Tim Raines is on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the 10th and final time this winter, and after he pulled in 69.8 percent of the BBWAA vote last year, his supporters are pulling out all the stops to get the former Montreal Expos star over the 75 percent threshold this time.
That includes arguing his case on the floor of the Canadian Parliament, as House of Commons member Chris Bittle did Wednesday.
“Raines was one of the finest baseball players of the 1980s,” Bittle announced. “Raines is one of the greatest leadoff hitters of all-time, fifth all-time in stolen bases. So why isn’t he in the Hall of Fame already? The only knock against Raines is that he played his best years for the Montreal Expos. As an ESPN columnist pointed out, when you Google the phrase ‘Tim Raines shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame,’ it gets zero results.
“Mr. Speaker, I call upon the voters, members of the Baseball Writers Association, to right this wrong and vote Tim Raines into the Hall of Fame.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_KtT6CMIOM
Bittle is right, of course. Raines was a dominant base-stealer with an underrated walk-heavy skill set. By almost any measure he belongs in Cooperstown, and if you believe Baseball-Reference’s WAR formula he’s the 108th best player of all-time, about even with Tony Gwynn and Jim Palmer.
Most players get a boost in their final year on the Hall of Fame ballot, so Raines has a strong chance of being elected, but he still can use all the advocacy he can get.
As you’d expect, Raines was grateful that Bittle took up his cause.
Wow, thank you so very much sir. I am very honored and deeply humbled by your gesture. Thanks a lot for your support, Mr. Bittle and Canada! https://t.co/lFgnE3IIUx
— Tim Raines (@TimRaines30) November 24, 2016
