COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Jim Rice’s icy glare melted into a wide smile. Brash, flamboyant Rickey Henderson was humbled by it all.
The former left fielders were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday along with the late Joe Gordon, and Henderson, baseball’s all-time leading base stealer, was briefly overcome before evoking some hearty laughs.
“My journey as a player is complete,” Henderson said. “I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time, and at this moment I am very humbled.”
Born in Chicago on Christmas Day in 1958, Henderson moved with his family to California when he was 7 years old and became a three-sport star at Oakland Technical High School. Football was his forte, and he received numerous scholarship offers. He was persuaded to take a shot at baseball instead.
“My dream was to play football for the Oakland Raiders,” Henderson said. “But my mother thought I would get hurt playing football, so she chose baseball for me. I guess moms do know best.”
Henderson led the AL in steals 12 times and holds the record for steals with 1,406, runs scored with 2,295, unintentional walks with 2,129, and homers leading off a game with 81.
While Henderson, now 50, was just the 44th player elected to the Hall in his first year of eligibility, Rice had to wait until his final year of eligibility to be selected.
“It doesn’t matter that the call came 15 years later,” Rice said. “What matters is that I got it. It’s hard to comprehend. I am in awe to be in this elite company and humbled to be accepting this honor. I cannot think of anywhere I’d rather be.”
Playing at a time when offensive numbers paled in comparison to the past two decades, Rice batted .298 with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs from 1974-89.
