![]() "Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original" by Howard Bryant (Mariner Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound howardbryantbooks. From Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Who else could brag about the day they were born? "You know Rickey was born on Christmas Day!" he would sometimes say when making a grand entrance into the clubhouse-but in the quiet moments, in the right light, he could tell his origin story at ground level, without the gritless predestiny, with a sobriety that suggested the tale wasn't so cute, not quite so family-friendly.Įxcerpted from the book "Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original" by Howard Bryant. In later years he would remind everybody that he was set apart. Bryant does a great job weaving this story and separating fact from fiction. This book covers all the great Rickey stories like the framed check on the wall and the John Olerud story. ![]() Thus it was that Rickey had a specialness and a story a little more fantastic, a little grander-and he knew it. Rickey is one of the greatest players of all time and has a outsized personality to go with it. ![]() Maybe that was fitting too, because Bobbie eventually gave Rickey, the Christmas baby born in a car, an additional sprinkle of Hollywood magic, naming him after that clean-cut white kid with the guitar who made all the girls melt, 1950s teen heartthrob Ricky Nelson. Even his birth certificate carried intrigue-a friend recalled it stating his name as "Boy Henley," a routine placeholder that virtually never finds its way into the official paperwork. In subsequent retellings, that night resembled a wacky sitcom, all the characters scrambling before everything works out harmlessly in the end. ![]()
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