TIM RAINES 1996-98
Already a 17-year veteran in 1995, Raines didn’t start the White Sox’s July 4 home game against the Yankees and their rookie starter. Yet the man known as Rock still recalls that contest, when Rivera set a career best by pitching eight innings for the victory. Given that small, excellent sample size, Raines might have been less surprised than anyone when he joined the Yankees the next season and watched Rivera become something special.
“I just remember him being the setup guy, [us] having more trust in him as our setup guy than we did in Wetteland as our closer,” Raines said. “And then, obviously, he became the closer. It was remarkable, the things he was able to accomplish. In all the years I played, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Raines, who also spent 2000 spring training with the Yankees and didn’t retire until 2002, recalls Rivera’s personality as much as his performance.
“You would always see him smiling,” Raines said. “He was probably our best outfielder, too. He would run down more balls in batting practice than our guys would in games.”
Like Boggs, Raines can boast of a hit against Rivera, a single in his one encounter while with the A’s on April 6, 1999.
“I just got it barely over [Scott Brosius’] head. It didn’t even make it to the outfield,” Raines said. “I looked at him, and he looked at me, and we had a big chuckle about it.”
Rivera’s joining him in the Hall, which welcomed him in 2017, is “not a surprise,” Raines said, though the righthander’s timing — at age 49 — might be.
“I thought he’d pitch until he was 50,” Raines said. “He probably could pitch today and get people out.”