The Rickey Henderson-John Olerud story is legendary — and untrue

One of the more famous Rickey Henderson stories to make the rounds in the wake of his recent death involved a former teammate, John Olerud.

Olerud, a fine hitter in his day, was also known for wearing a hard helmet whenever he played in the field. He and Henderson were teammates in three different stops in their career: with the New York Mets, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Seattle Mariners.

The story often told goes something like this: when Henderson and Olerud became teammates for the second time, Henderson recalled aloud playing with a first baseman who wore a helmet in the field at a previous point in his Hall of Fame career.

"You know what, I played with a guy just like that with the Mets," Olerud said, reciting Henderson's end of the conversation on the Amazin' Conversations With Jay Horwitz podcast. "And I said, 'yeah Rickey, that was me.'

"It's a good story, but it's not true," Olerud continued. "I'm still answering that question of is it true. I've been denying it for almost 20 years."

Henderson stole a major-league record 1,406 bases and scored 2,295 runs during his Hall of Fame career (1979-2003). He made 10 All-Star teams, won two World Series rings and was the 1990 American League MVP.

Off the field, Henderson's quirky personality — he often referred to himself in the third person — spawned legions of ancedotes that were equally impressive as his statistics. Discerning which stories were true and which were fiction was always a challenge.

The Olerud story will go down as fiction, but that won't stop it from being repeated often.

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