Timothy Raines Sr. (born September 16, 1959), nicknamed "Rock",Raines received this nickname at an Expo rookie camp when he was seventeen, based on his physique. is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

coach and former player. He played as a

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering sys ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

for six teams from 1979 to 2002 and was best known for his 13 seasons with the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in ...

. A seven-time All-Star, four-time stolen base champion, and National League batting champion, Raines is regarded as one of the best leadoff hitters and baserunners in baseball history.In 2001, Bill James ranked Raines as the second-greatest leadoff player in MLB history. In 2013, Raines began working in the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

organization as a roving outfield and baserunning instructor. He was inducted into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

in 2017.

Early life

Raines was born in

Sanford, Florida Sanford is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Seminole County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 61,051. Known as the "Historic Waterfront Gateway City", Sanford sits on the southern shore ...

, to Ned and Florence Raines. He attended Seminole High School in Sanford. Raines was one of seven children. Two of his brothers, Levi and Ned III, played minor league baseball. As a baseball player at Seminole, Raines stole home plate ten times. He also rushed for 1,000 yards in eight football games and set two school track and field records that lasted for several years. Raines reportedly received over 100 scholarship offers to play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

Career

Montreal Expos

The

selected Raines in the fifth round of the 1977 Major League Baseball draft. After debuting with six games as a

pinch runner In baseball, a pinch runner is a player substituted for the specific purpose of replacing another player on base. The pinch runner may be faster or otherwise more skilled at base-running than the player for whom the pinch runner has been subs ...

in 1979, he played briefly as a second baseman for the Expos in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

but soon switched to playing the outfield, and rapidly became a fan favorite due to his aggressiveness on the basepaths. In his strike-interrupted 1981 rookie season, he batted .304 and set a then Major League Baseball rookie record with 71 stolen bases, breaking the previous mark of 56 steals set by Gene Richards in 1977. Raines was caught stealing for the first time in 1981, after having begun his career with a then major league record 27 consecutive successful stolen bases. Raines was the runner-up for the National League's

Rookie of the Year Award A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

in 1981, which was won by

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

pitcher Fernando Valenzuela. Raines' performance dipped in 1982, as he hit .277 with a .353 on-base percentage. At the end of the season, Raines entered treatment for substance abuse, having spent an estimated $40,000 that year on cocaine. To avoid leaving the drug in his locker, Raines carried it in his hip pocket, and slid headfirst when running the bases. He used cocaine before games, in his car, after games, and on some occasions between innings in the clubhouse. Originally published in

The Gazette The Gazette (stylized as the GazettE), formerly known as , is a Japanese visual kei rock band, formed in Kanagawa in early 2002.''Shoxx'' Vol 106 June 2007 pg 40-45 The band is currently signed to Sony Music Records. Biography 2002: Conception a ...

on 1982-12-11. Raines would later testify at the Pittsburgh drug trials in September 1985. In 1983, Raines stole a career high of 90 bases, the second-highest total in franchise history, and scored 133 runs, a franchise record. He was named Expos Player of the Year in 1983, 1985, and 1986. In each season from 1981 to

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

, Raines stole at least 70 bases. He had a career-high .334 batting average in 1986, winning the National League Batting Championship. Raines maintained a consistently high on-base percentage during this period and a rising slugging percentage, reaching a career peak of .429 in 1987. Although he never won a

Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

, Raines was an excellent defensive player who led the National League with 21 assists in 1983 and, with 4

double play In baseball and softball, a double play (denoted as DP in baseball statistics) is the act of making two outs during the same continuous play. Double plays can occur any time there is at least one baserunner and fewer than two outs. In Major Lea ...

s, tied for the league lead in double plays by an outfielder in 1985. Raines became a free agent on November 12, 1986 but in spite of his league-leading play no team made a serious attempt to sign him (in a period when Major League Baseball owners

colluded Collusion is a deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right. Collusion is not always considered illegal. It can be used to att ...

to keep salaries down). On May 1, 1987, hours after being permitted to negotiate again with Montreal, Raines signed a new deal with the Expos for $5 million over three years and a $900,000 signing bonus. In his first game back, on May 2, facing the Mets, although Raines had not participated in

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives estab ...

or any other competitive preparation for the season, he hit the first pitch he saw off the right-field wall for a triple. Raines finished the game with four hits in five at-bats, three runs, one walk, a stolen base, and a game-winning grand slam in the 10th inning. Even without having played in April, Raines led the Expos in runs, walks, times on base, runs created, and stolen bases, in addition to batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. He also garnered MVP honors in the All-Star Game as he delivered a game-winning triple in the 13th inning. Raines would, in 1992, be one of dozens of players retroactively awarded collusion damages, receiving over $865,000.

