Familiar Faces / Strange Places: Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson was the best leadoff hitter and base thief in baseball history. His career spanned 25 seasons, most notably with the Oakland Athletics. He has two world series champion rings (1989 with Oakland and 1993 with Toronto), one MVP award (1990 with Oakland) and is the career leader steals and runs scored. He leads the next closest player (Lou Brock) in career stolen bases by an unbelievable 468 steals. He was easily and deservedly elected to the Hall of Fame in his first season of eligibility.


The last couple seasons of Rickey's baseball career were nomadic to say the least. In 2000 he played for the Seattle Mariners, in 2001 he played for the San Diego Padres, in 2001 he played for the Boston Red Sox, and finally in 2002 he played in Los Angeles for the Dodgers. I couldn't pick which one of these uniforms he looked stranger in, so I selected them all.

One of my favorite recent additions to the baseball-reference web site is the inclusion of uniform numbers with each player. I have not done the research, but I am willing to guess Rickey also has the most circled numbers in baseball history.