Ricky steals the couch

Rip
What a fuckin player. He gave me one of his bats at a spring training game about 30 years ago. I still have it.
 
Fuck. 66 is way too young for a guy that seemingly healthy. RIP to one of my favorites
 
Today he is the greatest.

Seriously. There haven't been many players in his level in my lifetime. He was an odd dude that I mostly hated while he was playing, but I never once heard anything bad about him as a teammate or person.
 
Rickey is the only MLB HOF’er that batted right handed and threw left handed (aka the Canadian Curse, because hockey)…with his speed, he might have hit 20-30 points higher from the left side…RIP
EDIT: I just read that he said he batted right handed because when he was a kid, everyone he played with batted right, and that was how he thought you were supposed to do it.
 
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I just remembered a story that I first read in George Will's book, Men at Work (excellent read), and got to hear it in person several years later from his rookie ball manager, Tom Trebelhorn.
Treb gave Rickey the green light to steal, whenever he wanted to go. Rickey wanted Treb to give him signs like everyone else got. After trying to talk Rickey out of it, Treb gave him the signs…steal, bunt, hit and run, and the take off sign, to wipe them clean. Rickey gets on base, Treb gives him some signs, playing along, and then takes it off…Rickey steals second. Treb gives another set, takes them off, and Rickey steals third.
After then game, Treb said (loosely quoting), "Why do you want me to give you signs if you ignore them?" Rickey said "What do you mean? You gave me the take off sign, so I took off for second, and took off for third"…csb, he was one of a kind
 
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