Henderson an inspiration to old ballplayers everywhere

If you’re a 40-something weekend warrior like myself, you have to like what future baseball Hall-of-Famer Rickey Henderson is doing these days.

At age 46, Henderson just signed a contract to play baseball with the San Diego Surf Dogs of the new independent Golden Baseball League in California. This is nothing new to Henderson, who as arguably one of the greatest all-around baseball players of all-time, has spent the last couple years toiling in the obscurity of low-paying independent baseball leagues in New Jersey. If you take him at his word, he does this because he simply loves the game of baseball.

While Henderson will make $3,000 a month playing for the Surf Dawgs, along with additional marketing fees for things like bobble head dolls, it’s nothing compared to the millions he made during the height of his 10-time All-Star career in the 1980s and 1990s.

Henderson last played Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003, hitting .208 in 78 at bats. His last decent season in the Majors was 1999, when he hit .315 for the Mets with 12 home runs and 37 stolen bases at age 39. Every year he plays professional baseball, he delays his Hall of Fame eligibility, which begins five years after he officially retires, if that ever happens.

Henderson was not one of my favorites when he was one of the greatest players of my generation setting season and career records for stolen bases, runs, walks and lead-off home runs. He was known for being rather full of himself and wasn’t exactly humble when he broke Lou Brock’s single season stolen base record at Milwaukee County Stadium in late 1982.

However, now that Henderson is playing baseball in obscure leagues simply because he loves it, I can really relate to the guy.

You see, I’m part of a growing number of old baseball players around Milwaukee who are still playing for the same reasons as Henderson, only on a much lower level.

This summer, Milwaukee has several adult baseball leagues operating at different levels of competition. These leagues are an extension of the Minor, Major and Langsdorf baseball leagues that were run by Milwaukee County from 1935 until financial cutbacks in the Parks Department a couple years ago.

Thanks to the efforts of Kirk Spano, Rich Raiche, John Schwab and many others, several of these adult baseball leagues are thriving. I’m fortunate enough to play with a group of friends, many of whom played baseball at Whitefish Bay High School, for McGinn’s on Bluemound in the Milwaukee Baseball League. Other similar leagues include Milwaukee Adult Baseball Leagues, which have divisions for ages 28+, 38+ and 47+.

I guess you really know your age when you’re playing in leagues that are defined by how old you are, while you’re kids are playing in leagues defined by how young they are.

Much like Henderson, we play because we love it. Unlike Henderson, we pay to play, instead of getting paid, but that’s all relative. Just as it would be much easier for Henderson to retire and start his Hall of Fame countdown, it would be easier for many of us to spend Sunday afternoons cutting our lawns instead of playing a child’s game in Milwaukee County Parks.

All I know is that I respect Rickey Henderson much more now than I did years ago, especially on Monday morning.