I Can't Wait For The Induction Speech

The greatest was elected into baseball's Hall of Fame yesterday. Not the greatest base stealer, not the greatest lead-off man, and he is undoubtedly both of these, but the greatest quote ever--Rickey Henderson. His stats are incredible: 1,406 stolen bases, 297 HRs, 1,115 RBIs, and 2295 runs. He was, bar none, the best lead-off hitter EVER. So, what could be better than these career numbers and why am I so excited to hear his Hall of Fame induction ceremony speech? This is just a sample of what truly makes Rickey Henderson legendary:

On a team bus, a teammate told Henderson he could sit anywhere he wanted to, he had tenure. Henderson replied, "Ten years? What are you talking about? Rickey got 16, 17 years."

After being told about a Sports Illustrated report that claimed 50 percent of ball players were on steroids, Henderson said, "I'm not one of them, so that's 49 percent right there."

After signing a contract, then wanting to renegotiate, Henderson said, "Rickey put his name on this contract, but I will not sign it."

Henderson called the San Diego Padres general manager looking for a spot on the roster and left this message, "This is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball."

A teammate, whose locker was right next to Henderson's, was sent down to the minor leagues. After the teammate returned to the club, six weeks later, Henderson saw him and said, "Hey man, where have you been? Haven't seen you in a while."

Being the victim of Nolan Ryan's 5,000th career strikeout, Henderson looked on the bright side, "It gave me no chance. He just blew it by me. But it's an honor. I'll have another paragraph in all the baseball books. I'm already in the books three or four times."

The reason for waiting to cash a check while a Yankee, "I'm just waiting for the money market rates to go up."

After being asked if he talked to himself, Henderson responded, "Do I talk to myself? No, I just remind myself of what I'm trying to do. You know, I never answer myself so how can I be talking to myself?"

After seeing a large gathering of reporters in the clubhouse, Henderson asked a teammate what was going on. The teammate told Henderson that Tom Robson had just been fired. Henderson asked, "Who's he?" (He was the teams hitting coach)

After striking out, Henderson was returning to the dugout. The next batter walked past him and heard Henderson telling himself, "Don't worry, Rickey, you're still the best."

Yes, Rickey, yes you are.