Lawrence Glenn Hope Raines (March 9, 1930 – January 28, 1978) was an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

who played from 1957 to 1958 for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

.Major League Baseball statistics
''Baseball Reference''

Biography

Born in St. Albans, West Virginia, Raines is recognized for having been the first ballplayer to perform professionally in

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

Japanese Baseball Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1859 and is Japan's most popular participatory and spectator sport. The first professional competitions emerged in the 1920s. The highest level of baseball in Japan is Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), whic ...

and the major leagues. Raines debuted professionally with the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" F ...

of the

Negro American League The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and disbanded after its 1962 season. Negro American League franchises :''An ...

, a premier team owned and managed by the legendary

Rube Foster Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Foster is considered by sports historians to hav ...

.Akin, William E
''West Virginia baseball: a history, 1865-2000''
McFarland & Company, Inc., 2006. In 1952, he topped the

East–West All-Star Game The East–West All-Star Game was an annual all-star game for Negro league baseball players. The game was the brainchild of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1933 in baseball, 1933 he decided to emulate the Major League Baseball ...

poll with a total of 24,583 votes and started at

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

for the Western Division at

Comiskey Park Comiskey Park was a ballpark in Chicago, Illinois, located in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-south side of the city. The stadium served as the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League from 1910 through 1990. Built by Wh ...

. In 1953, Raines traveled to Japan where he played two seasons for the

Hankyu Braves The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...

.Minor and Japanese leagues statistics
''Baseball Reference''. Raines posted a .286

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with eight

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 49

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) 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 th ...

through 120 games in his season debut. Then in 1953, he won the

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...

batting title with a .337 average, while collecting 18 homers and 96 RBI in 137 games. Afterwards, Raines returned in 1955 to the United States and agreed to sign a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians. Raines spent two years in the Cleveland minor league system before being promoted to the Indians in 1957. He was used sparingly in some ways, going up and down between the majors and the minors until 1958. Raines later played from 1959 through 1961 at Triple-A level for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

and

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

organizations. He returned to Hankyu for one more season in 1962, retiring after that. In between, Raines played winterball in Venezuela for the

Rapiños de Occidente The Rapiños de Occidente (Western Raptors) was a Venezuelan baseball club that played from 1957 through 1963 in the Liga Occidental de Béisbol Profesional (Western Professional Baseball League). They played their home games at the old olympic sta ...

club in its 1960-61 season.Gutiérrez, Daniel; Alvarez, Efraim; Gutiérrez (h), Daniel (2006). ''La Enciclopedia del Béisbol en Venezuela''. LVBP, Caracas. Raines died in 1978 in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...

, at the age of 47.

Sources

External links

, o
Retrosheet
o
SABR Biography Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raines, Larry 1930 births 1978 deaths African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball players from West Virginia Chicago American Giants players Cleveland Indians players Hankyu Braves players Indianapolis Indians players Major League Baseball infielders People from St. Albans, West Virginia Rapiños de Occidente players Reading Indians players San Diego Padres (minor league) players Syracuse Chiefs players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela 20th-century African-American sportsmen Sportspeople from Kanawha County, West Virginia

Biography

See also

Sources

External links