This article on Rickey Henderson was sent to me by a friend, and it's just hilarious. Very different from the Rickey is moody and hard to get along with articles that you usually find.

There are a number of interesting insights.

Rickey on steals: ''Guys stopped stealing when they couldn't get paid for it. It wasn't no money in it. You know what an arbitrator told me one time? He said they let me steal 100 bases. Man! I almost jumped across the table. How did anyone let me steal 100? This game is corporate. Big business. They like home runs, not steals, so you see a lot of guys trying to hit home runs.''

Henderson pauses and says that Roger Cedeno could be a great base-stealer. ''But the last time I saw him on TV, he was pretty bulked up,'' he says. ''So you know what he's going to try to do.''

To a certain extent this is true, but the reality is that when offense is abundant, stolen bases are less important. It's a one run strategy, and when teams are routinely scoring five runs, SB's just aren't worth the risk.

Rickey on Mattingly: ''One year, he drove me in 79 times. Did you hear what I said? Seventy-nine times. He would do anything to get me in. You'd have to throw the ball over Mattingly's head for him not to get Rickey in. Dave Winfield used to get mad at him. He'd say, `Now, you ain't the only one who can drive Rickey in.'''

This is the best part of the show. Henderson grabs a bat and stands in front of his locker. He is demonstrating how to relax oneself at the plate. Players become so tense, he says, that they tense up and violently squeeze the bat.

''That's not how you're supposed to do it,'' he says. ''You're supposed to step out of the box and breathe.''

He clenches his teeth and then exhales.

''It frees up your hands. Once you step back in, you're all freed up. I'm telling you, it works. Mattingly used to do it. That's why I'm not afraid to get two strikes on me. I'm relaxed with two strikes. I'll do anything to keep that third strike from going by me.''

When Rickey was traded back to the A's in the late 80's, the I remember watching a game the Yankees were playing in Oakland. Before the game, Rickey was hitting off the tee, and Mattingly was sitting there setting up the balls for Rickey. Mattingly liked Rickey. This was the moment that I realized that all the negative writing about Henderson was wrong. Don Mattingly was the most respected player in baseball at that time. If Don liked Rickey well enough to sit there and tee up balls for him when he was playing for the opposition, Rickey must be okay.

Rickey suffers from being inarticulate and a lack of education, just as Roger Clemens does. When they speak to the media, they have a hard time expressing themselves clearly, so they come off as jerks. I'm glad this article shows Rickey talking in a comfortable setting. It gives us a new insight into the man.