From the archives: How Oakland A’s legend Rickey Henderson was molded by ‘Billy Ball’

Editor’s note: This story originally published on Dec. 24, 2008. Rickey Henderson died this weekend at 65. He would have turned 66 on Christmas Day.

Rickey Henderson has lost track of how many times it has happened. All he knows is that it has been a constant in more ballparks, airports and streets than the rest of us can imagine.

“They say to me, ‘I was there at that first game, Rick,” Henderson says during a quiet, brief conversation in a seat along the third-base stands at the Oakland Coliseum last summer.