THT: Tango: Tim Raines’ case for the Hall of Fame

Tired of reading things like...”Tim Raines? Sounds intriguing, but like the Hawk (Andre Dawson), I just can’t quite pull my finger on Rock.”? Well, here’s Tango.

The difference between comparing to groups, as opposed to one-on-one comparisons, is that we are no longer fascinated by milestones like 3000 hits, or .300 batting average. Immortality is not about achieving some arbitrary rounded-number milestone. This is especially true in this case, since baseball is not about getting hits, but about generating runs. It’s runs that leads to wins, not hits. Hits is just one component of creating runs. Extra base hits, walks, and steals are the other main components.

While individually, Raines is unlike his peers, overall, it’s hard to distinguish them. Any time we compare Raines to a reasonable group of Hall of Famers, we always end up with the same thing: Raines is just like them. If you have a group of players worthy of the Hall, and an individual player compares very favorably to that group, you have a Hall-worthy player by definition. That is what Tim Raines is: the definition of a Hall of Famer. Whether Raines is compared to the best of the best leadoff hitters or the best No. 3 hitters or the best players of his era, he stands among them. And they stand in the Hall of Fame.

The Province: Larry Walker: This is where all started

And Larry Walker knows where it won’t all end…

Q: Cooperstown? The Baseball Hall of Fame? Do you think you have a shot at it now?

A: No. No chance. I’ll stick by my guns saying I don’t have a chance but I’d be honoured just getting some votes. The MVPs and the batting titles ... I won some awards and did some things during some years but Cooperstown is head and shoulders above anything else because of who’s in there and what’s in there. Guys like Jim Rice or Andre Dawson who should be in there, and they can’t get in. They had amazing careers. I’d be happy getting a few votes. That’s the truth. I’m happy with that.

MLB.com: Kerrigan hired as Pirates pitching coach

Sure to be the biggest news of the day…

As a player, Kerrigan, a right-handed pitcher, split parts of four seasons playing for the Expos and the Orioles.

Kerrigan will take the reins of a relatively young pitching staff that largely underperformed as a group in ‘08. The starting rotation finished among the league’s worst in nearly every statistical category, including at the bottom in ERA (5.36) and wins (33).

Pirates pitchers, as a whole, amassed a 5.08 ERA, the third-worst mark in the Majors, and allowed 657 walks. Only Baltimore issued more free passes.

And, arguably most telling of the staff-wide, season-long struggles, for the first time since 1890, not one Pittsburgh hurler reached 10 wins on the season.

Kerrigan, 54, has spent parts of 12 seasons as a Major League pitching coach since first holding the position with the Expos from 1992-96.

Seems like a good move.  Does anyone know any details that would back up his reputation for extreme competence?  Please disregard the disastrous six weeks he spent as interim manager of the Red Sox.

Also, Kerrigan comes across as very likeable in that book Steve Fireovid wrote about his year in the Expos organization.

Matt Stairs solidifies place as greatest journeyman slugger

On Sept. 28 Stairs faced Washington rookie pitcher Marco Estrada, who became an unwitting partner in history. Sort of. Estrada threw the slider that did not slide, and Stairs unleashed the hangover swing he picked up one too-bright and too-early morning in Tucson. He yanked the ball into the right field seats. He stomped around the bases. That was the 254th home run of Matt Stairs career.

And with that, Stairs became the greatest journeyman slugger in history.

Joe Poz and Matt Stairs and nobody linked this yesterday?  Tsk, tsk.

Keri: Expos All-Time 40-Man Roster Revealed

In honor of ex-po, Larry Biittner, I see...Two I’s, Two T’s and No Chance.

Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions for the Expos’ all-time 40-man roster. I’ve selected the 40 players who’ll represent Nos Amours for the Seamheads.com league I’m in with Curt Schilling, Joe Posnanski, Derrick Gould and others.

3B
Bob Bailey: No Tim Wallach, no Larry Parrish, I’m as surprised as you. But in keeping with the OBP theme, Bailey made outs less frequently than any other third baseman in Expos history, so he gets the nod.

