Reign of Raines
Hall of Famer’s time in pinstripes unheralded, but not forgotten
IN RETROSPECT, it probably makes sense that the Yankees’ well-intentioned effort to honor Tim Raines at their Old-Timers’ Day last month fell a little flat.
Can you identify Raines’ finest moment as a Yankee?
“I do remember one playoff home run he hit,” David Cone said this past week. “It was in a game I pitched. I gave up a bunch of runs early, and he hit a big home run to bring us back into it. I think it was a Game 1, maybe. … Maybe it was Texas.”
If this were a “Closest to the pin” contest, Cone, now a YES analyst, would prevail. Raines’ only career postseason home run came in 1997 ALDS Game 1, against the Indians. Raines, Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill stroked back-to-back-to-back homers to power the Yankees to a comefrom-behind, 8-6 victory — in the only October series the Yankees lost from 1996-2000.
No other Yankee interviewed about Raines, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday with an Expos logo on his plaque, came up with anything as specific regarding his on-field contributions in the pinstripes. Yet the Yankees honored Raines, and his teammates still speak reverently of him — primarily because of what he brought off the field to that legendary party from 1996-98.
Raines’ greatest Yankees highlights occurred out of public sight, undocumented by the team’s fans. Hence the reality that, in The Bronx, he is appreciated more internally than externally.
“He was one of my favorite teammates of all time,” Jorge Posada said. “So I’m happy for him.”
“I thought he meant a lot. I thought his presence in the clubhouse meant a lot,” Joe Girardi said. “His ability to always enjoy the game meant a lot.”
Following their elimination by the Mariners in the 1995 ALDS, in which they blew a 2-0 lead in games, the Yankees underwent a massive overhaul: Bob Watson replaced Gene Michael as general manager. Joe Torre took over the manager’s office from Buck Showalter. Tino Martinez became the new first baseman as Don Mattingly went home (Mattingly didn’t f ormally announce his retirement until a year later). Girardi succeeded Mike Stanley at catcher. Kenny Rogers and Dwight Gooden joined the starting rotation, with Cone re-signing as a free agent, and Mariano Duncan the infield.
Amid all this movement, the acquisition of Raines, then 36, in a trade with the White Sox on Dec. 28, 1995 — a transaction engineered by Raines’ then-agent Tom Reich, who was very close with George Steinbrenner — created a relatively small ripple. His prime seasons with the Expos were already five years in the rearview mirror.
Though the Yankees talked big about using Raines as their everyday left fielder and leadoff hitter, he injured his left thumb in spring training and, after joining the team in mid-April, spent a month and four days healthy before suffering a right hamstring injury that sidelined him for nearly three months.
When Raines did heal his legs, however, he gave the Yankees something. He put up a .299/.395/.429 slash line in 242 games over three seasons — right in line with his career totals (2,502 games) of .294/.385/.425. He recorded 18 homers (plus the one in the ’97 ALDS) and stole 26 bases (plus two in that same ’97 ALDS).
“He just took on whatever role we needed him to play,” Torre, at a golf outing this past week for his Safe at Home Foundation, said of Raines. “He knew how to play part-time.”
“He knew how to steal a base. He knew how to hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Girardi said. “When you put him in and someone else sat, you weren’t really losing anything.”
Always, with Raines, you gained his wisdom and wit.
“Jeter still talks to this day about Raines and [Darryl Strawberry] talking to him about the mistakes they made,” Cone said, “kind of giving him a road map of what not to do and what to look for.”
“What I remember most about him was always irritating O’Neill on purpose,” Girardi said. “He’d tap him, or needle him and say, ‘What, are you gonna hit a little guy?’”
In a Hall of Fame telephone news conference last week, the 5-foot-8 Raines described 1996 as “probably the best year up and to that point in my career. Obviously, as players, you play to eventually try and win the world championships, and that was something that I was truly after.”
He got two rings, ’96 and ’98, and he cherishes memories that come with them. Montreal, where “Rock” is beloved, undoubtedly will be best represented in Cooperstown, a relatively easy trip from the Expos’ home, when Raines makes his induction speech Sunday. But those in New York who knew him best, if they can’t match the Canadian volume, will be cheering him just as ardently.