Who’s the greatest lead-off hitter of all time?
Well, almost certainly Ricky Henderson, but Tim Raines, enshrined this weekend in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, is right up there with him, likely number two. Others in this group, at least from the past 50 years, include Kenny Lofton, Craig Biggio, Maury Wills, Ichiro Suzuki, Vince Coleman, Lou Brock, Chuck Knoblauch, Pete Rose, Bobby Bonds, well we could go on and on.
“Tim Raines was one of the greatest leadoff hitters to ever play the game. Period,” said New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi on the eve of the Rock’s enshrinement.
“He was a game-changer whose numbers speak for themselves. For me personally, he was a treasured teammate and someone people always seemed to gravitated toward. Everyone loved the Rock, except opposing pitchers and catchers.”
It’s an interesting job, the lead-off man. You must possess a ton of qualities- speed, plate discipline, elite contact hitting and pitch judgment skills. Tim Raines had all of this, as well as some pop in his bat.
In three seasons with the Yankees, Raines hit .299 with 154 R, 43 doubles, 18 HR and 118 RBI in 242 games, winning two World Series championships (1996 and ’98), during his three year stay with the Pinstripes.
In 1997 ALDS Game 1 vs. Cleveland, he hit the first of back-to-back-to-back home runs with Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill, making the trio the first teammates ever to hit three consecutive home runs in a postseason game.
“Tim Raines was by far one of my favorite teammates,” said Derek Jeter. “He taught me how to be a professional and more importantly to enjoy the game and have fun every day. Congratulations Rock.”
Goliath ranked the top 14 leadoff hitters of all time, and just as we would rank, they have Raines #2 and Henderson #1. Bleacher Report has a list too, of the top ten, but I don’t do slide shows, as that’s just wasting time, so I can’t tell you where they have Tim Raines.
Here below is how Goliath describe Raines and I couldn’t have said it any better myself
This guy should get more notoriety and he would except for the fact that he was overshadowed by playing in the same era as the #1 player on this list. Tim ‘The Rock’ Raines had speed: 808 career thefts and is the only player in history with at least 70 stolen bases in six straight seasons, while leading the National League consecutively in four of those. He was a fine hitter as well, and won the 1986 NL Batting title.
He also hit over .300 six different times. Unlike some others on this list, he also added a little power with double digit home run seasons seven times. Throw in six seasons of 100 or more runs scored, and you have a very complete leadoff hitter. But not quite the best.
Raines will go into the Hall as a member of the Montreal Expos (1979-90, 2001) and that’s how it should be. He is arguably “Mr. Expo” which sounds like the name of a really terrible convention center scheduling service.
Of course, we will always think of Tim Raines in silver and black first, as he played with the Chicago White Sox (1991-95). On the south side he won an AL West division title, and was a part of that phenomenal 1994 first place team in the strike shortened season that did not have a postseason.
He also served with the Oakland Athletics (1999), Baltimore Orioles (2001) and Florida Marlins (2002).
Congratulations Tim Raines on your entrance into Cooperstown. We salute you!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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