As you read this keep in mind that sometimes Rickey likes to refer to himself as “we” and “us.” It’s a bit strange at first, but you’ll come around to the way he talks. Overall, he was one of the nicest people I’ve ever interviewed. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed talking to one of the greats. – Martin Gandy

Martin Gandy: Rickey, in what capacity are you here? Are you a coach?

Rickey Henderson: Assistant right now - coaching assistant. Teaching the art of base-running mainly. That’s what I’m here for.

MG: Whom are you primarily working with?

RH: Mainly, my player is Reyes. He’s my key player. I came in last year, we had a great time teaching him with success, and this year I’m coming over here to teach him a little more, and have a little bit more success. I’m keeping him on his toes on what he means to this ball club.

MG: Do you think a guy like Reyes has a chance to break your (stolen base) record?

RH: Every ballplayer probably has a chance to break a record. Rey has just a good a chance as anybody else. He probably has a better chance basically because of the way he approaches the game. He has a good chance of breaking records, you know, records is made to be broken, but records is sometimes hard to be broken because you put a lot more pressure on yourself. I try to tell people don’t worry about the record. Just let it happen. I think when I passed the stolen base record, I did not think about the record. I just wanted to play the game. And then when I got close to the record, “Oh you close to the record, oh really.” <laughing>

MG: <laughing>

MG: I thought I heard you telling the other reporter that you think you might be able to play full-time still. If Julio [Franco] can play then so can you.

RH: He said, “Do you think you’d be able to play?” He didn’t say full-time. I believe I could play full-time, but you know in this era nobody really plays full-time too much. I’m the type of player right now that if it came down to it, I could play every day if I worked at it, but playing, backing somebody else up, helping the ball club, I think I could have success.

MG: Do you think you would enjoy coaching full-time?

RH: Yeah. I think that’s what I’m working on now (by coming) in here. I hope I have an opportunity to do it next year. Last year I had a little taste of it. This year I’m gonna have a little bit more taste of it. I’ll make up my mind next year (if) I want to do it full-time.

MG: Are you going to start out in the minors and work your way up like HoJo did?

RH: No, HoJo, no-no. I ain’t trying to start out in the minor leagues. To me going about it, coach(ing) is something different from teaching. I would go to the minor leagues to teach. I wouldn’t go to the minor leagues to coach. If I’m going to be a coach, I’m going to be a coach in the big leagues.

MG: You’re here with the Mets, but you had long stints with the Yankees and the A’s. Why’d you choose to help the Mets?

RH: I didn’t just choose the Mets. Omar, the General Manager, he called me. I played with the Mets when he was getting his feet wet and trying to be a General Manager, and when he got the opportunity, and I was out, he thought I’d mean a lot to the ball club and we had success behind us, and he brought me over to the ball club. He always told me, “When you coach a game, I will want you on my ball club.”

MG: The Hall of Fame elections were a couple of months ago and one of your former teammates, Mark McGwire, didn’t get in. What is going to be the impact of the whole steroids era, if it will be called that, on the Hall of Fame, on elections?

RH: Right now (there’s) already an impact because, you know, (if) you’re Mark McGwire.

MG: Do you think he deserves to be in there?

RH: Yes, he played the game to be in the Hall of Fame. Can you say it was because of the steroids? Now that’s a different ball game. Then if you put him in that, then you’ve got to go back to his whole era. Everybody that was there, they don’t deserve to be in it? Then that’s what you gotta do because that’s what happened in his era. Was it bad? Yeah. Was it legal? No. Did it harm the game? No. Was he a bad person? No.

MG: So you don’t think that steroids, if they were prevalent throughout baseball, harmed the game at all?

RH: They put a dent in the game because it passed the game up. It made players cheat.

<At this point he took a minute to say hi to Omar Minaya, who was walking by, but then he picked right back up where he left off.>

RH: It’s always going to harm the game because the great ballplayers, back in their time, didn’t have that edge, and they put the hard work in so they deserved what they achieved, not what somebody who had an edge achieved.

MG: What do you think about a guy like Rafael Palmeiro?

RH: He had something special too, but in his era, he was like a player with steroids – enhanced. Did it make him a better ballplayer? Yes, maybe. As they said and made it an issue, we see the players who took the steroids. Did it make them a better ballplayer? Yes. Jose [Canseco] said it made him a totally better ballplayer. He made the big leagues because of it. There’s a lot of guys out there who feel the same way. But, was it illegal for us? No. Because that probably would have stopped it a long time ago. Is it illegal now? Yes. So the guys and players that come along now (that) let it happen then, yes, they shouldn’t deserve nothing. But can you go back and say that whole era doesn’t deserve it, because they wasn’t guided the right way? If they would have told them that it was wrong then or that “you’re gonna ban me,” then they wouldn’t had did it, they wouldn’t have had no chance to.

MG: What about a guy on this team, like Guillermo Mota, who’s going to open the season on the suspension list for steroids…have you seen how this team deals with that? Is there any animosity towards him?

RH: I just got here today, so I can’t tell you how the team is dealing with that. See, but they suspended him for steroids, for what he did. That means that they (did tell him). That is, you do it then this is the consequences…this is what you’ve got to pay for. So, you shouldn’t do it. If you do it, then you deserve everything they give you.

MG: Well thanks for your candor, and good luck to you. Thank you.

RH: Thank you.