Raines: I’m proud I grew up in Sanford
Before Tim Raines embarked on a Hall of Fame career, he had to forgo his favorite sport. Football. While growing up in Sanford, Raines was as much of a threat as a running back as he was on the bases in baseball. Given his smaller stature, Raines wisely picked the sport without contact.
Four decades later, Raines, 57, will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame today in Cooperstown, N.Y. He spoke with the Sentinel this past week from Goodyear, Ariz., where he lives with his wife, Shannon, and twin 6-year-old daughters, Ava and Amelie.
Question: You made your major-league debut two years after being drafted. What do you remember about that day in 1979? Answer: “It was the first
time I ever set foot in a major-league ballpark. I was so nervous that when we took batting practice, I don’t know if I got a ball out of the infield. When I was taking fly balls, I couldn’t judge a ball to save my life. It was probably the most nervous I have ever been in my life at that point. It was mind-boggling but so exciting.’’
Question: Who was your baseball idol?
Answer: “[Former Cincinnati Reds second baseman] Joe Morgan is the reason why primarily I chose to go in the direction I decided to go. I was an infielder in the minor leagues. Same size. Same type of speed on the bases. When he won MVP [in 1975 and ’76], I saw that size didn’t really matter in baseball. He made me feel like baseball would be the sport I would end up playing.’’
Question: Your father, Ned, was a semi-pro player. We heard he used to race you and your brothers. Is that true?
Answer: “We all had our father as a role model. He felt like it was cool after work, eight to 10 hours, to go out on the side of the house and race with us. He was pretty fast. It took us a number of years to beat him. I was the first one to beat him. After that, he never raced us again. I think I was maybe 11 or 12 at the time.
“Competing at a young age with my dad, as well as my older brothers, brought that competitiveness out in all of us.’’
Question: What about your mother, Florence?
Answer: “She was definitely the backbone of my career. I remember playing in Montreal, and after every game, she would critique what I did. There were times where I would call her, and she would tell me I swung at bad pitches, that I should have taken a walk, that I should have had a double when I had a single.’’
Question: Your parents and some of your closest friends from Sanford will be in Cooperstown today. What do those longtime connections say to you?
Answer: “If you’re my friend, you’re always going to be my friend, especially when it comes to Sanford. It goes all the way back to Little League, high school, up until I left to play professional baseball. Those friends will always be friends.’’
Question: Of all the things you did, what makes you the proudest?
Answer: “First is making a major-league team. Not when I first got called up but my first full season, being an opening-day starter in 1981. Making my first all-star team, which was ’81. Playing with my son [Tim Jr.] in 2001 on the same team [with the Baltimore Orioles], playing in the same outfield together. That was something we never really thought about. And then winning the two world championships. It can’t be one. It has to be five or six.’’
Question: What do you want to say to the people of Sanford?
Answer: “Most of all, just to say how proud I am of where I grew up. It still means a lot to me. It’s where I will always say where I was from.
“Hopefully for those kids who are growing up in Sanford, it gives them hope that, even though you’re from a small town, your dreams can be answered. … Try to be the best you can be, and you never know. You can be a Hall of Famer yourself.’’