Record Run for Rickey

A kinder, gentler and decidedly more mellow Rickey Henderson had a dream.

In it, the San Diego Padre left fielder hits a game-winning home run that breaks Ty Cobb’s 73-year-old record for runs and is the 3,000th hit of his career.

It nearly came true.

In the third inning of the Padres’ 6-3 win over the Dodgers Thursday afternoon, Henderson passed Cobb when he lined a 1-and-0 Luke Prokopec pitch over the Qualcomm Stadium left-field fence for a solo home run. Henderson’s eighth home run gave him 2,246 runs.

With Henderson rounding the bases, fireworks erupted from beyond the right-field stands, the instrumental theme from “The Natural” was blasted over the stadium loudspeakers and the crowd of 21,606 erupted with applause.

He marked the moment by tucking his right leg, throwing his hands skyward and sliding into home plate to end his historic journey around the basepaths.

Henderson, 42 and seen as the ultimate hot dog and king of the third-person reference during his 23-year career, stunned many by giving credit to his teammates in a postgame news conference after going one for four, giving him 2,998 hits with three games remaining in the season.

“When I first started in the big leagues,” Henderson said, “I felt that as the leadoff hitter my job was to get on the basepaths, create stuff and score some runs to help my teammates win some ballgames. It just so happens that over the 23 years I think I went out there and did my job as well as I could do ... and all of a sudden it’s a record breaker ... it’s just an honor.

“Going out and scoring so many runs is just not an individual record. It’s a record that you’ve got to have your teammates help you out and in the 23 years I have had some great teammates.”

The game was halted for about five minutes as the retiring Tony Gwynn came onto the field to present Henderson with a gilded home plate to commemorate his achievement.

But Henderson was not given an on-field microphone Thursday, as he was when he broke Lou Brock’s career stolen base record in 1991, when Henderson rankled many by proclaiming himself “The Greatest.”

Henderson seemed to atone for his 10-year-old moment of grandeur Thursday.

“I really don’t go out and try to put myself above anybody else that played this game because there’s so many great ballplayers,” he said. “And as a kid you always look up to the greatest players ... and you try to [visualize] yourself as one of them ballplayers and try to do something that they have done.

“[To accomplish the record] just shows that you went out and played the game right, you played the game hard.”

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy agreed.

“There’s a lot of ways to score runs and obviously he’s figured out several ways to do it,” Tracy said. “It’s a tribute to him, more than likely the best leadoff hitter to ever play the game.

“I’ve been able to see this guy from afar ... and he deserves his due. When you’re two hits away from 3,000, what more can you say about one career?”

Try this: Besides holding the marks for runs (2,246) and steals (1,395), Henderson earlier this season eclipsed Babe Ruth’s record for walks (he now has 2,141) and he holds the record for most leadoff homers (79).

“The numbers that we put up, the records that we break, it’s all gravy, it’s good,” Henderson said. “But the love of the game is what Rickey Henderson’s all about.

“If baseball really wasn’t paying no money or paying for us to go out there and play, I think I’d be probably one of the guys that would come out of my house and go out on the field and just play baseball to have fun. That’s how much I enjoy it.”

The hall of fame already has inquired about procuring Henderson’s cleats to put on display in Cooperstown. Henderson wants home plate.

He also wants to play next year, despite the perception that he merely was hanging on to further his name in the record books.

“I don’t think people have sat back and really seen ... the type of person Rickey Henderson is and how much he really enjoys this game,” Henderson said. “I don’t think the people really know that. There’s been so much negative, I think people haven’t took the time out to see how much I really enjoy the game.”

The old Henderson also showed through, though, when he spoke of his slide into home, after which the Padres mobbed him.

“Sliding into home plate was a treat for my teammates,” he said. “I think they were expecting me to go headfirst but I hate sliding into home plate headfirst, so I went feet first. It was a thrill to them and I guess I made their day as well as my day.”