Tim Raines Should Be in the Hall of Fame

Here’s an article on SI.com from Joe Poznanski in which he argues why Tim Raines, Sr. should be in the Hall of Fame.  That seems like a no-brainer to me.

I can think of a couple of legitimate criticisms of Tim Raines.  He didn’t get 3,000 hits (he had 2,605), he didn’t drive in a 1,000 runs (980) and he didn’t finish with a career batting average of .300 (.294).  However, the thing that really hurts his Hall of Fame chances the most is that he had the misfortune of playing the game at the same time as Rickie Henderson, who was better than Raines in all the things that made Raines a truly great player.

Raines finished with 808 stolen bases, good for 5th all-time behind Henderson, Lou Brock, Ty Cobb and Billy Hamilton.  He also scored 1,571 runs, good for 50th on the all-time list, and there are a lot more than 50 hitters in the Hall of Fame.  Raines also had a career .385 on-base percentage.

In short, Raines may have been the second best lead-off hitter in baseball history.  Unfortunately, his career almost exactly overlapped the very best.