Rickey Missed the Sign

Rickey Henderson has epitomized many concepts in his lifetime — the concept of The Greatest Ever comes to mind, for instance. Stolen Base Artist might be another. Also: Effing Awesome; True Leadoff Hitter; Subtle Marxist; and especially, Enigma.

The following video clip allows us to add yet another such epitome to Rickey’s list: Fake It ‘Til You Make It!

Until Rickey proved himself to be the best — until he earned that constant green light on the basepaths (which presumably didn’t take long: he stole 100 bases in 126 attempts in his second MLB season as a 21-year old) — Rickey had to find a way to do what he needed to do. So, he gave himself the constant green light, and when it was an issue, he feigned ignorance: he missed the sign!

In conclusion:

Hattip to @mikeobs for tweeting the video at me.