SS
Hubie Brooks: Probably better suited to third base, Brooks was barely passable defensively at short. But he hit the snot out of the ball after coming over in the Gary Carter trade.

Wil Cordero: Another lefty-masher, another lousy glove. Orlando Cabrera just missed the cut, as his solid defense wasn’t enough to make up for his weak bat.

Jonah Keri: 14 Years Ago Today, My Heart Was Ripped Out…

Much like Heath Haynes not giving up a run for the ‘94 Expos...Jonah Keri also refuses to give up.

…by the start of the 1994 baseball strike. That labor stoppage would ultimately wipe out the rest of the regular season, as well as the entire playoffs.

For a Montreal Expos fan like me, it was especially painful. When the strike started, the Expos owned the best record in baseball (74-40) and were well on their way to an NL East title, having built a six-game lead on the Atlanta Braves while peaking in the summer months.

...Just look at the roster the Expos trotted out that season. Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou and John Wetteland in their primes. Superprospects Cliff Floyd and Rondell White getting their first tastes of the big leagues. A killer bullpen stuffed with power righties. A well-built, potent bench. A lights-out starting rotation led by veterans Jeff Fassero and Ken Hill…and a young, string-bean righty named Pedro Martinez. There is no way this team would have lost, to anyone. I know this to be true.

...I am a Montrealer. I am a Montreal Expos fan. Always and forever.

Former Expos manager, baseball scout, author Karl Kuehl dies at 70

Karl Kuehl...another Expo connection. Gone.

Karl Kuehl, a baseball scout, coach, author and player development specialist known for his contributions to the Oakland Athletics teams that won three pennants, died Wednesday. He was 70.

Kuehl died of pulmonary fibrosis in a Scottsdale hospital, his son John said. He had been active until recent weeks, when he was hospitalized.

Kuehl was the manager of the Montreal Expos in 1976, going 43-85 before being fired with two months left in the season.

Globe&Mail: Blair: Burnett’s fingernail throws curve to team

“Well, that fingernail, you know, it slammed into the door of his car and it’s still not back where they can put a false nail on it,” pitching coach Brad Arnsberg revealed when he was questioned about Burnett’s reluctance to throw his curve.

“I think we’re back to looking to 10 to 14 days before he can feature his hook again.” Uh, er ... what nail? “His right index,” Arnsberg said.

“I don’t know when it happened exactly, but it knocked the end off that nail and it’s still recuperating. He throws that spiked curveball - he doesn’t feel good with the conventional curve grip - so they can’t even put a false nail on it to sugarcoat it. So we’re just waiting for it to heal.

“Only time will tell.”

A fingernail. Of course. According to Arnsberg, Burnett has gone so far as to visit a manicurist to see whether he can get a nail glued on.

What, no doctor? ("No," Arnsberg said quickly, eyes widening. “Keep him away from doctors.")

Hmm, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.  Maybe curveball pitchers should wear oven mitts whenever possible, like hand models.

NY Times: Hoping to Become the Next Hot Baseball Export From Japan (RR)

Masato Yoshii, hired to be the new pitching coach for the Nippon Ham Fighters, has the Bobby Valentine seal of approval.

[Yoshii] is the first of the 31 Japanese players who have played in the major leagues since Hideo Nomo made his debut in 1995 with the Los Angeles Dodgers to return to Japan and become a coach.

Now that Japanese players have appeared at every position in Major League Baseball, the intrigue over whether Japanese players can make the transition is over. The six Japanese players in their first major league training camps this season represent the new status quo.

But Yoshii, 42, would not mind beginning a new trend.

“I’d like to think coaching in Japan is an important learning experience that could lead to a coaching opportunity in M.L.B.,” he said recently in an interview that was conducted in Japanese and took place after a coaches’ meeting at the Fighters’ Okinawa camp. “My English still stinks, so that’s something I need to work on, but as I improve that, it would be great to take my experiences as a coach here and apply it to coaching in America. That’s my plan.”

AP: Stapleton: Rockies do not sign Neifi Perez to minor-league contract

I was about to post this story about the Rockies bringing Neifi Perez back, with a note saying “HOW COULD NOBODY HAVE MENTIONED THIS YET?”.

