When baseball’s Hall of Fame class of 2017 was announced Wednesday afternoon, I was getting ready to saddle up my high horse.
I was going to chastise some members of the Baseball Writers Association of America for pumping life into the Hall of Fame candidacies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both of whom climbed above 50 percent in their fifth time on the ballot. As they move up the ballot, it looks like those two cheaters will eventually be inducted into Cooperstown. They know they cheated, you know they cheated and I know they cheated. They disgraced the game and tarnished their own legacies.
Next, I was going to complain about the lack of respect accorded former Rockies outfielder Larry Walker. He improved from 15.5 percent to 21.9 percent of the vote from a year ago, but fell far short of the 75 percent needed for induction. I don’t think Walker’s ever going to ever make the Hall of Fame, and I worry that the Coors Field Factor is also going to haunt Todd Helton down the road.
But then, I thought about Tim Raines’ election to the Hall of Fame and the negative arguments melted away.
Raines’ feel-good moment was a long time coming. He made it on his 10th and final year on the ballot. I always thought Raines was underappreciated, in part because he spent so many seasons playing in Montreal but also because he was overshadowed by Rickey Henderson. But consider that Raines was one of only four men since 1900 to steal 800-plus bases. He accomplished that while compiling the highest stolen-base success rate (84.7 percent) of all time. He was a great leadoff hitter, with 10 seasons with an on-base percentage of .390 or better. Sabermetric baseball guys tend to love Raines.
Yes, he fell short of 3,000 career hits (he had 2,605) and his career batting average was .294. But Raines made things happen. He sparked his team, he changed games.
“It takes a real appreciation of baseball to understand what Tim Raines did,” former Expos general manager
As an aside, I’ll point out to all of those Colorado newcomers that Raines was one of the best players to ever spend a summer in Denver.
In 1980, as a second basemen for the Triple-A Denver Bears, Raines won the The American Association batting title with a .354 average. At age 20, Raines set a league record by stealing 77 bases and tied for the league lead with 11 triples. He put up those gaudy numbers even though he spent 18 days with Montreal in July and August. Raines was named the The Sporting News’ Minor League Player of the Year.
So, while there is plenty to argue about when it comes to the Hall of Fame voting, Raines’ election was the right call, just in the nick of time.
