Take off sign

There are many Rickey Henderson stories out there. 100% Injury Rate has a Top 25, but this one -- as told by former Brewer manager Tom Trebelhorn -- isn't on there.

Treb was on an XM Radio show with Dave Sims and Kevin Kennedy and Eric Degerman of the Tri-City Herald caught it for our enjoyment.

Trebelhorn was Rickey's first manager in baseball, which was in Boise in 1976. And here we go...

"We're in Boise, and I said, ‘Rickey, you're on your own to run. You're fast. I want you to be aggressive. I want you to be fearless. I want you to be really confident in what you are doing.' "

" 'OK, OK, OK,’ Rickey said to me,” Trebelhorn added.

"So he's not running,” Trebelhorn continued. “Finally I said, 'Rick, why aren't you running? And he said, 'Well, you know I really need the sign to go.' “

At this point, Kennedy begins to chuckle in the background.

"All right, I'll give you the sign,'" Trebelhorn said.

"So he gets on first base and I go through the whole signs," Trebelhorn said. "At the end, I take all the signs off -- and he steals second.

"So I said (to Henderson), 'All right. Watch. Look at me," Trebelhorn said. "I give him the same signs again, and I give him the 'take off' sign. I take EVERYTHING off. Nothing is on. He steals third."

Kennedy chuckles some more.

"I said, 'Rick, god dang it. Back to back pitches this is what I want you to do on your own, but I didn't give you the 'steal' sign," Trebelhorn said. "You don't even know the signs."

"And (Henderson) said, 'Man, man, Treb, man. I know the signs. Rickey knows the signs. Rickey knows the signs."

"So I said, 'Well, what's the sign then?' " Trebelhorn said.

Henderson then tells Trebelhorn, "Man, it's the 'take off' sign. So I 'took off' to second, and I 'took off' to third!"