But he was far more than just the Man of Steal, as he was dubbed. His stats are stellar: Henderson stole 1,406 bases, including the 1982 season when he swiped 130. “Black people weren’t just looking for good jobs but leaving something very specific and unique to them: violence at the hands of white southerners … They were leaving behind the notion that they were unentitled to be American.”īryant understands the people of Oakland and its beloved baseball team, The A’s, for which Henderson played four times. “Their exodus made a political statement,” he writes. Among the misconceptions Bryant clears up is that the birth was not during a blizzard.Īs a former reporter for the Oakland Tribune (Disclosure: Bryant was in sports, and I was in news there in the early 90s), Bryant details the Black migration from the South and how it changed the city. From tracking his dramatic birth in an Oldsmobile on Christmas 1958 to explaining the games, Bryant puts the man in context. Instead, it’s an accurate account of who Henderson is, how he earned his place among the baseball greats, and what made him who he is. Despite the access Bryant had - Pamela Henderson, the athlete’s wife, suggested writing the biography, and the author had four interviews with the baseball player among his dozens of other interviews - this is not an approved biography. Howard Bryant’s 10th book, “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original,” is a deep and unvarnished look into one of baseball’s all-time greats.
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