Raines, Not Hall Bound

23 year career, 7-Time All-Star (81-87), 1987 All-Star Game MVP, 5th All-Time in Stolen Bases (808), Holds NL record highest stolen-base percentage (300 or more stolen bases) with .857, Holds MLB record for highest stolen-base percentage (300 or more attempts) with .847, 2605 career hits, 1571 career runs, 1981 Rookie of the Year, 1986 Silver Slugger Award, Won 1986 NL batting title (.334) and 2-Time World Series Champion with the New York Yankees (96 & 98).

Doesn’t this sound like the numbers a of a Hall of Fame (HoF) member? In fact his numbers are better then some HoF’ers. When comparing his On Base Percentage (OBP) to members in the HoF; Raines .385 is higher then Willie Mays, Lou Brock, Carl Yaztrzemski, and Duke Snider. When comparing Raines .294 Batting Average (BA) to those in the HoF; Raines is higher then Frank Robinson, Dave Winfield, Carl Yaztrzemski and Willie Stargell. The 4 players ahead of Raines in the (Modern era) All-Time Stolen Bases (Henderson, Brock, Cobb); two are in and the other will be when eligible (Henderson). These are just a few stats I reviewed.

In his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot Raines only received 24.3% of the vote. Raines was one of the greatest players of the 1980’s early 90’s and one of the greatest lead-off hitters of all time; fell short of the 75% of the vote needed to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

Tim Raines served as hitting coach for the Harrisburg Senators last season. During his time in Harrisburg he was always laughing or smiling. He always stopped to talk to fans and sign autographs for the kids. He also seemed to be well liked by the players.

One last statistics I will share is from an article I recently read on ESPN.com. This was a conversation between Jason Stark and Peter Gammons (both Hall of Fame voters), Debate: Is Tim Raines Hall of Fame Worthy

Jason Stark says: “Hey, I need to introduce a quick aside: This is off-topic, but since I mentioned Gwynn, did you know Tim Raines reached base more times in his career than Tony Gwynn did -- and that they had nearly identical career on-base percentages? And did you know that every eligible player who reached base as many times as Raines did, and had as high an on-base percentage as he had, is in the Hall of Fame?”

Peter Gammons replied: “There is a reason that I wait so long to file my ballot, and this debate is a great example. Given that he reached base more than Gwynn and, with Henderson and Boggs, helped change the leadoff position (if someone reaches base, one has a rally), I throw up my arms, beg mea culpa and am now voting for Raines.”

Tim Raines stats at Baseball-Reference.com