Rickey Henderson, RIP Oakland Tech, 1974-1976

[1runtmc1]

As we all began to hear of Rickey Henderson's passing this weekend as the story ran on all the national media outlets.. Rickey was a great HS baseball player at Oakland Tech from 1974 to 1976. OAL's HS began in 10th grade. As well as Oakland city league baseball youth programs (Babe Ruth, Pony, Young America, etc). Similar to Oakland basketball tradition of great players on to NBA, Oakland has long history of great baseball players. During Rickey HS playing days, there was Dave Stewart/St Liz, Gary Pettis/Castlemont, Lloyd Mosby/Oakland High to name a few.

 

[dlew66]

Yes and here are a few more from that era. Glenn Burke, Shooty Babitt, and the Ransom brothers from Berkeley High. Willie McGee from Harry Ells. Mike “Tiny” Felder from Kennedy High.

 

[1runtmc1]

yes, many MLB players from bay area during the hs years from the 70's.....to add a few more names, Claudell Washington/Rupert Jones, BHS, Mike Norris/Balboa. Ending up as one of the best MLB players ever, he was probably known more as a RB than baseball player at Oakland Tech.
here is interview with Dave Stewart over the weekend from MLB network:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er4fKgCgMx8

 

[1runtmc1]

Rickey's MLB SB record of 1406 vs 2nd place of Lou Brock's 938, the % delta of 1st place vs 2nd place may be biggest % delta of any major sport's player career record. 33.3%. Example, Gretzky's points of 2857 to 2nd place of 1921 is 32.8%. Jerry Rice's WR yards of 22895 vs 2nd place of 17492 is 23.6%. Go down list of NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA all time records and look at % of 1st place vs 2nd place. Rickey's SB record vs 2nd place % may be higher than any major sports record. Other MLB records, most leadoff HR's, most runs scored, , most un intentional walks (Barry has most walks), and at least 1 hr in 25 seasons.