Elise Saltzberg sent us a nice note, going into more detail on Yente Henderson's role in her wedded bliss.

I met my future husband, David, in March 1988, just before Opening Day of baseball season. At that first meeting, we got into an argument about whether Rickey Henderson was the best active player in baseball. David said he wasn't. I said he was. I gave my reasons. Even though David didn't agree, he liked my thinking and appreciated my knowledge of baseball. He decided I had some potential, and based on that discussion, he called me and asked me out. We spent the next year dating, including attending many baseball games. When we got engaged, I made David promise that when Rickey Henderson got inducted into the Hall of Fame, we would go to Cooperstown for the ceremony. He promised. Flash forward to January 2009 and it is announced that Rickey Henderson has been nominated to the Hall of Fame. I immediately made hotel reservations. Rickey got in easily on his first ballot nomination, of course, and so we went to the induction ceremony. That's where this picture was taken by a Reuters news photographer.

Cute story, and arguing over Rickey's greatness sure beats trying to explain to your girlfriend why errors don't count as hits, and her countering with "maybe the batter did it on purpose and meant for the fielder to drop it."

So Elise and Dave went to Cooperstown to see Henderson and Jim Rice into the Hall of Fame because, according to the Wall Street Journal's Photo Journal, the happy couple met through a discussion about Henderson. How exactly that fateful conversation led to holy matrimony, we here at Weddings & Celebrations aren't quite sure.

On a related note, Henderson said in his induction speech that he would like to be remembered as "that kid from the inner city that played the game with all his heart and never took the game for granted." Till death do they part, one happy couple might instead envision him simply as a mensch in a babushka.

It's not like young people can decide these things themselves.

*****

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin Styles, brought to you by the KissCam. If princess cards are all you've ever wanted, then this one's for you.

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Even though he last played in the majors in 2003, and spent 2005 with the estimable San Diego Surf Dawgs, Rickey Henderson insists that he's ready to help a major league team. And can still steal bases. New York Post:

"I believe today, and people say I'm crazy, but if you gave me as many at-bats that you would give the runners out there today, I would out-steal every last one of them," Henderson said with typical bravado. Rickey got specific, noting, "I can go out and steal as many bases as [Jose] Reyes steals." Reyes stole 56 bases last year.

"I might have lost a step or two, but I learned a step or two in knowledge that I can pick a pitch and walk to second base," Henderson said. Satchel Paige pitched in the majors when he was 59. Rickey's just a kid.

Henderson isn't kidding, by the way. In 2007 Billy Beane offered him a roster spot with the Oakland Athletics for one game, so that he could officially retire with the A's. But he turned that down, saying "I don't want no one day. I want to play, man."

Fun Rickey Henderson facts:

• Also played for the Navojoa Mayos of the Mexican Pacific League in the winter of 1978-79.

• Was born in the back seat of a '57 Chevy on Christmas Day.

• Was named for singer Ricky Nelson.

Calls to Corky Simpson were not returned by press time.

Rickey To Big-League GMs: Don't Lose My Number [New York Post]

Henderson, baseball's all-time stolen base leader, got 94.8 percent of the vote, missing being elected to Cooperstown unanimously by 28 votes (we call that the Corky Simpson factor). Meanwhile, scrappy roustabout Jay Bell barely missed the cut, sparking much earnest debate among our commenters. One sample:

• The two writers who gave Jay Bell a HOF vote should be stomped, tattooed, hanged, and then killed. — MikeSmrek

But this is Rickey's post. I've encountered Rickey on several occasions, but have no delicious stories involving his time with the San Diego Surf Dawgs. So let this excellent David Grann piece in the New Yorker serve as your Rickey background material. Key quote:

Earlier, Henderson had confessed to me, “Last night, I dropped down on my knees and I asked God, ‘Why are you doing this to Rickey? Why did you put me here?’ ”

Referring to yourself in the third person when talking to God ... you get my Hall of Fame vote for that alone.

The complete list. Hey, who voted for Jesse Orosco?

Henderson Elected To Hall: Rice Too [San Francisco Chronicle]
Stealing Time [The New Yorker]

Corky, of course, is the former Tucson Citizen columnist who rather infamously left Rickey Henderson off of his Hall of Fame ballot (while managing to include the estimable Matt Williams). He then had the bad fortune to publish his ballot early for all the world to mock. The brunt of the resulting criticism was from blogs, of course — with Home Run Derby leading the charge — a fact that at first went unnoticed by the 71-year-old columnist.

But presumably someone told him that he had become an Internet punching bag, and Corky decided to respond. First he offered an apology. Then, in a rather lengthy interview in the Columbia Journalism Review, he said this about the criticism:

“It doesn’t bother me,” Simpson told me, “because, one, I’m too old, and my skin is too thick, and I’m a stubborn old mule from Missouri. I think of the literature on the Internet in the same way that I think of the literature on the walls of public bathrooms. With the exception that the literature on the walls of public bathrooms is a little higher class.”

