On May 1, 1991, Rickey Henderson reached the mountaintop. On a Wednesday afternoon in Oakland, California, on a field that would one day don his name behind home plate, Henderson stole the 939th base of his major-league career, passing Lou Brock and claiming sole possession of the top spot on the all-time leaderboard.
Brock had become the gold standard of base-stealing in the 1970s, setting a single-season mark with 118 bags in 1974. As Brock’s big-league career concluded in 1979, Henderson’s commenced. Just three years after the A’s drafted him out of a high school located 10 miles northeast of their home ballpark, Henderson made his major-league debut as a 20-year-old. Having already racked up a staggering number of steals in the minors as a teenager, Henderson quickly demonstrated the rare talent and tenacity necessary to someday topple Brock’s titanic stolen-base total. Twelve years later, he did exactly that.
Henderson died Saturday at the age of 65. As the undisputed greatest leadoff hitter of all time who played for an astonishing 25 seasons, Henderson’s enormous legacy is difficult to distill into any single statistic or highlight. But if there is one image from his career that is likely to sustain for generations, it’s that iconic shot in the moment following Steal No. 939: Henderson, having removed the base from the infield dirt, thrusting it toward the sky to signal a career’s worth of hard work.
So many times before, Henderson had arrived at the stolen bag with speed and purpose, only to pop back up and remain focused on his expedited journey around the basepaths. This steal, though, was meant to be savored.
Henderson’s record-breaking steal came in the early stages of what would end up being his 10th All-Star season. At that point, Henderson was already an all-time great. The year prior, he had produced one of the most productive all-around seasons in MLB history — 28 home runs, 65 steals, a 1.016 OPS and 10.2 fWAR — en route to the AL MVP award. That followed an epic run in October 1989 — Henderson hit .441/.568/.941 with 11 steals in nine postseason games — that culminated in his first World Series title with Oakland.
Before that, Henderson had been one of the biggest stars in the Bronx with the Yankees for four seasons. And of course, all along the way, he stole a…