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When Kevin Towers was the San Diego Padres’ general manager, he received a voicemail delivered in a high-pitched, high-energy voice then familiar to most baseball people: “KT! It’s Rickey! Calling about Rickey! Rickey wants to play baseball!” Rickey Henderson, in 2001, became a Padre again. His combination of talents earned him sport’s honorific: Like the song (“Talkin’ Baseball”) that celebrated New York City’s three 1950s center fielders (“Willie, Mickey and the Duke”), Rickey’s first name sufficed. He came from Oakland, an incubator of athletic excellence, including basketball’s Bill Russell. He became something novel: a first-ballot Hall of Famer who played for nine teams. Without today’s arcane metrics, they recognized baseball value, including a high pain threshold, when they saw it. Baseball fans, debating the all-time best team, select three outfielders from a pantheon that includes Henry Aaron, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson and Roberto Clemente. Only two of those 10 should be in the starting lineup. Rickey should start in left field and bat first: He homered in the first inning a record 81 times. Baseball’s objective is to score runs. Rickey scored more than anyone: 2,295. More than Cobb (2,245), Aaron or Ruth (2,174), or Mays (2,068). When Aaron retired in 1976, he probably held the record for the most records held, but he was particularly proud of his total bases: Home runs are glorious, but the game is basically about 90-foot increments. Winning is getting enough of them. Rickey’s total bases (4,588), though more than Mantle’s (4,511), do not tell the full story. In football or basketball, an individual — a hot-handed quarterback or shooter — can take over a game. In baseball, a pitcher can dominate a game, but supposedly no batter can. Rickey could. Tie game, bottom of the ninth, he leads off. In his crouch, with a strike zone the size of a sandwich, he walks. (He walked 496 more times than he struck out. He walked leading off an inning 796 times.) He steals second. He steals third (or gets there on a ground ball to the right side of the infield). Scores on a sacrifice fly. We’ll see you tomorrow night. A college football coach, tired of hearing football called “a contact sport,” said: Dancing is a contact sport, football is a collision sport. Those who think baseball is for the delicate have never taken a 98-mph fastball to the ribs. Or done what Rickey did stealing bases. Only three players (Pete Rose, Cobb, Barry Bonds) reached base more often. No player made better use of being there than Rickey did. Mays led the National League in stolen bases four times, with a four-season total of 136, just six more than Rickey’s single-season record of 130 in 1982. His career total 1,406 steals is 468 more than Lou Brock’s second-best. He stole third — for the catcher, a shorter throw than to second — 322 times. Think of leaping from a car going about 20 mph, landing on your chest on sunbaked dirt, approximately 2,000 times over 25 seasons, well into middle age. No player absorbed more punishment in the pursuit of excellence. Bill James, the high priest of seamheads (baseball nerds fascinated by ever-more-arcane metrics), said of Rickey, “If you could split him in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers.” One for his 3,055 hits (27th all-time), one for everything else. Joe Posnanski in “The Baseball 100” says Rickey “was born on Christmas Day in 1958, in the back seat of an Oldsmobile speeding toward the hospital. ‘I was already fast,’ he said.” As an 18-year-old in Modesto, California, he stole seven in one game. He stole his last in the major leagues at 44. Because of Rickey’s eccentricities — he framed a $1 million bonus check; think about that — he was caricatured as an athletically gifted child. The cerebral Tony La Russa, who won more games than any manager not named Connie Mack, and who managed Rickey and against him, remembers him even more for “his baseball IQ” than for his legs. Rickey died the day before Dec. 21, the “shortest day,” with the least amount of sunlight, the beginning of winter. But to baseball fans, it is the beginning of the end of something awful: the offseason. Forty-five seasons ago, Rickey began playing major league baseball in a way — his wanting as well as his playing — no one else has. Will writes for The Washington Post. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Vanderpump Rules' James Kennedy 'focusing on sobriety' after domestic violence arrest
OTTAWA - TikTok is challenging the federal government’s order to shut down its operations in Canada. The company filed documents in Federal Court in Vancouver last Thursday. In November, Ottawa ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform. That means TikTok must “wind down” its operations in Canada, though the app will continue to be available to Canadians. TikTok is asking the court to overturn the government’s order and to put a pause on the order going into effect while the court hears the case. It is claiming the decision was “unreasonable” and “driven by improper purposes.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024.Power Corp. unit backs Constellation Software copycat Valsoft in US$150-million deal
TikTok is challenging the federal government’s order to shut down its operations in Canada. The company filed in documents in Federal Court in Vancouver on Thursday. The government ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business in November after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform. That means TikTok must "wind down" its operations in Canada, though the app will continue to be available to Canadians. TikTok wants the court to overturn the government’s order and to place a pause on the order while the court hears the case. It is claiming the minister's decision was "unreasonable" and "driven by improper purposes." The review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to harm national security. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement at the time the government was taking action to address "specific national security risks," though it didn’t specify what those risks were. TikTok’s filing says Champagne "failed to engage with TikTok Canada on the purported substance of the concerns that led to the (order.)" The company argues the government ordered "measures that bear no rational connection to the national security risks it identifies." It says the reasons for the order "are unintelligible, fail to reveal a rational chain of analysis and are rife with logical fallacies." The company's law firm, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, declined to comment, while Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the order would "eliminate the jobs and livelihoods of our hundreds of dedicated local employees — who support the community of more than 14 million monthly Canadian users on TikTok, including businesses, advertisers, creators and initiatives developed especially for Canada." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024. Darryl Greer and Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press