WEST SACRAMENTO – Henry Bolte was born in 2003, the same year Rickey Henderson played his final season in the big leagues.
Though he was far too young to watch Henderson live, Bolte knew all about the legendary speedster and his greatness while growing up as an Athletics fan in Palo Alto. In fact, shortly after signing his first professional contract with the A’s in 2022, Bolte (sort of) compared his style of play to the Hall of Famer.
“I like to go out and put pressure on the other team,” Bolte said back in ‘22. “I’m a big A’s guy, so, like, Rickey Henderson stealing bases all the time. I might not be as fast as him. He’s a little special. But I like playing that type of way.”
Four years after his signing day, Bolte produced a performance in Monday’s 6-5 walk-off victory over the Blue Jays at Sutter Health Park that an A’s player hadn’t touched since the Man of Steal himself.
After stealing three bases in the game’s first three innings, Bolte slugged a solo home run over the right-field wall off Toronto starter Dylan Cease in the fifth. Before him, the previous A’s player with a homer and three-plus stolen bases in a game? That would be Henderson, who homered and swiped four bags on Oct. 5, 1991.
Bolte was part of an all-out ground attack by the A’s that ran wild all night on Cease. He swiped second base in the first after drawing a leadoff walk, then swiped second and third in the third before dashing home on a grounder hit by Zack Gelof with a nifty head-first slide to evade a tag by catcher Alejandro Kirk at the plate.
Not long after Gelof reached on that fielder’s choice, he, too, stole second and third. It was the first time the A’s have stolen four bases in an inning since stealing four in the sixth inning against the Mariners on Sept. 8, 2010, and their five total stolen bases as a team were the most in their first three innings of a game since swiping five on June 12, 1990, against the Rangers.