If you don't know much about Ricky Henderson, lets just say his antics have made him one of my all time favorite athletes because of his inability to hold anything back. He is a PR nightmare and dream come true. Just read below and you have a small taste of the biggest ego in sports.
Life Lessons From New Hall-of-Famer Rickey Henderson
Rickey Henderson will enter baseball's Hall of Fame this weekend, with many calling him the greatest lead-off hitter of all time. Over 25 seasons he made a pretty good case for that title, amassing 1,406 stolen bases and 2,295 runs scored -- both major league records.
But Rickey's also pretty well known for just being Rickey. The flamboyant star usually refers to himself in the third person while talking -- a verbal style known as "illeism" -- and waxes pseudo-poetic about the way Rickey sees the world.
So to mark Rickey's induction into baseball's all-time-greatest club, we've compiled five life lessons based on Rickey's words and actions. They may not help your speed, intelligence or economic situation -- in fact, it may have the opposite effect -- but they do have a certain genius that's hard to ignore.
1. Take every advantage you can get.
In a 2005 profile in The New Yorker, Rickey bemoaned the fact that he didn't take steroids during his career: "They kept that s--- a secret from me ... I wish they had told me. My God, could you imagine Rickey on 'roids? Oh, baby, look out!"
2. Summer can be a cold, cold time if you don't watch out.
Baseball players are susceptible to a wide range of injuries, but it's hard to imagine that frostbite is a big problem in the middle of the summer. This affliction, however, took Rickey out of three games one August after he fell asleep on an ice pack.
More Rickey wisdom, after the jump.
3. It's not arrogance if you're actually that good.
Plenty of folks thought Henderson was arrogant during this time in the majors -- not least when he declared himself the "greatest of all time" after breaking the career record for stolen bases in 1991. But he was just stating what he knew to be the case. In a 2003 Baseball Digest interview, he made no apologies for this supposed arrogance: "People who played against me called me cocky, but my teammates didn't. I brought attention, fear. I wanted to beat you in the worst way. If that made me cocky, so be it."
4. A little self-love goes a long way.
Minnesota senator Al Franken was once known for his daily affirmations, saying into a mirror, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me." Rickey's own style of affirmation was not much different. For 20 minutes every day before a game (dating to the beginning of his career), he stood naked in front of a full-length mirror in the locker room repeating the phrase "Rickey, you are the greatest. Rickey, you are the greatest."
5. It's more important for everyone to know you're worth a million dollars than to actually have it in the bank.
When most of us get a check for a large amount of money, we make a beeline to the bank. Henderson, on the other hand, reportedly framed a million-dollar check that he got from the Oakland A's in the early 80's. He only put it into the bank after the club noticed their books were off and called him on it.
But Rickey's also pretty well known for just being Rickey. The flamboyant star usually refers to himself in the third person while talking -- a verbal style known as "illeism" -- and waxes pseudo-poetic about the way Rickey sees the world.
So to mark Rickey's induction into baseball's all-time-greatest club, we've compiled five life lessons based on Rickey's words and actions. They may not help your speed, intelligence or economic situation -- in fact, it may have the opposite effect -- but they do have a certain genius that's hard to ignore.
1. Take every advantage you can get.
In a 2005 profile in The New Yorker, Rickey bemoaned the fact that he didn't take steroids during his career: "They kept that s--- a secret from me ... I wish they had told me. My God, could you imagine Rickey on 'roids? Oh, baby, look out!"
2. Summer can be a cold, cold time if you don't watch out.
Baseball players are susceptible to a wide range of injuries, but it's hard to imagine that frostbite is a big problem in the middle of the summer. This affliction, however, took Rickey out of three games one August after he fell asleep on an ice pack.
More Rickey wisdom, after the jump.
3. It's not arrogance if you're actually that good.
Plenty of folks thought Henderson was arrogant during this time in the majors -- not least when he declared himself the "greatest of all time" after breaking the career record for stolen bases in 1991. But he was just stating what he knew to be the case. In a 2003 Baseball Digest interview, he made no apologies for this supposed arrogance: "People who played against me called me cocky, but my teammates didn't. I brought attention, fear. I wanted to beat you in the worst way. If that made me cocky, so be it."
4. A little self-love goes a long way.
Minnesota senator Al Franken was once known for his daily affirmations, saying into a mirror, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me." Rickey's own style of affirmation was not much different. For 20 minutes every day before a game (dating to the beginning of his career), he stood naked in front of a full-length mirror in the locker room repeating the phrase "Rickey, you are the greatest. Rickey, you are the greatest."
5. It's more important for everyone to know you're worth a million dollars than to actually have it in the bank.
When most of us get a check for a large amount of money, we make a beeline to the bank. Henderson, on the other hand, reportedly framed a million-dollar check that he got from the Oakland A's in the early 80's. He only put it into the bank after the club noticed their books were off and called him on it.
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