“Billy was always protecting me … Now he’s up there and he’s still looking after me. He wanted me in New York because I was a New York type of player.” RICKEY HENDERSON
PORT ST. LUCIE – When Billy Martin was Rickey Henderson’s manager he always looked out for his favorite player. He made sure Rickey was happy, made sure Rickey was healthy and made sure Rickey was on the basepaths.
In fact, Rickey says that it was Billy who told George Steinbrenner to bring him to New York back in 1984 because he had the kind of talent and spirit that only New York could appreciate.
Billy was always looking out for Rickey back then in the early and mid 1980s, and Rickey still feels like Billy is looking out for him from above. Maybe, he mused the other day, that is why he is back in New York today.
“Whatever it was,” Henderson recalled, “Billy was always protecting me, from the media, the clubhouse, the fans, the front office. Now he’s up there and he’s still looking after me. Maybe he wanted me back in New York.”
Henderson’s baseball career has taken him to six different teams and three World Series over 20 years in the game. At 40, he returns to New York to play his first season with the Mets knowing that somewhere “up there,” Billy Martin is smiling down upon him.
“He wanted me in New York because I was a New York type of player,” Henderson said. “He knew I could do it in New York. Now I’ve come full circle. I shouldn’t have left New York in the first place.
“I didn’t want to go. It was a business decision. The Yankees were looking to get pitching and the only player teams wanted in return was Rickey.”
So Henderson went back to Oakland and it was there on Dec. 25, 1989, three months after he had won his first World Series with the A’s, that he heard the tragic news. His extended family was celebrating both Christmas dinner and Rickey’s 29 birthday when the word came over the television.
Billy Martin, the manager with whom he had that special bond, was dead, the victim of a terrible car accident in upstate New York.
Billy was Rickey’s manager in his first full season in 1980 and the two were men cut from the same fabric. Both from working class backgrounds in Oakland’s East Bay, both were aggressive, tough and liked to play the game by putting pressure on the other team.
Billy was said to have seen a bit of himself in Rickey, and was willing to let the player be himself, to run whenever he wanted and to play the game grit and flash at the same time.
“He used to beg me to talk to him,” Henderson says with a laugh. “He wanted me to feel comfortable with him. I got used to him, I figured out what he wanted and he figured out what I wanted.”
For four seasons in Oakland and one in The Bronx, Martin was the manager Rickey loved to play for. So when the news came across on the television that cruel day, Rickey and his family were stunned.
“It was shocking to everybody,” Henderson said. “There was something missing in my life after that. But my grandmother said to me that he had passed on to a better place, that there should be some joy in that.”
Henderson was unable to attend Martin’s funeral, but when his sister brought the body back to the Bay Area for a wake, Henderson and his family were there. Rickey had to pay his last respects to the man who respected the way he played so much.
“If you played the game hard and played the game right, Billy would have nothing to say,” Henderson said. “He respected me as a player. He liked to watch me.”
In Rickey’s heart, Billy is still watching him. And now he gets another chance to watch him on the stage that he loved to see him most, New York.
