Stolen Moments

 As we put volume 2024 up on the shelf, I can't help but feel the weight of the innocence lost in the year that was. 

Nothing captures that feeling better for me than the departure of the Oakland Athletics. I have written about the ugly business of professional sports and the way that greed has taken over so much of what was once a glorious connection with a community. I have described the helpless feeling of being a fan who watches essentially helpless while the powers that be take a piece of history and leave a divot in the place where baseball used to fit. As if to apply an exclamation point to this sad transaction, Rickey Henderson died in what we might call the late innings of December. 

Outside of Oakland, you might not be aware of Rickey's accomplishments. As a matter of fact, you could say that the New York Post's headline, "Rickey Henderson was far from MLB’s greatest baserunner," stands as an argumentative tribute to the talents of the Oakland A's Hall of Famer. It will be noted that Rickey spent his professional career with nine different Major League teams, but it was his time spent in Oakland that made the biggest impact. 

I say this not simply because of the statistics he piled up while he wore the green and gold. I say this because of the T-shirts sold across the East Bay bearing Rickey's likeness holding up a record-setting base with the legend printed above it, "Everything I know about stealing I learned in Oakland." printed above it. In an era when naming rights for professional sports venues are bought and sold like candy to corporations that can afford it, the field which will no longer be home to Major League baseball was named Rickey Henderson Field. And not only that, but the field that was refurbished and brought up to competitive standards by a group of Oakland Tech parents and community members will forever be known as, you guessed it, Rickey Henderson Field. 

So with all that local fuss, why do you suppose a New York writer would take it upon himself to denegrate the legacy of baseball's all-time leader in stolen bases? Maybe it has something to do with the way that the New York Yankees, as is their wont, decided to trade Rickey back to Oakland after four years, having lured him out to the east coast with a ton of money. he returned to the East Bay to continue his legendary campaign to eventually become the all-time leader for stolen bases with one thousand four hundred six. Second place goes to Lou Brock, nearly five hundred bags behind him. In a career that saw him bounce around the major leagues, Rickey Henderson kept finding his way home. 

To Oakland. He will be missed in that same sad memory of baseball in Oakland. Rickey stomped on the base paths and he will be missed every autumn. Aloha, 2024. Thanks for rubbing those memories in our collective faces.