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The Chronicle has been monitoring reports of Henderson’s death since early Friday evening but there has been no confirmation from the family, the A’s or the Hall of Fame. Dave Winfield, Henderson’s teammate with the Yankees, posted his condolences Saturday morning on Instagram, and the New York Post reported soon after it had confirmed his death.

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He was known for his football prowess in his youth — Henderson was cut from the high-school baseball team as a sophomore — but his mother preferred him to play baseball rather than football, and he turned down scholarships with UCLA and USC among others after the A’s drafted him.

“One scout told me I had a better chance at baseball,” Henderson said. “He said I was the best athlete he’d ever seen and I was going to make it.”

Henderson was one of the few naturally left-handed players to bat right-handed — he did so because all his friends did so, but he threw left-handed, leaving many historians to wonder how many more hits he’d have had if he’d hit in the left-handed hitters’ box. As it was, he had 3,055 in 3,081 games.