Post-Expos career

The Expos traded Raines to the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

on December 20,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

, along with Jeff Carter and a

player to be named later In Major League Baseball, a player to be named later (PTBNL) is an unnamed player involved in exchange or "trade" of players between teams. The terms of a trade are not finalized until a later date, most often following the conclusion of the seaso ...

(PTBNL), later identified as Mario Brito, in exchange for Iván Calderón and Barry Jones. Raines later admitted he left Montreal because he wanted to win a

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

and did not believe the Expos "had what it took", even though he ended up not winning the title in Chicago after all but years later with the New York Yankees instead. Tim Raines 1995

In his first season in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league b ...

, Raines hit for a .268 average but with a .359

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

; he was second on the team in runs scored as the White Sox finished the season in second place in the

American League Western Division The American League West is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. The division has five teams as of the 2013 season, but had four teams from 1994 to 2012, and had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. Although its teams cur ...

. His average improved in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

to .294 with a .380 on-base percentage. In 1993, despite missing nearly six weeks in April and May due to a torn ligament in his thumb he suffered while stealing a base, he managed to hit .306 with 16 home runs as the White Sox won the American League Western Division title. In the 1993 American League Championship Series against the

, Raines posted a .444 batting average and scored five runs in a losing cause. On December 28, 1995, the White Sox traded Raines to the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

for future considerations; in February 1996, the teams agreed on Blaise Kozeniewski as the return. With the Yankees, Raines received two

World Series ring A World Series ring is an award given to Major League Baseball players who win the World Series. Since only one Commissioner's Trophy is awarded to the team, a World Series ring is an individual award that players and staff of each World Series ...

s in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

and 1998. While his playing time was curtailed due to injuries, he contributed to a loose clubhouse atmosphere, and was productive when he came up to the plate. With the Yankees, Raines stole his 800th base on June 10, 1998. In January 1999, Raines signed as a free agent with the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...

. After a kidney biopsy on July 23, Raines was diagnosed with

lupus Lupus, technically known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Commo ...

and spent the rest of the year undergoing treatment and recovery.

Recovery and return

Raines was signed by the Yankees as a free agent on February 1,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, but was released on March 23. On December 21, Raines was signed by the Expos. At the Expos home opener in 2001, Raines received what he described as the longest and loudest standing ovation in his entire career, resulting in the pitcher walking him on four pitches. With limited playing time, Raines batted .308, with a .433 on-base percentage and a .436 slugging percentage. That same year, he was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame. Raines underwent surgery on May 31 due to a left shoulder strain, and spent time rehabilitating with the Expos Triple-A club, the

Ottawa Lynx The Ottawa Lynx were a Minor League Baseball team that competed in the Triple-A International League (IL) from 1993 to 2007. The team's home field was Lynx Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario. Over 15 seasons, the team was an affiliate of the Montreal ...

. On August 21, 2001, Raines and his son, Tim Raines Jr., became the first father-son pair to play against each other in an official professional baseball game, when the Lynx played the

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field, located in downt ...

(the two had faced each other earlier in the year during spring training). Raines returned to the major league club on August 22. On October 3, the Expos traded Raines to the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

, thereby permitting Raines to play in a major league game with his son. On October 4, Raines Jr. played center field and Raines Sr. played left field for Baltimore, becoming the second father and son team to play for the same major league team (a feat previously accomplished by

Ken Griffey Sr. George Kenneth Griffey (born April 10, 1950) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder from through , most notably as a member of the Cincinnati Reds dynasty that wo ...

and

Ken Griffey Jr. George Kenneth Griffey Jr. (born November 21, 1969), nicknamed "Junior" and "the Kid", is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle M ...

). Raines played his last season in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

with the Florida Marlins. He is one of only 29 players in baseball history to date to have appeared in Major League baseball games in four decades, was the last active player who was involved with the Pittsburgh drug trials, and also the last MLB batter to wear a batting helmet with no ear flap. ( Julio Franco, who retired in 2007, was also eligible to wear a batting helmet with no ear flap, but preferred to do so.)

