Rickey Henderson to be inducted into baseball Hall of Fame, greatest-ever acceptance speech awaits.

Rickey Henderson. I can't type the name without smiling. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be old school, and I normally don't have much time for many of the pampered, spoiled athletes that abound today. Still, Rickey was special. Some of his antics were so off-the-wall you just had to laugh. The cat was absolutely clueless as to how clueless he was, and therein lay the beauty.

Here's a sampling of some of my favorite Rickey moments:

Back in '99 when Rickey was with the Mets, he asked a teammate why there was so much press around. He was told the team had fired Tom Robson. "Who's he?" Rickey asked. Robson was the Mets hitting coach.

When Rickey was with the A's, the front office was all a-twitter about a huge mistake over in accounting. Turns out Rickey had taken his million dollar bonus check and, rather than cash it, framed it.


When Rickey broke Ty Cobb's all-time runs scored record by hitting a homer, he took almost a minute to run around the bases. Then he slid home.

When Rickey broke Lou Brock's all-time stolen base record, Lou himself showed up at the park to stand by Rickey and honor the accomplishment. Rickey said, "Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.”

Man, this acceptance speech is going to be g-o-o-o-o-o-o-d.