Rickey Henderson’s lifelong friend ‘can’t wrap my head around’ death

PHOENIX — Former Oakland Athletics great Dave Stewart was exhausted, his voice raspy and eyes watery, as his mind drifted over all of the memories.

This didn’t seem real.

Sure, Rickey Henderson, one of his best friends in life – not just baseball – wasn’t feeling the best. Henderson was asthmatic, endured ongoing sinus problems that required surgery last year, and often was fatigued.

Still, that was Rickey, always on the go, refusing to let his body slow him down.

“When I heard he was sick,’ Stewart told USA TODAY Sports Saturday, “I wasn’t surprised. He doesn’t know how to slow it down. He doesn’t give himself a chance not to be 100%.

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“Him having asthma, him being sick, it never stopped him. He was always on the go. He had these rental properties in Oakland, and I’d get these calls saying they saw Rickey out cutting the grass. I’d say, ‘What do you mean?’ They told me he actually out there with a lawn mower doing work on his property.

“He was always go-go-go. He loves to fish. He just took up hunting. On his first hunt, he’s out there hunting wild boar. That’s not the animal you hunt on your first hunt.’

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Stewart called Henderson on Friday afternoon to remind him they had a business call scheduled for Saturday. Henderson’s daughter, Alexis, answered the phone. They were in an Oakland hospital where Henderson was scheduled to undergo surgery.

Later, Stewart got a call from Alexis telling him that her father didn’t make it.

He was gone, at the age of 65, five days before his 66th birthday on Christmas Day.

“I couldn’t believe it,’ Stewart said, “I still can’t. I can’t wrap my heard around it. We’ve known each other practically our entire lives.

“That was my dude.’

They first met as teenagers in Oakland, playing against one another in the Babe Ruth League. The circuit was full of future major league and minor league players. There was Rupert Jones. Glenn Burke. Gary Pettis. Lloyd Moseby. Tack Wilson. Cleo Smith. Stewart.

And of course, the greatest of them all: Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson, who would become baseball’s all-time stolen base leader and runs leader.

“Growing up, he wasn’t that good of a baseball player,’ Stewart said. “He had great ability. He could run and do things. But he would probably admit that of three major sports, he was best at football, then baseball, then basketball. He had a lot to learn because his first choice was to be a great running back.’

Henderson used to say that he could have been Bo Jackson before Bo, a two-sport All-Star and All-Pro, but the Athletics weren’t about to let him play in the NFL.

The two best friends, with Stewart drafted in 1975 by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Henderson drafted a year later by the Athletics, played against one another in the Mexican winter leagues. They faced each other in the minors with Stewart pitching for Albuquerque, N.M. and Henderson for Ogden, Utah.

“So, the night before I faced him, he tells the story that I had a lot of friends who took him out to the wee hours of the morning,’ Stewart said. “So I strike him out the first two times up. He comes to bat the third time with a lighter bat.

“And he takes me deep.’

Henderson still laughed four decades later telling the story.

They finally got to play together with their hometown Oakland Athletics in 1989 when Henderson was traded from the Yankees and Stewart was in the midst of his third consecutive 20-win season.

“It was a thrill of a lifetime to sit back and watch with that kind of ability,’ Stewart said. “That talented. That once-in-a-lifetime thing. There will never be another player like him.’

Together, they led the Athletics to the 1989 World Series championship over the San Francisco Giants, which will forever be remembered by the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake before Game 3, postponing the World Series for 10 days.

Henderson, who hit .400 and stole eight bases, was the MVP of the ALCS, with the A’s beating the Toronto Blue Jays to reach he World Series.

Henderson hit .474 in the World Series, but the MVP went to Stewart, who went 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in the four-game sweep.

“When I won the MVP,’ Stewart said, laughing, “Rickey kept saying the trophy really was his. He told me the only reason I won it is because of all the stuff I did during the earthquake. He told me, ‘If you didn’t all of that stuff, helping people, it was mine. You got sympathy votes.’

Stewart laughed for nearly 30 seconds telling the story.

That was Rickey.

Stewart was honored by the Athletics in 2022 when they retired his jersey in a ceremony, the first time the A’s retired a number since Henderson in 2009. Their numbers stayed together in the upper deck, and they were the two former A’s players chosen to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in the team’s final game at the Coliseum in September.

“I respected and loved Rollie [Fingers] and Reggie [Jackson] and Catfish [Hunter], but when my number was retired by the A’s, too, alongside Rickie,’ Stewart said, “that was a big, big deal for me.

“I still remembered when I decided to retire in 1995, he didn’t talk to me for two, maybe three weeks. He kept telling me I should retire when he retired. He wanted me to keep playing as long as he did [2003].

“So, when my number was retired, what made it so special is that he and I were together, two kids from Oakland, and having our numbers retired together by the organization we loved.’

Now three months after the Athletics played their last game in Oakland, Rickey is gone too.

“When Rickey passed, things started circulating [Friday] night on social media,’ Stewart said. “Word got out, but the family asked all of us not to say anything. We respected that until they were ready.

“I looked through some of the stuff on X, and what people were saying, wondering whether Rickey was really gone, and I thought one tweet said it best:

“If something happened to Rickey, Rickey would say, Rickey is gone,’ Stewart said, reading from his phone. “That’s how great Rickey is.’

Stewart laughed: “Now, ain’t that the truth.’

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