OK, that was rather tepid; a clunky attempt at humor from the Underwood manual typewriter era. But Corky was only beginning to rev up the old engine:

“The Internet is like a sewer. It’s very necessary, but you wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time there.”

Ha, that was a good one — a ripsnorter, as Sam Clemens and the boys down at the Territorial Enterprise used to say. Too bad Corky didn't use that kind of creativity with his Hall of Fame ballot.

Oh, and welcome to the Hall, Matt!

Hardball [Columbia Journalism Review]

Corky, of course, created a category four shitstorm earlier this week when Home Run Derby revealed that he'd left Henderson off of his ballot, which was among a handful published early. The fact that he did vote for fellow first-time nominee Matt Williams didn't help.

Then he expressed surprise when he discovered — via Western Union telegraph, one presumes — that the Internets were ablaze with stories of his major goof. An elaborate mea culpa ensued. From the Oakland Tribune:

"First things first, would I vote for Rickey if I had it to do all over again? Damn right, I would," Simpson said. "I had no idea my ballot would cause such an uproar. Seriously, he was a wonderful player and I simply goofed. I voted for eight deserving men. I could have picked two more — and I wish to heck I had."

But Simpson's claim that he simply forgot that he had 10 votes instead of eight doesn't hold a lot of water. Nick Prevenas, sports editor of the Green Valley Times, a retirement community newspaper in Arizona where Simpson now writes, said that he warned the columnist about leaving Henderson off his ballot when he turned it in. Said Prevenas:

"He (Simpson) told me that he 'wasn't a Rickey guy,' and that he would vote for him next time."

Anyone who followed the 2000 Presidential election knows how much trouble the elderly have with paper ballots. But still, if you're not going to take this seriously, then why not just take a pass? Rickey probably wasn't going to be the first player voted into the Hall unanimously anyway (Willie Mays missed by 23 votes, after all). But that doesn't make this any more digestible.

This never would have happened at the Boca Breeze.

Corky Simpson Would Like His Rickey Henderson Vote Back — I Want His BBWAA Card [Home Run Derby]
Voter: 'I Made A Mistake Not Voting For Rickey Henderson' [Oakland Tribune]

Meet Corky Simpson, former sportswriter for the Tucson Citizen, 1988 Sportswriter of the Year and lover of Matlock reruns. He's also a voting member of the BBWAA, who each year participates in that Dance of the Fates that is Baseball Hall of Fame Voting. You thought the BCS system was farcical? Take a look at this mess.

Mr. Simpson did not vote for Rickey Henderson this year. Nope. Just not good enough, sir. Maybe next time.

Otter and the boys filing out of the Faber hearing room muttering "Bullshit!" immediately comes to mind. Each year a group of BBWAA resistance fighters — Joe Posnanski at Sports Illustrated calls them self-appointed "guardians of the gate" — take it upon themselves to make sure that no player is voted into the Hall unanimously. Why? Who knows? It's just one of those things that exclusive clubs do, like paddling pledges in their underwear.

And this year will be no different, as Henderson — probably one of the surest locks in HOF history — will be denied unanimous entry. We know this because Simpson is among those who have published their ballots early, and Henderson isn't on there.

Oh, Matt Williams is there. But not the all-time stolen base leader, who is considered the greatest leadoff man of all time.

I asked around with a few baseball writers who are Hall of Fame voters, and here's what one — who wants to remain anonymous — had to say:

"The rules for voting for the Hall of Fame are simple, but there are some voters who seem to add a twist to their criteria. I can't speak for why a voter would leave an obvious first-timer selection off his or her ballot. I would hope that voter wouldn't do this just to get attention. Some people weigh character heavily in deciding not to vote for a bonafide Hall of Fame player.

"I recall one voter who said he cast a vote for Willie McGee because he was a great guy. That's true, but that reasoning disturbed me almost as much as those who left the likes of Mays, Aaron and Seaver off their ballots."

Here's a sampling of the list of players who should have been unanimous choices, and how many votes they missed by:

• Cal Ripken, 8 (537 of 545). That whole consecutive games playing streak thing? Overrated.

• Hank Aaron, 9 (406 of 415). There's still some question about those absentee ballots from Minnesota.

• Babe Ruth, 11 (215 of 226). All 11 also thought Hitler was no particular threat.

• Ted Williams, 20 (282 of 302). Sorry Teddy Ballgame, not quite good enough.

• Willie Mays, 23 (409 of 432). Curiously, all 23 did vote for Art Shamsky.