Then I noticed that the same news site had a brand new story specifically retracting the old one and making it absolutely clear that the Rockies are aware that Perez really needs the money, or something like that, and that signing him would be “throwing him a lifeline” to a player who is popular in the clubhouse and the organization, and still they have thought it over very carefully and decided they have no interest in him.

What a way for a career to end, if it comes to that...but I think he’ll catch on somewhere.

Perez and the Rockies had agreed to a $750,000 minor league contract on Tuesday, a goodwill gesture that manager Clint Hurdle called a lifeline for one of the more popular players in club history who has hit hard times of late.

But the team later had second thoughts and decided against bringing him back.
...

The first player suspended by baseball for stimulants since they were banned before the 2006 season, Perez has 18 games remaining on an 80-game suspension he received last season after testing positive for a third time.

Inquirer: Salisbury: New Blue Jay Rolen puts Cardinals behind him.

Time and Tony La Russa heal all wounds.  Scott Rolen would have waived his no-trade clause to return to Philadelphia had the chance presented itself this winter.  That’s how intense his desire was to get away from the St. Louis Cardinals’ manager.

“Yes,” the Toronto Blue Jays’ new third baseman said after a workout Friday. “I would have accepted.”

....

As recently as the 2006 World Series, Rolen indicated he would not return to the Phillies if a trade was proposed. But after his relationship with La Russa went from bad to irreconcilable in 2007, Rolen considered any and all landing spots, even the one where things ended so badly for him in 2002.

“I knew the Cardinals were doing their due diligence trying to trade me,” Rolen said. “I knew the situation [in Philadelphia] and thought it might be a fit. I would have been open to the possibility, but it never presented itself.

Of all the players to switch teams this off-season, Scott Rolen in a Blue Jays uniform looks the most incongruous.  I had almost completely forgotten that this trade happened, it was so unusual.

After being traded to St. Louis, Rolen was booed every time he returned to Philadelphia. Though some of it has subsided in recent years, he said that the booing was painful and that he still doesn’t fully understand it. He believes he was an ally of the fans, leaning on management to spend more money to make the team competitive.

....

Now his sometimes-tumultuous career path has taken him to Toronto.

“It’s a fresh start,” he said. “New league. New division. New country. Can you get any fresher than that?”

Dugout Central: Caimano: Pedro’s Best Year: 1999 or 2000?

And his ‘97 season wasn’t too shabby either.

Why was there not a “SportsCenter Special” on the complete and utter dominance of Pedro Martinez? All of us who are sports fans live for those events that we know we will be talking about when we’re old and gray and living at Del Boca Vista. Pedro Martinez at the turn of the century is such an event.

Back to the issue at hand. Some have argued that the 2000 season was the greater season because Pedro’s ERA and WHIP were both lower, and the extra wins he compiled in the 1999 season are the result of the Red Sox providing him better run support. While these assertions are true, further analysis shows that the conclusion is not.

The first step to getting further inside the numbers is to calculate Pedro’s Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) for these two years. Simply put, most pitchers (less knuckleballers and extreme groundball pitchers) do not have a repeatable ability to turn batted balls into outs. The year-to-year variation in BABIP is the result of the quality of the fielders behind the pitcher and blind luck. Calculating BABIP is a fairly straightforward task. All we have to do is divide the number of hits that didn’t end up in the stands (H-HR) by the total number of balls in play allowed by the pitcher (Batters Faced-K-BB-HBP-HR).

The Biz of Baseball: Interview - Jacques Doucet - Announcer, Montreal Expos

Bizball: Let’s talk about the Expos’ history.  What would be your dream team if you had to choose among all former Expos players?

Doucet: I could definitely give you one, because if you didn’t already know, I’m currently writing a book with the help of Marc Robitaille.  We are both members of SABR and Encore Baseball Montreal, so we are familiar with each other.  For this project, he also asked me my dream team, so here it is:

C: Gary Carter
1B: Andres Gallaraga
2B: Jose Vidro
3B: Tim Wallach
SS: Orlando Cabrera
OF: Vladimir Guerrero, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson
Bench: Darrin Fletcher, Tony Perez, Ron Hunt, Chris Speier, Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Ellis Valentine
Pitchers: Steve Rogers, Dennis Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Bill Gullickson, Scott Sanderson, Bill Lee, Ross Grimsley, Jeff Reardon, John Wetteland
Manager: Dick Williams, Gene Mauch, Felipe Alou, Perry Hill
Pitching coach: Jim Brewer
Hitting coach: Duke Snyder
Bullpen coach: Pierre Arsenault

SouthTown Star: Major league dad

Catching up in Joliet with Bill Gullickson: father of 6, retired at 48, and doing well otherwise.

