Rickey Henderson Makes His Major League Debut

On June 24, 1979, the Oakland Athletics called up a 20-year-old outfielder named Rickey Henderson for a doubleheader against the Texas Rangers. In his first major league at-bat, Henderson smoked a double to right field off left-hander John Henry Johnson. In the third inning, he singled and stole second base. The future all-time stolen base king swiped a bag in his very first game.

Henderson had been dominating the minor leagues. He stole 95 bases in 134 games at Modesto in 1977 and followed that with 81 steals in 133 games at Double-A Jersey City in 1978. The A's had seen enough. They brought him to Oakland in the middle of the 1979 season, slotted him into left field, and turned him loose.

The Rangers won both games that afternoon, 5-1 and 7-2. Henderson went 2-for-3 in the opener and 0-for-4 in the nightcap. The debut itself was ordinary, a losing doubleheader on a Sunday afternoon that gave no indication Henderson would become the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of the sport.

Henderson finished his rookie campaign hitting .274 with 33 stolen bases in 89 games. There would be 1,373 more steals to come. He broke Lou Brock's career record of 938 on May 1, 1991, and kept running, finishing with 1,406 stolen bases, a record that still stands and may never be broken. The gap between Henderson and second place on the all-time list is 468 steals.

But the stolen bases were only part of it. Henderson holds the all-time record for runs scored with 2,295. He holds the record for leadoff home runs with 81. He walked 2,190 times, more than every player in history except Barry Bonds. He played 25 seasons for nine teams, from 1979 to 2003, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2009 on the first ballot with 94.8 percent of the vote. It all started with a double off John Henry Johnson on a Sunday afternoon in Oakland.