Time to end this farce, OK? How do you look at a Hall of Fame ballot and not vote for Willie Mays? If you're doing that, your so-called career needs a laugh track. Of course, dementia could be an issue: Simpson is retired, and writes a weekly column for the Green Valley News and Sun, which serves a retirement community in Arizona. Their lead photo on the front page today is a kid with a chicken on his head (this is true).

You're pandering to your readership, Corky; I always knew that poultry had a thing against Rickey.

Oh Rickey, You're So Fine [SI.com]
Corky Simpson: The Writer Who Didn't Vote For Rickey Henderson [Home Run Derby]
Rickey Overcomes Rare Ailment To Make Hall History [Bugs & Cranks]

1) In June 1999, when Henderson was playing with the Mets, he saw reporters running around the clubhouse before a game. He asked a teammate what was going on and he was told that Tom Robson, the team’s hitting coach, had just been fired. Henderson said, “Who’s he?”

10) A reporter asked Henderson if Ken Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”

14) The morning after the Sox finished off their 2004 World Series sweep against St. Louis, Henderson called someone in the organization looking for tickets to Game 6 at Fenway Park.

17) OK, I know everyone has been waiting for it. Alas, according to both parties involved, it’s not true. I wish it were. Heck, both Rickey Henderson and John Olerud have said they wish it were true. But it just didn’t happen.

The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.” Legend also goes that Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.”

Classic, Rickey. Another story that I would love to add to that list, is Rickey Henderson going into the Hall of Fame as a San Diego Surf Dawg. He played his final professional season with them in one vain attempt to keep his major league career alive, and the Golden Baseball League (which the Surf Dogs won with Rickey in 2005) is offering him $1 million to chisel a Surf Dog hat on his plaque. Please accept, Rickey. Rickey is his own man, and shouldn't Rickey's plaque be better than everyone else's?

"The Definitive Rickey Henderson: The 25 Best Stories of "Rickey Being Rickey." [Fan IQ]
Surfs up for Rickey Henderson, HOF [No Joshin]

"I'm going to look at it at the end of the year. I might come out with some crazy stuff, a press conference telling every club, 'Put me on the field with your best player and see if I come out of it.' If I can't do it, I'll call it quits at the end," Henderson said.

But Henderson's Thunderdome approach to a possible comeback is not the most surprising aspect of this story. It's this:

For now, Henderson is keeping busy and fit by maintaining the 455 acres he owns near California's Yosemite National Park. He hasn't hit the gym for a while, but he drives a tractor, rides horses and raises cows — and insists he will win a trophy in competitive fishing one day.

Hear that, Versus? How often does an idea for an outdoors series like this just fall into your lap? Rickey as boss on a trail drive, or Rickey on the river bank wrestling a black bear for a trout. That's a show we'd watch.

Rocket Inspires Rickey To Consider Comeback [MSNBC]

Plenty of people have trouble staying away from work and "retiring." It's commonplace these days to stop the career job and embark on a second one soon after. Whether for money, boredom or a spiritual quest for inner peace, there seems to be a number of people who just have a real hard time staying retired. Except for coal miners. They seem pretty content to stay put once they're done.

Jose Canseco's return to semi-professional baseball inspired hope. Not just in former steroid users/authors/reality stars everywhere, but former athletes as well. If you stuck an ear to the ground during the not-so-unceremonious return and subsequent trade of America's favorite lunkheaded Cuban eunuch, you could hear the wistful longing of players whom may have retired/re-retired too quickly.

Lucky for you, I've sat down with my handy magical handicapping aggregator, a crystal ball and a box of Fig Newtons to give you a crop of athletes who might make a comeback and their subsequent odds of return. Please, jump with me.

Rickey Henderson: 1/1

After semi-officially "retiring" from the Surf Dawgs last year, the Rickeycanstillplay drum started to beat a little louder after the Subway Series. The close-up shot of a mumbling Rickey in the stands, dressed in cabana wear, sporting a tastefully subtle 1,406 diamond necklace was just the build up — the interview is what really mattered: He still insists he can play in the major leagues. A couple more Yankee outfielders go down, and we'll see what happens. Regardless, it's a strong bet that he'll show up on a roster somewhere in 2007, back to analyzing his swing in the nude and gushing over his love of fine cuisine.

Mike Tyson : 2/1

Tyson is the Guns 'N Roses of professional athletes. Those who grew up during his dominance in the ring (and on NES) still have a soft spot Iron Mike's lunacy and sheer power. And regardless of what shape he's in, what comes out of his mouth, how despicable and odd his behavior may be, if you put Tyson in the ring with anybody, it's a pay-per-view event and a lot of people are buying. Regardless of whether or not he can throw a punch or not, there's always the sense that something is going to go terribly, terribly wrong when he fights. With a heavyweight division that is still in search of personality and life, throw enough money at Iron Mike and he'll step back into the ring. Even if he has to fight a black bear, a baby elephant or Buckethead.