Career statistics

In a 23-year career, Raines played in 2,502

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (suc ...

accumulating 2,605

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album s ...

in 8,872 at bats for a .294 career batting average along with 170 home runs, 980

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the b ...

, a .385

and a .425

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

. He ended his career with a .987

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, di ...

. Raines stole at least 70 bases in each of his first six full seasons (1981–1986), leading the National League in

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe o ...

s each season from 1981 to 1984, with a career high of 90 steals in 1983. Raines also led the National League in

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted bal ...

twice (1983 and 1987). Raines batted over .300 in five full seasons and over .320 from 1985 to 1987, winning the 1986 National League

batting Batting may refer to: *Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs *Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ru ...

title with a .334 average. He also had six full seasons with an on-base percentage above .390. With 808 steals in his career, Raines has the fourth-highest total in major league history, behind

Rickey Henderson Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson (born December 25, 1958) is an American retired professional baseball left fielder who played his 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four separate tenures with hi ...

Lou Brock Louis Clark Brock (June 18, 1939September 6, 2020) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He began his 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the 1961 Chicago Cubs but spent most of it as a left fielder for the St. Louis ...

and

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the l ...

. Some sources, such as Baseball Reference, also place Raines behind Billy Hamilton, who recorded over 900 steals from 1888 to 1901; however, nearly 800 of these were achieved prior to 1898, when the definition of a steal was altered, and these early steals are not officially recognized. Raines's career stolen base percentage (84.7%) was the highest in major league history for players with 300 or more attempts, until he was surpassed by Carlos Beltrán with an 86.4% success rate. (Note that caught stealing data is incomplete prior to the 1951 season.) Raines set an American League records of 40 consecutive successful steal attempts between July 1993 and August 1995 (the record was broken by

Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. He played nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), where he began hi ...

in May 2007, when he completed 45 consecutive steals). Among switch hitters, Raines ranks sixth in career hits (2,605), fourth in runs (1,571), walks (1,330) and

times on base In baseball statistics, the term times on base (TOB), is the cumulative total number of times a batter has reached base as a result of a hit, base on balls, or hit by pitch. This statistic does not include times reaching base by way of an error ...

(3,977), fifth in

plate appearance In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runn ...

s (10,359), seventh in

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

(1,892),

doubles Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles te ...

(430), total bases (3,771) and

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s (8,872), eighth in triples (113) and tenth in extra base hits (713). He held the Expos/Washington Nationals franchise records for career runs (947) until May 22, 2021, when Ryan Zimmerman scored his 948th run for the franchise. Raines holds the Nationals/Expos franchise records for steals (635), singles (1,163), triples (82) and walks (793), and was the seventh player whose career began after 1945 to retire with over 1,500 runs and 100 triples.The previous six were

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

Pete Rose Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a membe ...

George Brett George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953) is an American former professional baseball player who played all of his 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a third baseman for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hits are second- ...

, Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. His 1,966 games in left field ranked seventh in major league history when he retired. From 1983 to 1987,

Total Baseball ''Total Baseball'' (latest edition , first published 1989) is a baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. The latest edition, published in 2004, is its eighth.Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. ...

's win shares formula, one place ahead of

Mark McGwire Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball first baseman who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Card ...

League leading statistics

Reference: Baseball-Reference.com Leader and Record Board Index *Led the National League in batting average in 1986 (.334), the third

switch hitter In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers. Characteristics Right-handed batters generally hit better ag ...

to win the NL batting title *Led the National League in on-base percentage in 1986 (.413) *Led the major leagues in stolen bases in 1981 (71) and 1984 (75) *Led the National League in stolen bases in 1982 (78) and 1983 (90) *Led the major leagues in runs scored in 1983 (133) and 1987 (123) *Led the National League for times on base in 1983 (282), 1984 (281), and 1986 (274) *Led the National League in outfield assists in 1983 (21) *Tied for the National League lead in

s by an outfielder in 1985 (4)

Expos records

Reference: Montreal Expos Batting Leaders from baseball-reference.com *Single-season record for plate appearances (731 in 1982) *Single-season record for runs (133 in 1983) *Career record for runs (947) *Single-season record for triples (13 in 1985); shared with Rodney Scott and

Mitch Webster Mitchell Dean Webster (born May 16, 1959) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1983 through 1995 for the Toronto Blue Jays, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers. Lis ...

