Born in
Wichita, Kansas, Henley grew up in
Los Angeles, where he graduated from
Inglewood High School and attended the
University of Southern California. As a
sophomore, he starred for the 1948 national-champion
USC Trojans baseball team,
batting .400. He then signed a professional contract with the
New York Giants. Henley would never play for the Giants, however; after five years in their
farm system, he was acquired by the Pirates via the
Cincinnati Redlegs in October 1952 in a transaction that brought four-time
National League All-Star Gus Bell to Cincinnati. Henley made the
1954 Pirates out of
spring training and appeared in 14 of the Bucs' first 22 games. After going
hitless in his first four major league
at bats, Henley broke through on April 19 with a
first-inning home run against his old team, the Giants, a key blow in a 7–5 Pirate victory. But Henley was hurt when he ran into a wall during a game against
Brooklyn, then ran afoul of
general manager Branch Rickey when he went dancing at a nightclub as he was recovering from the head injury. When the rosters were cut from 28 to 25 men in May, he was sent to
Double-A New Orleans and never returned to the majors. His nine MLB hits also included a
double, and he drove in two
runs, both
RBI coming from his April 19 homer. ==Minor league manager and scout==