The Official Tim Raines Hall of Fame Support Thread

All right. We can all agree that John Olerud isn't a Hall of Famer. It was a fun exercise, but it was purely academic.

Here's a real one: Tim Raines.

Here, dug up from an Internet forum somewhere is the stat line of two players:

Tim Raines:
.294/.385/.425 (league average in his day .263/.331/.398), 170 HR, 808 SB, 84.7% success rate, 2 WS rings
Lou Brock:
.293/.343/.410 (league average in era .264/.330/.390), 149 HR, 938 SB, 75.3% success rate, 2 WS rings.

Raines got only 37.5 percent of the HOF vote last year.

I am told the BBWAA is full of guys who know the game inside and out, and make the right decisions. That is largely true, I believe, and have shouted down people on here who think that the writers should get the vote taken away because of things like the infamous Stanton ballot. But if this is the case, I have no doubt that they will see the error of their ways on Raines. His omission is glaring.

Raines needs to be the next cause, now that Blyleven is in.

 

I'm in ... not that I have a vote or a national platform or anything.

Raines is hurt by playing at the same time as Henderson and by playing in Montreal. But the guy was a dynamic leadoff hitter for more than a decade, and one of the great percentage base-stealers of all-time.

 

Playing in Montreal is only .6 - .7 as good as playing in New York.

 

Although I'm not big on comparing a player who is not in the Hall to one who is, I absolutely agree that Raines belongs in the Hall.

 

i've always considered raines hof-worthy. through no fault of his own, tho, i believe his lack of support -- in comparison to brock being in the hall -- is that brock was no doubt buoyed by being a chief cog on a dominant team that won 2 championships. when raines was in his prime he played on mostly mediocre teams in a poor market without great exposure. not saying it's right, just looking for an explanation...

he may be a guy who gets more support when the vet's committee gets a hold of him.

 

I've been voting for Raines since he got on the ballot.

 

Just throwing it out there ... but does anyone think Raines admitted history of drug abuse factor in at all? I'm not saying it should, just wondering if it does ...

 

I think playing the bulk of his career in Montreal hurts him a lot more than his coke habit.

He should have been in a long time ago.

 

Absolutely a Hall of Famer.

 

One thing I'd say in Brock's defense, not that he needs one (he's in) is that he was stealing bases in big numbers at a time when many teams were playing station-to-station baseball, wasn't he? Please set me straight if Raines did his running in an era equally stifling to base stealers. Just my recollections or readings.

Raines got my vote though. NL's alternative to Rickey in a way. A little less so.

 

The Expos averaged more than 28,000 a game in the first three full years of Raines' career, before the team slowly got ripped apart.

 

Raines should be in. He was so good, his walks were worth .82 singles