Raines delay ends in glory
Former Sox outfielder waited long time for Hall of Fame moment
COOPERSTOWN, N. Y. — Tim Raines played in the major leagues for more than two decades, but one at- bat still sticks in his mind.
Nervous about making the Montreal Expos’ roster after two brief call- ups that didn’t work out so well ( one hit in 20 at- bats), his performance on Opening Day 1981 in Pittsburgh erased any doubt. Raines led off the game with a walk, stole second on the first pitch to the next batter and scored after the errant throw to second eluded the outfielders. A star was born. ‘‘ I think that was the beginning of the type of player Tim Raines could be,’’ Raines said. ‘‘ It kind of got me going. I think if I would have struck out and not done anything offensively that game, I’m not sure what would have happened to my career. I hadn’t really proven to anyone what type of player that I was. It kind of just took off from there.’’
Raines’ baseball journey ends Sunday in Cooperstown, when he will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Joining him will be Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez, along with former commissioner Bud Selig and retired Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves executive John Schuerholz.
Raines received 86 percent of the vote by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, easily topping the 75 percent threshold needed. That tally came on his final year on the ballot, an oversight that’s difficult to fathom in retrospect.
The switch- hitting Raines batted .294 and had a .385 on- base percentage in his 23- year career, finishing with 2,605 hits, 1,571 runs scored and 808 stolen bases. The stolen- base total is the fifthhighest in major- league history and includes 70 or more steals in each season from 1981 to 1986, a streak that stands alone in baseball history.
Take a closer look at his accomplishments on the basepaths, and they are quite remarkable. His 84.7 percent success rate tops the list among players with at least 400 stolen- base attempts.
Raines credits his Hall of Fame selection to the increasing popularity of sabermetrics, advanced statistics that give greater insight into a player’s worth.
‘‘ I think they kind of looked at the numbers on the baseball cards,’’ said Raines, who overcame a recreational drug addiction that hampered his production early in his career. ‘‘ There’s more to the game than just those numbers. Guys can be just as important to a team and an organization in a lot of different ways.’’
Rodriguez, who holds the major- league records for games caught ( 2,427) and putouts by a catcher ( 12,376), hit 311 home runs and batted .296 in his career. It was no surprise he was the second catcher elected on the first ballot, following in the footsteps of his childhood idol, former Cincinnati Reds star Johnny Bench.
In 21 seasons spent mostly with the Texas Rangers, Rodriguez was a 14- time All- Star, won a record 13 Gold Gloves and took home seven Silver Slugger awards.
‘‘ I think I just prepared myself,’’ said Rodriguez, affectionately known as ‘‘ Pudge.’’ ‘‘ I’m talking about blocking thousands of balls, making thousands of throws to second base, trying to throw the ball to the right side of the base.
‘‘ You can have ability, but if you don’t have discipline, if you don’t work on things you have to do, it’s going to be hard for you to do it in your career.’’
Bagwell, who played his entire 15- year career with the Houston Astros, was elected in his seventh year on the ballot. He’s the only first baseman in major- league history with 400 homers and 200 stolen bases in his career.
‘‘ This is all overwhelming to me,’’ Bagwell said. ‘‘ Parts of me wonder, ‘ Why am I in here?’ ’’
Bagwell ended his career with 449 homers, was the 1991 National League Rookie of the Year and hit .368 with 39 homers and 116 RBI in 110 games in the strike- shortened 1994 season to capture NL MVP honors unanimously.
Just as impressively, from 1996 to 2001, Bagwell had at least 30 homers, 100 runs scored and 100 RBI per season. He became only the sixth player in major- league history to reach those marks in at least six consecutive seasons.