The NBA is replete with characters and I’ve met many of them. Baseball is a bit more subdued, hidebound by ancient etiquette, demanding of public deference. Yet A’s closer Liam Hendriks stands out. He might even be the most interesting person I’ve come across in sports.



“We had a cat on the leash out recently, Winnie Cooper,” so said the relief pitcher, as he relaxed in the A’s spartan clubhouse last weekend. “She walks a lot better with my wife than she does with me.”



“Cat on a leash,” is not a metaphor or a slang term from Hendriks’ native Australia. He and his wife, Kristi, own five felines and they quite literally take their cats on walks alongside their two dogs.



“Two of the cats can walk pretty well on leashes, two are in between and one is just a no-go, Hendriks said.”



Winnie walks well but can be temperamental.



“Cat’s have their own...