A friend saw Rickey a couple times during one of his stints with the Newark Bears, and related this story a while back:

A sunny summer Sunday afternoon sitting about 5 rows back of the first base dugout.  This is tough seating for Newark - Rickey's fault.  He was a good draw.

Anyway, the bottom of the first comes and the Bears are down a run or two.  The home plate ump has a moving strike zone and even the hitters in the Atlantic League can adjust for that by waiting.  Rickey is DH'g and leading off [for the home team].  

He strolls out to the box, slowly, savoring the crowd and the cheers.  He steps into the box and takes the first pitch.  Ball one.  Steps out, and then back in.  Does not look for a sign.  He takes the next pitch.  It's in the same spot.  Strike one.  Rickey steps out slowly and looks back at the ump.  Steps back in.  Takes the next pitch, also in pretty much the same spot.  Ball two.  Rickey steps out and shakes his head.

The crowd is getting a little antsy, and getting on the ump because his moving strike zone is pretty evident by now.  Rickey says something to the catcher and steps back in.

The next pitch is in the same spot.  Strike two.  Rickey steps out, shaking his head.  He then proceeds to walk all the way around the batters boxes and plate.  Slowly.  Like when you played Simon Says as a kid and the call was "baby steps".  Heel to toe.  

The crowd is going nuts.  The ump is getting hot from Rickey showing him up.  As Rickey reaches the end of his orbit and prepares to re-enter the box, things quiet down.  Some guy - experienced in the ways of heckling - takes the moment and yells:

"No worries, Rick.  You're goin' to Cooperstown.  That ump ain't."

The ump whirls to look and see who said that.  Rickey busts out laughing and doubles over.  The crowd roars.

Rickey steps in, singles firmly to right*, steals second and later scores.

Everyone knew it then, and now it's here.  So, who are you going to play for this year, Rickey (since you never officially retired)?

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* Coming off his bat, the ball had that particular ringing sound that said "solid, powerful contact" and causes heads to turn to watch whomever is hitting because it is qualitatively different than the average bat-ball sound.  I guess the closest comparison to that sound today would be Alfonso Soriano, Albert Pujols or maybe Josh Hamilton, connecting.

We need more like him.  Supremely skilled, Ballplayers with a capital "B" through and through.  Wise and yet so thoroughly tunnelled in on playing ball that he sometimes sounds goofy when he opens up his mouth, but the wisdom stuns you when it dawns on you.**  But, only one at a time on the active rosters.  More than one would set the Earth off its axis....

After federal border agents detained several Mexican immigrants in western New York in June, an article about the incident in a local newspaper drew an onslaught of vitriolic postings on its Web site. Some were racist. Others attacked farmers in the region, an apple-growing area east of Rochester, accusing them of harboring illegal workers. Still others made personal attacks about the reporter who wrote the article.

Most of the posts were made anonymously. But in reviewing the logs of its Internet server, the paper, The Wayne County Star in Wolcott, traced three of them to Internet protocol addresses at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border protection.

Coming on the eve of the apple harvest season, the Web posts and the investigation -- first reported this week on The Star's Web site -- have ratcheted up longstanding tensions in Wayne County, where farmers and laborers have accused immigration officials of using heavy-handed tactics like racial profiling and arbitrary or unjustified detentions.

[snip]

The Obama administration has moved to a less confrontational policy at work sites, focusing on employers. But Customs and Border Protection, which does not conduct work-site inspections, had not changed its strategy in New York, Mr. Price said.

And while his road play may not compare, he played the Wall far better than he is given credit for.  I watched his whole career and he was and remains a class act.