Rickey's Back in Training Camp

Back in January of last year the A's hired Rickey to work in a "goodwill" role for the ballclub, and it was intentionally vague at the time what that actually meant. He had his first real chance to work with the club back in October, when he went to the A's instructional league, especially to work with #1 draft pick Jemile Weeks.

The Contra Costa Times has just announced that Rickey will be spending 4 days at Spring Training this year to work with the club. The full article can be found here, with selected excerpts included below:

PHOENIX — The A's hold their first full-squad workout Friday, and they'll have a VIP guest in attendance.

Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson will spend a few days in camp as a special instructor, spreading his baserunning wisdom to a team that will rely greatly on speed to score runs this season.
Henderson spent time in October helping out with the A's instructional league program in Phoenix, but this will mark his first major league coaching venture with Oakland, the team with which the all-time stolen base king spent four stints during his 25-year big league career.

"He'll be here the first day of position players (working out), and he'll be here four days," A's general manager Billy Beane said.

The plan calls for Henderson to offer more tutoring at the A's minor league camp, which opens full-squad workouts March 12.

The A's invited him to instructional league during the fall primarily to tutor second baseman Jemile Weeks, a 2008 first-round pick whom the A's envision as a future leadoff man.

"Really, once you meet him, it's an inspiration just knowing you're with a Hall of Famer," Weeks told Bay Area News Group recently. "He was showing me, I think, personal points that proved successful when he played. I just felt respected because a man of his caliber came down to my level and shared some information."

I'm hoping that sometime this year they ask him to work with the Sacramento River Cats, and maybe coach third base for a game or two. If they do, I'll definitely be making my way over there!