Back when I was in college at UT, a bunch of us went to a Rangers-A's game and we sat in the front row in left field. This was around the time when Rickey was publicly arguing about his pay and that he should be the highest paid player in the league. My buddy yelled at him that if he is the best player in the game, why is he paid as the 30th best player or something like that. Rickey turned around, took his glove off and smiled at us while clapping. He then put his glove back on, turned around and gave us the middle finger behind his back.
As far as a baseball player, the dude was the greatest leadoff hitter ever and one of the greatest baseball players of the last 40 plus years. If he got on base (via hit or walk) it was basically a double or triple. With his crouched stance, pitchers were forced to groove a fastball to him instead of giving him the walk and then he would knock it out of the park. Yeah, he had an ego, but all pro athletes do, and we would also if we were playing pro ball somewhere.