OAKLAND — The life of Rickey Henderson was saluted Saturday at the Oakland Arena.
It was part celebration of life, part spiritual revival, part memorial service. Mostly, it was Oakland through and through.
As former NBA star and Oakland native Gary Payton said as he stood at the podium and pointed back to a picture of Henderson hoisting his 939th stolen base, “That man, right there, is Oakland.”
The crowd probably numbered in the 5,000 range because of a steady rain when it began at 1 p.m., but it did little to dampen the enthusiasm of those who showed up to watch or those who were there to speak in an official capacity after being cleared by the family.
Henderson died on Dec. 20 at age 65 after complications from pneumonia, leaving behind a legacy as one of the greatest ballplayers of all-time who captured the collective heart and spirit of his home town with a style all his own.
There were fans in A’s gear as well as those wearing their Sunday best. It opened with a prayer from Bishop Gregory Bernard Payton, Gary Payton’s older brother, and finished with Gospel rap from Oakland’s MC Hammer — a former A’s batboy in the Charles O. Finley years — and his wife Stephanie.
The event was co-hosted by Renel Brooks-Moon, a former Bay Area radio personality and Giants’ P.A. announcer, along with two former Major League players with Oakland roots: Shooty Babbitt (Berkeley High) and Leon “Bip” Roberts (Skyline).
Flowers in A’s colors adorned the stage, with Henderson’s since retired “No 24” in the background plus a photo of him in dugout the and the shot of him holding aloft third base at the Coliseum the day he broke Lou Brock’s major league record with No. 939 on May 1, 1991.
Speakers included Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, a former teammate with the New York Yankees, and Ken Griffey Jr., whom Henderson befriended while playing with his father Ken Sr. with the Yankees.
Others included former A’s general manager Sandy Alderson, close friend and former A’s pitcher Dave Stewart and childhood friend and fellow Oakland Tech alum Fred Atkins, who regaled the crowd with more than 20 minutes of stories of being best friends with a living legend growing up in Oakland.
Rickey’s wife Pamela and mother Bobbie were seated up front, along with children and grandchildren.
“Rickey had a way of making life more fun,” Stewart said. “No matter where he was, who he was with. Always had a story to tell and always found himself in situations that only Rickey could find himself in.”
Other luminaries in attendance included former major league manager Dusty Baker, Barry Bonds, Joe Torre and Harold Reynolds. Former A’s teammates included Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley, Jose Canseco, Mike Norris, Mike Davis, Dwayne Murphy, Carney Lansford and manager Tony La Russa.
Statements were read on behalf of some of Henderson’s other stops in the majors — the Toronto Blue Jays, the and Los Angeles Dodgers and from Major League Baseball Alumni Players Associated President Jim Thome.
Alderson, who conceded Henderson could be difficult at contract time, said, “I don’t like to to be known as the guy who traded Rickey. I like to be known as the guy who brought him back.”
Henderson is the all-time major league leader for stolen bases (1,406), runs scored (2,295), and leadoff home runs (81). He set the major league record with 130 steals in 1982, was a 10-time All-Star, two-time World Series champion and 12-time American League leader in stolen bases.
In 2009, Henderson was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“He got 95 percent of the vote, and for the 28 who didn’t vote for Rickey, you ought be ashamed of yourself,” Alderson said.
The first time Alderson traded Henderson it was in 1984, and it was where he and Winfield, who would be inducted into Cooperstown in 2001, became good friends in a sometimes hostile Bronx environment.
“Every day, he came to work full of joy, happy, with energy, and positivity,” Winfield said. “New York wasn’t always a comfortable place, but it would brighten my day.”
Winfield recalled being near tears in laugher at the pregame banter between Henderson and Claudell Washington, another player with Oakland roots and died in 2020. And on the field, Winfield believed Henderson had few peers.
“Rickey made his teammates better, made his teams better,” Winfield said. “In the 70’s I played against Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey. I would say Rickey carved out his own space in this game of baseball. He was one of the best and it hurts me he’s no longer with us.”
Griffey, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2016, said he considered Henderson “part older brother, part uncle” and was put through a workout by Rickey while shagging flies in the outfield during spring training in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
“Rickey would hit balls to me and I’d think, ‘Why is he hitting them only to me?,’” Griffey said. “I found out he told my dad later on, ‘He’s got a special talent, I wanted to see how far he could go.’ I was 15 years old. I slept well that night.”
The underlying heartbreak of Oakland losing the A’s, the empty Coliseum next door and the specter of moves to Sacramento and Las Vegas was for the most part kept in the background.
Alderson managed to sneak in that at one point he made Henderson the highest paid player in the majors and thanked previous owner Walter Haas, and said of Rickey’s death, “We all lost a little bit of our childhood. Rickey was an iconic link to A’s history and he was a human bridge to an uncertain A’s future.”
At another point, when Brooks-Moon was reading a statement from the A’s, a reference to owner John Fisher was immediately met with boos. Brooks-Moon shut it down quickly, saying, “Not today! Save that for another day.”
In the latter moments of the ceremony, tape rolled of Henderson addressing the crowd on April 3, 2017, the day the Coliseum diamond was rededicated as “Rickey Henderson Field.”
“My heart and soul is forever in Oakland,” Henderson said. “Thank you Oakland and I love you.”
