Rickey Henderson memorial draws near in Oakland

Tony La Russa cut right to it about Rickey Henderson, calling him “the most beloved teammate we ever had.”

La Russa said so Saturday night while sharing a stage with Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley and Jose Canseco, all of whom beamed with pride as their former skipper shared tales of the A’s “great personalities” from 35 years ago.

More tributes about Henderson will flow Saturday at 1 p.m. when a public service will be held in his honor at the Oakland Arena, next door to the Coliseum basepaths where Henderson forged his Hall of Fame legacy as baseball’s all-time leader in stolen bases (1,406) and runs scored (2,295).

Tickets are sold out on TicketMaster but available on the secondary market. No live stream broadcast is available, according to an Athletics spokesperson.

Hall of Famers expected to attend are La Russa, Eckersley, Joe Torre, Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas and Dave Winfield, along with Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch.

La Russa, invited along with Stewart to speak at the service, gave a sneak preview of his feelings last weekend at his Champions to the Rescue show benefitting his family’s latest animal welfare foundation. La Russa’s tone changed as “teary-eyed” thoughts drifted to a handful of players who’ve died, a lineup that sadly added Henderson on Dec. 20.

“He was in the middle of everything in that clubhouse,” La Russa added. “He never was a superstar. He was having fun on the plane, in the back of the bus.”

Henderson died at age 65 due to complications with pneumonia.

“Rickey was — and I’m not exaggerating — one of the greatest players of all-time,” added La Russa, the A’s manager from 1986-95. “I like talking about what a great teammate he was, and the most dangerous player of our time.

“He’d get on base, steal it. The one thing I said, Rickey was a marked man. You had to stop him. Some teams tried to intimidate him. One thing I said about Rickey: You can’t scare him, you can’t stop him.”

After La Russa extolled that praise, Stewart recalled Henderson’s impact on him since their childhood days in Oakland. “I grew up with him and he’s like family to me, for as long as I’d know him,” Stewart said.

Long before joining forces with Henderson on the A’s in the late 1980s and 1990s, Stewart marveled at his athletic talents not only on the diamond but in Oakland Tech High’s backfield as a 1,000-yard rusher. “With Rickey, I wouldn’t miss a high school football game,” Stewart, 67, said. “He was a tremendous football athlete.”

He became a first-ballot Baseball Hall of Famer over his 25-year career, as a 10-time All-Star, the 1990 A.L. MVP, and World Series champion with the 1990 A’s and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays.

Henderson’s stints with his hometown A’s came from 1979-84, ’89-’93, ’94-’95, and ’98. His No. 24 is retired by the franchise as it relocates from Oakland (and “Rickey Henderson Field”) to Sacramento this year before an eventual move to Las Vegas.