Talkin’ baseball with Tom — “When I was playing, the East Coast and West Coast were my least favorite places to go. I liked to stay in the middle of the country, although Seattle was a beautiful city and had great restaurants, and so were Baltimore and Boston. I did up there than it is now. The people were so polite and courteous that they would never, ever think about asking you for an autograph while you were eating. They would wait until you’re done eating and then maybe ask for an autograph as you were leaving. “I loved playing in Yankee Stadium with all the history; you could just feel the presence of Ruth and Gehrig. The visiting team’s bullpen was right next to the monuments. It was so cool. I really did well against the Yankees. I don’t know what it was. Which is not to say that they didn’t get me sometimes, because they did. But the majority of the time, when I came into the game, the game was over. “Some teams you’re really good against, and some teams have your number, like the Brewers had my number. They would send a limou- that works out and it gets in your head.”
Henke also had a proud moment and a season to remember in 1992 Series championships. “There’s nothing like it,” he said. “The only other thing I can compare it to is the birth of your children. “When you have a good team, you have teammates to pick you up when you get knocked down, or are there to cheer you on when you do well. And you do the same for them. ermen hung out together, all the golfers hung out, all the lady chas- for each other.”
And they had plenty of fans to cheer them on. That season, the Blue Jays AVERAGED almost 50,000 fans in home games. “I never took it for granted, I appreciated that every day,” said
Henke, who’s a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. “When they opened the gate for me to come in the game, and they played the song ‘Ground Control the mound. The hard part for me was keeping that shot of adrenaline under control, but that was something that never got old.”
was really good when it counted most — 2-0 with 1.83 ERA.
8 /// May 2026
Changes in the game — “I’m an old school guy, and I see some of these rules changes, and I don’t like them. I don’t mind the pitch clock; it speeds the game up, and I think that’s a good deal. But the rule about only be- would Lou Brock and Ricky Henderson have stolen? That’s a bad rule. “No running over the catcher at home, no taking out the second baseman ... that was baseball. And now they’re putting this laser grid in where they can challenge balls and strikes. I don’t like it. When you take the human element out of it, you’re just playing a video game.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116
