My Hall of Fame Ballot - Tim Raines

#3 on my Hall of Fame Ballot:

Tim Raines: Raines is often overshadowed as a leadoff hitter due to playing at the same time as the aforementioned greatest, but Raines also had a great career. He stole 808 bases which is 5th all time, he was in top ten in steals 11 times, and he led the league 4 times. He was in top six in OBP 7 times. He was in the top ten in runs scored 8 times. He was in the top ten in walks 6 times.

One case against Raines is that he didn't get to 3,000 hits. He fell short with 2,605 but when you compare him to Lou Brock, who was a first ballot hall of famer, you will see that Raines was the better player. Brock had 130 more steals but also was caught stealing 161 more times than Raines. Brocks career line is: .293/.343/.410 ops+109 Raines is: .294/.385/.425 ops+ 123. The biggest reason why Brock got into the hall on the first try, while Raines will likely have to wait a long time (if ever) to get in, is because Brock got over the 3,000 hit mark, with 3,023 hits to be exact. Raines probably could have gotten over 3,000 hit mark if he didn't walk so much. Raines walked 1,330 times compared to Brock who walked 761 times. If Raines wanted to, I believe he could have walked less and picked up 400 more hits in his career, but that doesn't matter because the voters only care about getting over the 3,000 mark.

Perhaps the biggest reason why Raines doesn't get the votes is because he admitted to using cocaine and people will always remember how he slid head first because he often had a vial of coke in his back pocket (he kept it there to avoid it being discovered in his locker). I don't condone using drugs, but I find it a little ridiculous that voters hold this against him when the fact is he admitted to this when he was 22, went to rehab during that offseason, and never had problems with it again. I'm not trying to play the race card, but how come Josh Hamilton is this American hero while Raines is just another coke user from the '80s? Raines most likely wont's get in, but hopefully he will get more votes than last year and make that long climb up to the 75% mark.