Dennis Rodman: 3/1

He's on the back end of 40 and boozes it up like a young Hollywood starlet (then subsequently bangs them), but, if anything, his body has displayed a remarkable ability to bounce back regardless of how much he incrementally abuses it. And, regardless of what people think of him personally, there's still a small section of the population willing to pay to see him play. So, every day is an opportunity for Rodman to latch on to a small market professional basketball team somewhere on the planet — or other sport where his services could be put to use, like, say, the UFC. Tell me you wouldn't pay to see Rodzilla take on Tim Sylvia in the Octagon? Or Vlade Divac even? Actually, that fight should totally happen ...

Michael Jordan: 6/1

Don't be fooled by the suit. We've seen it before. And the Charlotte Bobcats are a perfect place for Jordan 4.0 to launch. Up-and-coming team, little visibility, the lack of a true gamebreaker — and the same exact facial hair as Adam Morrison. It's a long shot, but not for lack of shape or cigar lungs; it's the pride thing. After the not-so-heroic return to the NBA court with the Wizards and the realization that he turned Kwame Brown into his personal Private Pyle, he may be a little more hesitant to hop back into the Nikes this season. But if the Bobcats start losing close games, this line bumps a bit.

Barry Sanders 8/1

Although he's a little chubbier, close to 40 and still has the demeanor of a man who's been de-programmed, Sanders may still have a little juke left in him. His stature could be an advantage at this stage, given that his elusiveness was what made him so tricky to take down as opposed to his speed. Plus, he's heavily vested in an Oklahoma bank. Interest rate hikes will probably put a damper on the wallet, and there are mouths to feed. A quick one-year contract as a back-up on a team searching for running back depth is not plausible, but not impossible.

Problem is, Rickey isn't retiring. At least not according to his agent, who said, "Reports of his retiring are unfounded. He still plans to play. If no one gives him a job (in the majors), he plans to return to the San Diego Surf Dawgs as a player."

So how did ESPN get the story? (We found it curious that they never referred to a source, instead simply saying that Rickey had retired and just assuming it was true.) Supposedly, his mother — we bet Rickey Henderson's mother is a fascinating woman, by the way — said he was "thinking" about it, and former teammate Dave Stewart said he'd spoken with Rickey about a coaching role. (We would just love to watch Rickey give signs as a third-base coach.) But now it appears that Rickey's going to try to play again, because that's what Rickey does.

All you have to do, of course: "Pay Rickey!"

Rickey's Retirement Plans: Will He Or Won't He? [San Francisco Chronicle]
"Pay Rickey!" [Yard Work]

"Certainly I'd consider that," Beane told The Chronicle. "Rickey up to this point has never given anyone any indication that he's ready to retire, but if he was, depending on the circumstances, that could be possible."

So, the invitation has been extended. All that's left to take care of? All together now: PAY RICKEY!

Beane Leaves Door Open For Rickey Return [SF Gate]
Pay Rickey [Yard Work]

Paul Tagliabue, NFL Commissioner: $8 million
Don Garber, MLS Commissioner: $250,000
Joe Torre, Yankees manager: $6.4 million
Willie Randolph, Mets manager: $630,000
Pedro Martinez, Mets pitcher: $13.25 million
Steve Crampton, Newark Bears pitcher: $9,900 ($450 per week for 22 weeks, plus $18 per diem on road trips)

We bet Rickey Henderson made more money than that when he played for Newark, by the way. ("Pay Rickey!"

Who Makes How Much [NY Mag]

In the big leagues, you're doing Sunday Conversations and sh-t, and later you go to Scores, and you always stick Karl Ravech with the check. In the minors, you're hanging out at the airport Holiday Inn waiting for some girl named Starlene to get off third shift.

True story: A friend of ours says she met with Rickey after a Newark Bears game a couple of years ago. Rickey came up to her and asked if she wanted to come with up to see his "yacht." Curious, she went with him. He drove her to the Meadowlands of New Jersey, where he had parked a paddleboat. It is impossible not to love Rickey Henderson.

Pay Rickey [Yard Work]

Few amusing notes from last night's game.

1. The game was played at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
2. It was the first game in the history of the Surf Dawgs.
3. Rickey's quote, of course: "The stolen base, that's the trademark of Rickey," said Henderson.

Yes. Yes it is.

Rickey's A Hit In Debut [San Diego Union-Tribune]

Now, here's a tried and true professional who still has great speed and is both willing and able to take walks, talents that are rare on the 2005 Cubs. Next time Hendry wants to add another MLB minimum wage player to the Cubs roster, he ought to sign Henderson right up.

The Rickey Henderson Option [CubsNet]