At 39, Henderson has run his way into a tie for the American League lead with 23 stolen bases through Sunday, a startling testament both to Henderson's amazing physical condition and the lack of competition. The 20-year veteran becomes almost melancholy when he harks back to his early days with the Oakland A's and the spirited trash talking that took place between him and bitter basestealing rivals such as Willie Wilson, Vince Coleman and Tim Raines. "It's like I've been in this really long race, and back at the start I had all these guys running with me," Henderson says. "But now I look over each shoulder and I say, 'Where is everybody?'"

Nowadays baseball is a world gone straight—hardly anybody steals anymore. This season there have been only 1.35 stolen bases per game, the lowest average since Henderson arrived in the big leagues in '79, and the rate of thievery is down 7% just since last season. While Henderson has stolen 80 or more bases six times in his career, nobody has stolen 80 since both Henderson and Coleman reached that mark 10 seasons ago. The National League has had six different stolen base champs in the past six seasons, and only once did the leader steal more than 60. The populace has become so law-abiding that while Henderson holds the alltime record with 1,254 steals, Raines, with 799, is the only other active player to possess even half of that total.

So why is stealing bases a dying art? "There is more emphasis put on the long ball, and the best way to make big money in the game now is to hit home runs," says Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez, who had 12 steals at week's end to go along with his 21 homers. "Fans used to enjoy the stolen base more than they do now, and that's too bad. Watch television and all you see is home run highlights. You don't see stolen base highlights."

But the change is not only in offensive philosophy. The defense is also becoming more creative in limiting the larceny. "In my early days pitchers didn't have the slide step or quick moves to home plate," Raines says. "They might throw over to first a couple of times, but now they throw over more and they speed up their motion. To get a stolen base nowadays, you have to hope the catcher throws it in the dirt or the pitcher throws a breaking ball."

Still, the single most important factor may be a shift in the mind-set of the modern player. "You don't get paid for stolen bases, and management doesn't appreciate them," says Baltimore's Eric Davis, who stole 80 while batting cleanup for Cincinnati in '86 but hasn't swiped more than 50 since. "When I stole 80 bases, the only thing the Reds did was complain about the games I missed because I was worn down. So I figured out what was more important for me to slack off on—home runs, driving in runs, playing defense or stealing bases—and it was stealing bases. If they would understand the risk of injury, understand it and support you, you'd have more guys stealing bases."

Henderson credits his "football-type body" for allowing him to remain healthy throughout his long career, and he praises former A's teammate Davey Lopes for teaching him to pick the right pitches to steal on. He also vows to keep running despite the fact that he takes a beating doing so. Besides the aches and pains that come from his headfirst slides, Henderson says he also gets banged up diving back to first on pickoff attempts. "When you think about how much trouble it is to steal just one base—and he's stolen more than 1,000—what he's done is hard to even imagine," marvels the Rangers' 29-year-old Tom Goodwin, who was tied with Henderson in the American League steals race at week's end.

While Henderson waxes poetic about the day that Goodwin or another young challenger will steal his season record for steals (130), he acknowledges that the philosophy of the game will have to shift again for somebody to swipe that many bases. "You have to be a little crazy to love the challenge of stealing bases as much as I do," Henderson says. "I remember when I was in Little League, my grandmother told me that if I came home with a clean uniform, I didn't really play baseball. There just aren't that many guys left who believe that."