Discovering APBA in the 1980s, I had the good fortune of rolling for Tim Raines’s peak APBA cards. Consistently filled with 11s, 10s, and 14*s, Raines was so much more than a poor man’s Rickey Henderson.
It’s interesting that for a five year stretch (1983-1987), Raines was more valuable than all but three MLB players…Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, Henderson, and Cal Ripken, Jr. In the NL, he was more valuable in that time span than Mike Schmidt, Tony Gwynn, Dale Murphy, Ozzie Smith, and Gary Carter. As a matter of fact, the only outfielder peers who out produced Raines during his career were Henderson, Barry Bonds, and Ken Griffey, Jr. Yet, it took ten years for Raines to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Playing in Montreal for his peak years didn’t help Tim Raines gain national recognition. The only time I ever remember seeing Raines play in an Expos uniform was on television during All-Star games. However, the numbers show that Tim Raines was a slightly more valuable player than Tony Gwynn, a first ballot Hall of Famer. Gwynn and Raines were extremely similar players, but the Padres great was much more successful at acquiring traditional measurements of greatness…batting titles and hits. Raines won just one batting title and fell short (2,605) of 3,000 hits. Games missed because of injuries and two player strikes played a big factor in Raines not reaching the immortal 3,000 hits benchmark. Tim Raines’s slight value over Tony Gwynn comes from his ability to draw walks (OBP is king) and his superior abilities on the bases…Raines stole 519 MORE bases than Gwynn. Interestingly, Raines has the best career stolen base success rate (84.7%) of any player with at least 400 career steals.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | GDP | SF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 Totals | 98 | 5 | 114 | 89 | 9 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 19 | .191 | .351 | .258 | .609 | 23 | 3 | 2 |
Early in his career, Raines had a serious drug problem. Raines said that he started sliding head first to avoid breaking the vials of cocaine in his back pocket and that he did lines in the bathroom between innings. In less than a year, he spent $40,000 on cocaine and said he was playing on instincts. Fortunately, he put himself into a rehab program in the early 1980s and has been clean ever since. Raines testified during the Pittsburgh drug trials. The trials named many players and suspended eleven. It’s interesting to compare the Pittsburgh drug trials to the Mitchell Report. So far, none of the players named in the Mitchell report have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. However, Raines is the first player inducted who was involved with the Pittsburgh drug trials. Is there still hope for those named in the Mitchell Report? Time will tell.
Before he hung up his spikes, Raines accomplished a couple of interesting milestone. In 2001, he became just the second player to play in a MLB game with his son when he played left field and Tim Raines, Jr. played centerfield for the Baltimore Orioles. Second, he’s was just the 29th player in Major League history to appear in games in four different decades. Tim Raines was an exciting and valuable player who deserves his spot in Cooperstown. His induction is the product of modern sabermetrics, which should bode well for future, under appreciated candidates.
