Rickey Henderson's time in Toronto

Hi! It has been a busy few weeks for me, with my university finals having wrapped up and then coming back to my parents' for the holidays. Unfortunately, I have not missed much in terms of Blue Jays news. The team signed submarine relief pitcher Tyler Rogers, but there has been nothing more than a handful of early rumours since the acquisition of Rogers.

In honour of yesterday being Christmas Day, I wanted to take this chance to talk about one of my favourite players of all-time after what would have been his 67th birthday — Rickey Henderson.

Henderson sadly passed away on December 20th last year, and was one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. His 1,406 career stolen bases rank as the most in baseball history, a record almost certainly out of reach for any player in today's game. Along with all his other statistical achievements, including scoring the most runs in MLB history, ranking 14th all-time in WAR amongst position players, and being one of only 33 players to reach the 3,000 hit milestone, Henderson carved out one of the most interesting careers in baseball history. After coming up as a 20-year-old in 1979 for the Oakland Athletics, Henderson would go on to play 25 seasons in the big leagues with 9 different teams, including four separate stints in Oakland, where he would help to win the franchise's most recent World Series championship in 1989.

Arguably more iconic than Henderson's Hall of Fame performance on the field was his personality. There are countless stories about Henderson as told by many of his former teammates, which could be an entirely separate article in itself. My favourite, however, is probably when a teammate was quoting the Bible verse John 3:16, and Henderson responded with "Rickey don't wanna hear about John hitting .316, Rickey's hitting .330!"

Following his third stint in Oakland, Henderson was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for a prospect and a PTBNL. Upon his arrival in Toronto, Henderson was issued #14 instead of his usual #24 due to Turner Ward already having the number. Henderson ultimately paid Ward $25k for #24, with Ward switching to #16. The Blue Jays, who were looking to repeat as world champions, added Henderson in hopes of boosting their roster for a postseason push. However, Henderson's time in Toronto was underwhelming, where he batted only .215 across 44 games with the Blue Jays. Despite his struggles continuing into the postseason, Henderson was involved in the greatest moment in Blue Jays history. When Joe Carter hit his iconic game 6 home run to walk-off the 1993 World Series, Henderson was the runner on second base after leading off the 9th inning with a four-pitch walk. In typical Rickey Henderson fashion, he jokingly took credit for Carter's home run, claiming that he distracted Phillies' pitcher Mitch Williams on the basepaths, forcing Williams to use a slide-step resulting in his slider to Carter hanging too far over the plate.

Rickey Henderon and Joe Carter lifting the World Series trophy after Carter's walk-off home run in game 6.

Rickey Henderson was undeniably a baseball icon, and despite his career ending before I was born, he is one of my favourite athletes of all-time. Although his performance in Toronto was largely disappointing, he will always be remembered as a 1993 World Series champion, and "Toronto A.L." is enscribed on his well-deserved Hall of Fame plaque.