It’s a different world from when Gullickson grew up as an elite athlete. Sure, he played organized baseball in the summer and dabbled in basketball and football at Joliet Catholic.

But the amount of games, plus national and even international tournaments that elite young athletes play in amazes him.

“I was always a believer that you can burn out pretty quickly,” Gullickson said. “Once they lose interest because of burnout, it’s hard to enjoy it. Society says you have to play 70 baseball games in the summer. I played 20 baseball games a year in high school.

“But I get told a lot that I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Ex-baseball executive John McHale, 86, dies

Farewell to the man that ended the Muddy Ruel…

John McHale, who played on the Detroit Tigers team that won the 1945 World Series and went on to become a longtime baseball executive, has died. He was 86.

McHale died Thursday morning in a hospice unit near his home in Palm City.

A first baseman who played 64 games for the Tigers from 1943-48, McHale made more of an impact in the front office. He was president of the Montreal Expos when they debuted as an expansion team in 1969, and was their general manager.

“Both personally and professionally, John McHale was one of the finest gentlemen I have ever known,” commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. “He was a longtime mentor of mine, and I had the pleasure of serving with him on the board of directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball has lost one of its most respected figures.”

ESPN: Raines: ‘I played the game with excitement, focus’

Jonah Keri’s fine interview with Tim Raines...which should be showing up on Tango’s Tim Raines - Hall of Fame, 2008 site in 5-4-3-2-…

Keri: Do you realize that if you pulled a Tonya Harding on Rickey and whacked him on the kneecaps 20 years ago, you’d stand alone as a leadoff hitter and be a lock for the Hall of Fame?

Raines: [Laughs] I think it kind of helped me, especially because I was in Montreal. People saw Rickey playing the same way, so they got a chance to pick and choose. My name kind of stuck because of Rickey Henderson. When people mentioned Rickey Henderson, my name was usually in there somewhere, as far as leadoff guys go. In the last few years especially, people don’t really look at leadoff guys as much. When you think of the past, leadoff guys were often the ones who controlled the game offensively. Nowadays it’s more about who’s hitting home runs—people are more likely to talk about someone like A-Rod or Barry Bonds or, a few years ago, Mark McGwire.

Rich Lederer : 30 Rock

Greetings from Schoharie! Next stop Cooperstown! (Seriously)

For those first seven seasons, Raines and Schmidt were clearly the two best players in the NL. Raines was every bit as good as Henderson was in those years. He led the league in Win Shares in 1984, 1985, and 1986. Just think what his résumé would look like had he won three consecutive MVP awards!

Best Regards

John

S.I.: Verducci: Raines likely will have to wait, but he belongs in Hall

Now that we know who most of the voters are…

I’ll admit I had a few initial doubts myself about Raines, based solely on perception. I thought of Dawson and Carter as the pillars of those 1980s Montreal teams. And Raines never had a signature year like Ryne Sandberg in 1984. Indeed, when I checked the MVP voting I found this: Raines was first listed on a ballot in 1981 and last in ‘89. In those nine years 18 NL players received at least one first-place MVP vote and 24 NL players received at least 100 points in any single year—and yet Raines was not among them. He stayed below the writers’ radar too often.

...Everywhere you look, Raines is in the company of Hall of Famers. I started thinking, too, about how Raines compares to people such as Tony Gwynn and Sandberg, great hitters of his era who likewise were not typically associated with power. Raines reached base more times and scored more runs than Gwynn on their careers. Sandberg is an interesting comp because Raines was born just two days before him.

