Former Yankees standout, baseball icon Rickey Henderson deserves 2025 honor

The New York Yankees, since time immemorial, have honored their legends with mounted monuments, and their stars with retired numbers, bronzing the images of their pinstriped jersey flapping in a summer's breeze. In the wake of Rickey Henderson's passing, it's time for the team to come up with some sort of in-between honorific for those who shined brighter than anyone else in the uniform, but did not do so for long enough.

As it turns out, Henderson's life was much like his Yankees career: full of bombast, but far too short. MLB's all-time stolen base king, and an absurdly underrated power-speed threat whose talent was often outshined by his bombast, passed away just prior to the holiday. The news was officially announced on Saturday afternoon. He was 65 years old.

To some, Henderson is known as a baseball nomad, skating through the league in the late 1990s/early 2000s, unable to surrender the game that had meant so much to him. To most, he is a forever Oakland A, ironically losing his life just a few months after he threw out the first pitch at the final MLB game ever at the Oakland Coliseum (Rickey Henderson Field).

But from 1985-1989, he was a Yankee. And not just a Yankee, but a mold-breaking Yankee, an endless flash of excitement for the most staid organization in the game. Those '80s Yankees were the game's biggest winners, accruing more regular-season victories than anyone else throughout the decade. They didn't win the American League between 1981 and 1996, though, leaving Henderson's time in pinstripes mostly fraught with conflict and unsurpassed expectations.

Yankees Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson passes away at 65

Though he'll forever be Oakland's own, Henderson the Yankee made plenty of memories. In his age-26 season (his first in the Bronx), he posted a positively ridiculous 9.9 bWAR, a career-best total only matched in his MVP season in 1990. He led the league in runs scored in 1985 and 1986, earning the AL stolen base crown in both seasons, as well as 1988 (with a ridiculous 93). And, of course, it was the Yankees who facilitated Henderson's first ring in 1989 by sending him to Oakland (he also captured a victory with the 1993 Blue Jays).

Five sparkling seasons isn't enough for Monument Park. If there were a Yankees Hall of Fame, this would be a simple decision; ignore the duration of the career, and usher Henderson right in. Perhaps he'll earn a special exhibit at the Yankees Museum above the Great Hall, but that's not quite prominent enough.

How about this? After every stolen base from a Yankee speedster in 2025 -- Anthony Volpe can be the Pied Piper here -- the players should point to the sky, mimicking Henderson's famous celebration. After all, who wouldn't want to be like the Greatest of All Time?