“Before we went to the gala that night, Pam said to me, ‘I want you to do for Rickey what you did for Henry Aaron,’ Bryant said. Bryant said the book couldn’t have been done without her. Bryant had written “The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron” and at a birthday function for Aaron’s 80th birthday in 2014, Henderson’s wife Pamela made her pitch. True to form, Henderson cooperated with Bryant on the unauthorized biography before having second thoughts and shutting down. Henderson was never one to court the media. Few players in the history of the sport took over the game to such an extent. Never more than the 1989 postseason, when Henderson destroyed Toronto in the American League Championship series as well as the Bay Bridge World Series with the Giants. “We all have different reasons why we watch, and Rickey was a reason to watch the game.” Henderson broke Lou Brock’s single-season record (118) with 130 steals in 1982 and stole 1,406 for his career - records that will never be broken. The cover photo from Bay Area photographer Brad Mangin depicts Henderson taking a lead off first base and torturing the opposing pitcher in the moments before an attempted steal, representing a style that has been lost in contemporary baseball. In fact, one of the proposed titles of the book was “Rickey Henderson and the Legend of Oakland,” but it was thought to be “too regional” by publisher Mariner Books/HarperCollins.
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