...My prediction is that only Gossage receives the needed 75 percent of the vote to be elected this year. Hard to believe, but when Gossage first appeared on the ballot, in 2000, he received only 33 percent of the vote—getting 91 fewer votes than Jim Rice. So fear not if Raines gets less than 50 percent on his first try. He won’t add to his hit total, but his career will look better with each passing year.

Toronto Star: Griffin: Rock shouldn’t roll into hall before Hawk

I don’t get it. Andre Dawson should go into the HOF because he held Raines’ shaky hand for four years?

The ballot lists 25 names, with outfielder Tim Raines among 11 first-year candidates. The former Expos star, with an early career history of drug problems, has mixed support from voters because of his past. He would not be the only one in the hall to have had skeletons in the closet. The Florida native won’t go in this year, but he should be voted in eventually. One thing is certain: he should never go in before his former Expos teammate, Andre Dawson.

...Dawson’s credentials for Cooperstown have been well documented. As for Raines, consider his 808 stolen bases, fifth most in history, a .294 lifetime average and 2,605 hits.

Within that starry career is a special seven-year stretch from 1981-87, during which Raines hit .310 with 504 steals and 553 walks, while striking out just 425 times.

Raines should eventually enter the hall, but Dawson should be there to greet him and put a comforting arm around his shoulder, just as he did back in 1983.

Key Figure in Expos’ History Dies

Gerry Snyder, a leading Montreal politician from the 1960s, died at the age of 87. He played a major role in bringing Major League Baseball to Canada.

AP: Rondell White is “99 percent” sure this will be his last week as a ballplayer

Rondell White plans to retire after finishing this season with the Minnesota Twins. The popular outfielder and designated hitter said there is a “99 percent chance” he will hang up his spikes for good after this week.

“I missed four months this year. My body hurts,” the 35-year-old White said Monday before facing the Detroit Tigers, one of his former teams. “There’s a good chance this is it.”
...
He was hitting .155 with three homers and 15 RBIs in 97 at-bats over 34 games entering the series opener at Detroit. He was in the lineup as the Twins’ DH.

White has 197 home runs, 763 RBIs and a .283 batting average in his career with Montreal, the Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees, San Diego, Kansas City, Detroit and Minnesota.
...
It didn’t take him long to identify his favorite stop. “Montreal,” he said. “I came up with Montreal, and spent seven years there. Me and Cliff Floyd grew up there, and learned the game together.”

TBO: Wrestlers Tied To Steroid Case

No it’s not Test...it’s Anthony ‘Testes’ Telford!

Former major-league pitcher Anthony Telford told investigators he paid $100 cash for testosterone injections from Miller for three months, according to investigation reports. The ballplayer said he had a low testosterone level and his wife was trying to become pregnant, reports stated.

Telford, who could not be reached Wednesday for comment, also told detectives he asked Miller whether he needed human growth hormone but was told it was not needed. Telford said he received testosterone through the mail about three times, once while he was in spring training, once while on vacation and one time at Telford’s residence, according to the report on his Nov. 18, 2003, interview with detectives.

Telford’s final season as a professional player was in 2002, after pitching for nine years.

For the Books, Nationals Face History Questions - washingtonpost.com

Whose history will the Nationals’ embrace?  The Expos?  The Twins?  The Rangers? The Grays?

“I, myself, would not know what position to take,” said Seymour Siwoff, president of Elias Sports Bureau Inc., Major League Baseball’s official statistician. “Am I really a brand-new franchise? Do I have a heritage in my new city? If it flatters me, I have a heritage, and I’ll use it. If not, maybe not. . . . There’s not really a right answer.”

MLB: Expos gone, baseball alive in Montreal

And lord knows...they’ve paid their Dues.

Labatt Park has had two deaths—not bad for something that never actually existed. Condos now stand where the downtown park would have been built, and after the project was canned, the model of the park was passed to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

On one truly unlucky night in the Hall’s archives, the model also met its destruction. “They just destroyed it, the two very troubled young men,” said president and CEO Tom Valcke, recalling a day he said literally brought tears to his eyes. “It could have been a stagecoach or an old ping-pong table, but they wanted to destroy whatever got in their way that night.”

