Baseball eager to hear from Henderson

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — He hit. He walked. He ran. He stole. He scored. Now he'll speak.

Rickey Henderson, let's hear it.

Today's speech might be the most anticipated in Hall of Fame history.

There was Yogi Berra, whose unique style of word usage has gone commercial. Dennis Eckersley had his own language, "Eck-speak." And Bill Mazeroski said basically nothing in his Hall of Fame speech, too broken up to read his 12 pages.

Now it's Rickey's time, and nobody does English like Rickey.

Asked if he'd received advice from other Hall of Famers, Henderson said, "They told me don't be too long because they'll talk about me and go to sleep. So I'm trying to keep it under the time zone."

And ...

"It's been hectic, man. You know, speech and me don't even get along sometimes."

Henderson and Jim Rice, another left fielder, will be inducted today along with Joe Gordon, posthumously, in front of 50 other Hall of Famers, thousands of Cooperstown visitors and millions watching on television.

For Henderson, it's the culmination of a 25-year career that was as colorful as it was brilliant.

Eckersley, for one, wonders what Henderson will say.

"I hope he wrote it out. I'm sure he did," Eckersley said. "You can't wing it because you can't forget anybody."

That's why Henderson went back to school.

He attended a half-dozen of Earl Robinson's speech classes at Oakland's Laney College, reading his speech to students and accepting critiques. Robinson, who played for the '58 Dodgers and early '60s Orioles, got to know Rickey when working for the A's in the '80s.

Henderson tweaked his speech after getting input.

"He's prepared as well as he can be," Robinson said. "I anticipate he'll give a heartfelt speech. ... I just want Rickey to be Rickey. I told him, 'Don't lose who you are.' "

The best advice?

"Slow down a little bit," Robinson said.

For baseball's all-time stolen-base king, that might be asking too much.

Rangers mending

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — No new positive swine flu tests have been reported for the Texas Rangers, and most of the afflicted players are on the mend, club officials said.

"The symptoms seem to be dying off and by all indications guys are healing from this as quickly as they do from a normal flu," Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said Saturday.

At least a half dozen Texas players were afflicted with flu-like symptoms last week. Most have started to regain their energy and are returning to the lineup.

Pitcher Vicente Padilla, scratched from his last start, is expected to take his next turn after working out for a second straight day. He is believed to be the first athlete in U.S. major pro sports to test positive for swine flu.

Notes

• OF Gary Sheffield was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained hamstring, adding to the rash of substantial injuries that has wrecked the Mets' season. Sheffield, 40, leads the team with 10 homers.

• Cubs LHP Ted Lilly went on the 15-day DL with inflammation in his pitching shoulder. He also expects to have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Monday.

• Phillies reliever Clay Condrey went on the DL, further depleting a bullpen racked by injuries.

• Milwaukee placed RHP Seth McClung on the 15-day DL discomfort in his right elbow.