Complements

Henry fingered the ballplayer coming out of Yankee Stadium.

“Hey, it’s Tim Raines Jr.!”

It was September of 2003 and Raines Jr. was just a few days into his second stint with the Baltimore Orioles. He came over to the crowd gathered around the players’ gate with a big smile and started signing scorecards and anything else shoved his way. But he kept looking for the person who called his name.

“Where’s my friend?” Raines Jr. asked.

When the crowd finally shuffled Henry close to the front he repeated:

“Hey, it’s Tim Raines Jr.!”

They shook hands and Henry melted to the back so others could get close.

Henry knows everyone and everyone knows him. He has greeted generations of baseball players in the Bronx.

“Did you see Tim Raines Jr.?” he asked no one in particular. “I know his dad, too.”

Tim Raines Sr. had a brilliant Major League career and should have been voted into the Hall of Fame earlier this week. Raines Jr. is still working to make a permanent mark in the big leagues.

They will always be the same to Henry.

“That was great,” Henry said to anyone who would listen. “He came over and shook my hand just like his dad.”

Complements don’t come any better than that.