...Less than a month after the Expos franchise began its new life at RFK Stadium, two teenagers broke into the building where the model was kept and destroyed it, adding a bizarre and somewhat ironic twist to the life of the park that never was and never would be. Valcke said the Hall kept the pieces and that it could be reassembled, but that the task would be daunting and that it would be difficult to recapture the piece’s original majesty.

“We kept every single splinter of it,” he said.

Montreal Gazette: Diehard Expos fans wax nostalgic

The Ottawa AAA team dares to remember.

The Ottawa Lynx’s Tribute to the Expos day yesterday brought out the diehards with their cherished powder-blue paraphernalia one more time, for one more goodbye, and the biggest crowd of the season at Lynx Stadium.

The irony, of course, was that the fans wore their tri-coloured caps in a city whose own team also seems doomed to leave for greener pastures. ....

The team set up nine auctions on eBay for spots on an all-fan team that would take on a celebrity squad made up of local personalities and five former Expos, including Warren Cromartie, Claude Raymond, Rodney Scott and Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd.

Make that four. Delino DeShields decided not to catch his flight - at least according to Boyd, who called DeShields during a layover on his way here Friday, and passed along the bad news to the organizers.

Minaya’s Chequered Record

An overview of trades by current Mets’ GM Omar Minaya while he was GM of the MLB Expos. Jason Bay got no respect.

AP: Few Expos memories left in Montreal

There is little evidence in Montreal that the Expos ... ever existed. A powder blue banner commemorating the [Expos] hangs from the rafters in the home of the NHL’s famed Montreal Canadiens.

Across the banner are “Montreal Expos 1969-2004” and baseballs with Nos. 8, 10 and 30—the retired numbers of Rusty Staub, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines. (Staub and Dawson both wore No. 10.)

Claude Raymond thought something was askew when he dropped in on the Nationals’ spring training camp in Melbourne, Fla., after the team was relocated for the 2005 season.

“I went to a game with my son and I looked on the field and there’s Royce Clayton wearing No. 10, Marlon Anderson with No. 8 and Mike Stanton wearing No. 30. What is the thinking behind that?” said Raymond… “Those numbers were retired but there they were on the field. That’s not right. We had some great teams and we weren’t bush leaguers. That makes me mad,” he said.
...
“It’s been a couple of years and the younger kids probably don’t know the Expos. I hate to see a town with fans like we had be without baseball. Who knows, maybe 30 years from now there’ll be a team up here,” [Bill Gullickson] said.

Former major leaguer Cromartie to try pro wrestling

And the Montreal OF death match with...Hammer Valentine and Andre the Giant, should be a dandy!

Former major league baseball player Warren Cromartie is coming back to Japan to take a shot at professional wrestling.

Now aged 53, Cromartie will step into the ring at Saitama Super Arena on June 17th in a pro wrestling event called Hustle Aid.

“He’s really excited about returning to Japan and is training very hard,” said Hustle Aid media relations director Chiyo Kishimoto. “He’s taking it very seriously.”

...Hustle would not confirm who Cromartie will face in the ring, but media reports in Japan have speculated that it could be either Tiger Jeet Singh or Abdullah the Butcher.

Cardboard Gods: U L Washington

Going to the Underwriters Laboratory to test a Melanesian lunar deity.

...Topps baseball card company should be (ashamed) for this blatantly toothpickless photo. It’s like depicting Paul Bunyan without an axe.

Orlando Sentinel: Whitley: Saving himself is hardest of all

Jeff Reardon feels well enough again to feel snubbed.

His voice rises a touch when he talks about his career. He spent most of it in Montreal and Minnesota, happily out of the spotlight. He was the first player to save 30 games in five consecutive seasons. And yet, in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, he fell one vote short of the 5 percent necessary just to remain on the ballot. “I never cared about recognition, but I got mad when I was taken off the ballot the first year,” Reardon said. “I mean, how could I not get even 25 votes? If I’d played for a New York team, I’d probably be in the Hall of Fame, never mind just on the ballot.”

That may sound like sour grapes, but it’s really the sound of progress. It shows Reardon cares enough to get upset. It wasn’t too long ago he didn’t care about anything.

Thanks to Filliam H Muffman (Charles S)