20:11Like, I don't do the hope.
20:13I do what I think.
20:14Fans hate to do that.
20:15Hate to ask themselves, what do you think is going to happen?
20:17Nevermind what you hope is going to happen.
20:19And I spend my time saying what I think is going to happen.
20:22And all year long, since August, I posted it online.
20:26I had a feeling this was going to be our season with the Niners.
20:30And I'm rambling now.
20:31So I'm going to wrap it up.
20:32All right.
20:33Thank you all for getting us started, man.
20:34Thank you, Word.