*Career record for singles (1,163) *Career record for triples (82) *Career record for walks (793) *Career record for times on base (2,440) *Career record for stolen bases (635) *Career record for runs created (1,047) Raines 30

Honors and awards

Raines was a

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

All-Star in 7 consecutive seasons (1981–1987), and was named the

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a partic ...

of the 1987 All-Star Game. In 1981, ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' named Raines the National League Rookie of the Year. Raines finished in the top 10 in voting for the NL Most Valuable Player Award three times (1983, 1986, 1987). He won a

Silver Slugger Award The Silver Slugger Award has been awarded annually since 1980 to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball. These voters ...

as an outfielder in 1986 when he led the National League in both batting average and

. In 2013, Raines was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. On January 18, 2017, Raines was elected to the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball ...

. He was formally inducted on July 30. His plaque depicts him in an Expos cap. The baseball complex at Seminole High School in

, Raines' alma mater, has been renamed Tim Raines Athletic Park in his honor, and Raines' number 22 has been retired at the school. Raines was also gifted a ceremonious key to the city of Sanford in March 2019, and the Sanford Historical Museum dedicated an exhibit to Raines, filling it with memorabilia from his career.

Baseball Hall of Fame candidacy

Raines was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2017, appearing on 86.0% of ballots cast. He was eligible for election to the

in January 2008, and various

sabermetricians Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...

and commentators had supported his induction prior to his being elected in 2017.

Coaching career

Raines began his coaching career in 2003 as manager of the

Class A-Advanced High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...

Brevard County Manatees affiliate of the Expos. He was promoted to the major league team in 2004 and was present for the Expos' final games as a Montreal franchise. He was a coach for the White Sox from November 2004 until October 2006. During the

2005 World Series The 2005 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2005 season. The 101st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Chicago White Sox and the National ...

Championship season, Raines served as first base coach. During the 2006 season, he served as bench coach. He was the hitting coach for the minor-league Harrisburg Senators in 2007, but was not retained by the team for 2008. Raines signed a two-year contract to manage the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League, starting in 2009. After the 2010 season, the Bears moved to the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, and the team announced Raines would return to manage in 2011. In 2012, he was an assistant coach and Director of Player Development for the Bears. The

hired Raines as a minor league baserunning and outfield coach in 2013.

Personal life

In 1979, Raines married Virginia Hilton, a classmate at Seminole High School. The couple had two children: Tim Jr. ("Little Rock"), and André ("Little Hawk"). In high school, he was a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Th ...

. Discussing his decision to play professional baseball instead of football he stated, "...in football I was a running back, so in the NFL my career would have probably lasted six or seven years and in baseball I ended up playing 23 years. In baseball you can play a long time so I think it's better when you think of it in that way." In 2007, he moved to Estrella Mountain Ranch, a suburb of

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, and married Shannon Watson from Arnprior, Ontario. She had twin babies in 2010. In 2017, Raines published his autobiography, written with journalist Alan Maimon, ''Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball's Fast Lane''.

Notes

References

External links

Tim Raines
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Interview with Tim Raines
on KUT's " In Black America" radio series, September 8, 1988 at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting : {{DEFAULTSORT:Raines, Tim 1959 births Living people Major League Baseball left fielders Montreal Expos players Chicago White Sox players New York Yankees players Oakland Athletics players Baltimore Orioles players Florida Marlins players Chicago White Sox coaches National League All-Stars Baseball players from Florida Minor league baseball managers African-American baseball players African-American baseball managers African-American baseball coaches American expatriate baseball players in Canada Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees National League stolen base champions Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs Major League Baseball players with retired numbers Gulf Coast Expos players West Palm Beach Expos players Memphis Chicks players Denver Bears players Nashville Sounds players Gulf Coast Yankees players Tampa Yankees players Norwich Navigators players Columbus Clippers players Somerset Patriots players Jupiter Hammerheads players Ottawa Lynx players People with lupus Sportspeople from Sanford, Florida Major League Baseball bench coaches Major League Baseball third base coaches Seminole High School (Seminole County, Florida) alumni Silver Slugger Award winners People from Heathrow, Florida 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople