Has Expos Fever Reached its Crescendo ... It's Fever Pitch?

Montreal is a festive City, it is a City of Festivals galore.

But last weekend that festive nature was transported to a small hamlet by the name of Cooperstown, New York. A total of four tour buses came to see the great man Tim Raines elected to Baseball's most Respected of Shrines ... The Baseball Hall of Fame.

I've written every winter time over the last six years on Tim Raines' Hall of Fame candidacy and now I can finally retire that tradition now that Tim Raines has a plaque in Cooperstown and will forever be enshrined in the temple of the immortals of Baseball. It's no secret that my childhood idol was the one and only Rock Raines.

There was about 3,000 Montreal Expos fans there in full Expos Regalia (I see this couplet of words used sometimes and I think I was one who invented the cool term of "Expos Regalia"). Judging by the news that surrounded it ... it looks like people noticed.

Many national American and Canadian media outlets did stories on this, for example:


ESPN: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20204017

NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/sports/baseball/tim-raines-expos-hall-of-fame.html

CBS: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/look-raines-dawson-bring-expos-flavor-to-cooperstown-with-help-of-guerrero/

CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/tim-raines-hall-of-fame-montreal-expos-nation-fans-1.4225928

NewsDay: https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/tim-raines-baseball-hall-of-fame-induction-brings-out-expos-fans-1.13861669

CTV: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/tim-raines-inducted-into-baseball-hall-of-fame-1.3525197

RDS: http://www.rds.ca/baseball/mlb/mlb-cooperstown-est-assaillie-par-des-partisans-aux-couleurs-des-expos-1.4592524

USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/07/29/tim-raines-hall-of-fame-induction/523005001/


.....Lots of news. Lots of news.


As a LIFE LONG Expos fan, this media attention for the city is so good. But as someone who's been following the "Journey" as Cromartie calls it of getting the team back, I knew that the last Expo going into the Hall of Fame with an Expos cap might be the crescendo-ing Fever Pitch of this Movement. Where will the Momentum come from after this?

What's next? Maybe I wrote all those articles about this moment because I knew it might be the last time ever we Expos Fans really have a moment like this. A moment of the entire Baseball World giving us shout outs and stuff.

But something tells me it 'aint over. Something tells me this isn't the last hurrah ... this is not The End to this Journey .... something tells me this is only the Beginning.


The Fever

Lots of Expos things are popping up left and right these days it seems.

1. The Cro is down in Japan and he's decked out in FULL Expos Regalia!
See: https://www.facebook.com/mtlbaseballproject/videos/1443391762410061/ 

2. Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) has billboards ALL OVER TOWN selling Beer with Expos Names on it (Rock's 30, Vlad's 27, and Alou's 18). Check it out:

Merci Montreal | Thank you Budweiser pic.twitter.com/CnemoEHlB7

— Vladimir Guerrero (@VladGuerrero27) July 24, 2017

Budweiser? That's a big big company man ... and all their Beers have Expos names on them! Vlad's speaking in his native Spanish with French subtitles in that above video ... it translates to English as him thanking Montreal fans for cheering him on.

3. Mr Batting Stance Guy has an Expos Hat on:

All-Star? MVP? Hall of Fame? 125 win season? Tim Raines, you have climbed every mountain. pic.twitter.com/CsmUWp2pHO

— Batting Stance Guy (@BattingStanceG) July 29, 2017

4. Oh Snap. Look at this one. A Very Popular Journalist is in Full Expos Regalia, getting full of emotion over Expos related matters. Wow, look at this:

Here are the couple of minutes @TimRaines30 spent talking about @jonahkeri: pic.twitter.com/M4eQ3JpAfe

— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) July 30, 2017

5. Oh man. This is too much .... too much Exposness for me in one sitting. Oh man, if I hear a Rap Rock n Roll song about Tim Raines and the Expos right about now I might just lose it myself:

Oh my gosh. Yo, I was in the grocery store the other day buying my frozen Jamaican Patties and my sundries and whatnot .... and I saw FIVE people in Expos t shirts one after another in there. I haven't seen five people with Expos shirts in a public setting since like 1997, man. Like, this Regalia is EVERYWHERE!! I thought I was in a Twilight Zone episode seeing people in every aisle of the grocery store with Expos shirts ... I thought I was dreaming and that Rod Serling threw me back into like 1993. Expos stuff is everywhere I look right now. I cannot honestly believe it. The whole place is getting all Expofied.

Conclusion

Has the Fever hit its High Note and will start receding from here on? I don't think so. I don't think so. I got so much Expos Fever right now I'm rightly breaking out into a Cold SWEAT! HA! A COOOOLD SWEAT! HA! I GOT THE FEVER! OOOOOOH! I GOT THE FEVER!

OOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW! 

I was worried this would be the last Expos Hurrah. That Rock making the Hall would be last time we'd be tippin' these caps. But, it's not. At least I don't believe so.


Bill Boards talking about Expos, Rappers are Rappin' 'bout Expos with a rip rock n roll sorta sound, and people are in the grocery store DECKED OUT IN EXPOS REGAAAAAAAAALIAAAAA!


OW!


This is not The End of This Story .... This is only the Beginning.

Rock the Hall: The Final Essay

I don't know if I have any regular readers or repeat readers here ... but if by chance I do, you might know that every single year at the year's end I do a "Tim Raines for Hall of Fame" article.

Previous Ones:

2011: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.com/2011/12/the-baseball-hall-of-fame-is-incomplete.html

2012: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.com/2012/12/on-tim-raines-and-hall-of-fame-again.html

2013: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.com/2013/11/rock-hall-3.html

2014: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-greatest-lead-off-guys-evar.html
(this one I wrote whilst watching the world series and went on really looong and I wroted A LOT).

2015: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.com/2015/12/rock-for-hall-of-fame-for-umpteenth-time.html



Alright, so ... this year is of course the last chance at getting the Rock into the Hall of Fame. I think this year I'm gonna go on a "...But, Don't Take My Word For it - Listen to These Testimonials!" info-mercial sort of gimmick. I mean why should people take my word for it? I'm not anything wicked-great or nothing.

This year we shall look at two celebrities who have been championing the Rock's cause. Jonah Keri and ...

... The Icon.

But first a quick mentioning of why this means something to me.



Why I Care about This

There's 3 things from my youthful halcyon days that just bestow upon me an Unusual Amount of Happiness.

These things are:

1. Montreal Expos Baseball
2. Video Games
3. WWF Wrestling

South Park has a thing on the show this year called "'Member Berries" that are these grapes (grapes aren't berries ... you know that right guys?) that are these cute little talking berries that just shout out things you liked from the past and every adult on the show is getting addicted to them (it has a deeper meaning and message in the show but I'm not invoking that here just the fact they yell out things from the past you liked).

If I had 'member berries in real life they'd be saying things like this to me:


"Hey, 'memba Tim Raines!?"

YA!

"'Memba Mega Man 2!?"

YES!

"Ohhh.... 'memba Twin Towers? Boss Man and Akeem the African Dream accompanied by their manager the Slicksta who never does nuthin' but tell da truth !?"

YEAH I DO!

"Hey .... you 'memba Andres Galarraga, Tim Wallach, n' Junior Noboa!?" 

YEEEEES!

"What about River City Ransom?"

I love River City Ransom!!!!

"I bet you 'memba Men on A Mission ... Moe n' Mable!? Memba the Bush Whackers!?"

 Oh yes. Oh yes I most certainly do!

"Super Mario World!"
"Hubie Brooks! Tim Burke!"
"Ax and Smash of Demolition!!! Koko B. Ware !!! Earthquake and Typhoon The Natural Disasters!!"

YEAH!


Okay. Enough memba berryin' for a moment we have an article to punch up here. That's why I care about this because Montreal Expos Baseball is my number ONE by far memba berry datum .... and Tim Raines is the MOST BESTEST EXPO!


Two Famous People Championing his Case

Look, we all know the Common Man's opinion is worth the opinion of One Man. Yet what about experts or celebrity opinions? They are by default worth probably like the opinion of ten regular men's opinions ... and that's a fact jack.

Me? I'm just a common man, I work hard with my hands, I work hard for the man, I use up quite a bit of soul. Who me? Hey, I use up a lotta soul but I gotta a goal ... I know my Goal ... it's The American Dream ... but still, I'm just a common man ... and that's all I'll ever be ... a common man.

And thus, my opinion is worth only one iota, and although that's all I'll ever need in this world, it's difficult for one common man's opinion to ever be heard over the loud incessant noise of this to-and-fro world.

Know what I mean?

Thankfully, two much more famous people have been championing the Rock's Hall of Fame case in the last while: Jonah Keri and The Icon. 



1. Jonah Keri

Keri is a baseball analyst and author who has been extremely vocal about Tim Raines and his Hall of Fame candidacy over the last decade.

He is of the sabermetric analytic school of pouring over and obsessing about Baseball Stats. He's written books on that subject as well as a book about the History of the Montreal Expos.

He's a famed author and baseball stats guy and thus his expert opinion is of high regard.

I saw him on the Seth Meyers show, talking about Expos and Rock's hall of fame candidacy a few years back. In the whole history of the Montreal Expos when they existed, I never saw them get exposure like that. National Late Night airwaves exposure? Expos Exposure like that? It never happened in the 36 years they existed. With this guy's book and him talking about Montreal Expos on national airwaves like he has ... the Expos have had more National Exposure now than in the entire history of their existance.

To explain this further, Tim Raines was telling All-Star and Gold-Glover Harold Reynolds the other day on MLB Network that only ONE regular season Expos game in the HISTORY of the Expos was broadcast on National Airwaves ... ONE. It's the one where he hits the grand slam off of Orosco and Vin Scully and Garagiola (I think it's Garagiola I have to re-check) start freaking out.

Throw it ova da plate there Jesse!

 That's the only National Airwaves game the Expos ever had. Now with Keri talking about them and writing books about them ... they are getting more press Nationally now then when they actually existed. MLB even made a William Shatner narrated documentary about Expos last year, more people know about Montreal Baseball nationally now than ever before. So think about that when you think about Raines's hall of fame candidacy too ... he got no exposure to the American public and baseball writers during his tenure as being one of the most electrifying men in sports.

Jonah Keri's championing of Rock's Hall of Fame case has been monumental in getting him from the 20 percentage line to the 70 percentage line. Rock only needs 5% percent in his final year to cross the threshold into immortality.




2. The Icon

There's only a handful of broadcasters who can walk amongst us and be openly regarded by this honorific title. This man has had candid conversations with the best of the best and the most controversial of the controversial ... he's interviewed the elite winers and diners ... the kings and queens ... and interviewed those who get along on pork n' beans.

He's even on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS interviewed Liberace. I'm talking of course about Broadcast Icon ...

... Larry King.

Larry King has been vocal in the twitter sphere that he simply cannot believe the Rock is not in the Hall of Fame yet. He simply and literally cannot believe it.

The Broadcast Icon was recently in Montreal, where he unveiled the contract Jackie Robinson signed with the Montreal Royals for the public to come see. The historic document that meant for the first time a black man was going to be signed to a pro baseball contract since the league banned them.

(see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/jackie-robinson-contracts-royals-dodgers-montreal-1.3646848)

Afterwards he made his rounds on various radio programs in the metropolis and made it clear to everyone in ear shot of his Montreal area broadcasts on local radio that ...

... Tim Raines belongs in the Hall of Fame.

In Montreal do you know what all who were in ear shot did? We all nodded in agreement. We all nodded in agreement that Tim Raines belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Do you know why? Because here, we all know that statement is truth ... but it seems much of what happened here in Baseball is not known on the National scene.

Larry King is the greatest celebrity interviewer of all time. No one even comes close. He has done it all in the broadcast field. He is truly an Icon ... and the weight of his opinions?

They are worth their weight in Gold ... and he believes Tim Raines is a Hall of Famer.

Radio transmission 6

----------------
Pride
----------------

Friday, September the 17th 1993, almost 50,000 people there that night, Phillies get 7 runs in the sixth innings and we're down 7 to 3. The Expos inch back and tie it up again in the bottom of the seventh culminating with a two run double by a young rookie name Curtis Pride. The kid's first hit ever and it's maybe the biggest hit in Expos history in the last 20 years. This guy by the way was a deaf guy, you can't even make this up man. A deaf guy name PRIDE (of all things) being the hero in front of 50,000 fans. He said he couldn't hear the ovation but could feel the vibrations and reverberations of the 50,000 people showing their appreciation. We made a deaf guy hear! You can't make this stuff up, even for like a cheesy/corny TV movie or something no one would believe it...but this is a 100% authentic factual information!

I was 10 years old, I was cheering and clapping so much for him I lost my voice and my hands were red! It was great dude.

Jackie Robinson

I remember being at school and having to write an essay on the American civil rights movement and wrote my essay on Jackie Robinson instead of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. I got a very poor mark, like a D I think. The teacher said he was not that important a figure in the civil rights movement. I think in his nerdiness he was too far removed from the importance athletics has on a nation. In Malcolm X's book he states that the thing that got him through his prison time was calculating Jackie's batting average on the walls of his cell each day. I don't know why I find this whole situation of Jackie Robinson and baseball's color barrier to be fascinating beyond belief but the fact that the people of my home city have a role to play in this story makes it even more interesting still.

On Malcolm X's stone wall in his jail cell he'd chalk up the stats...one day Jackie may have went 1 for 4, and he chalked up .250, the next game Jackie may have gone 2 for 5 and X scrawled it out and changed the running tally to .333, and so on as the days and games progressed. Why was it so important what Jackie Robinson's batting average was?

Let's put this into the context of the era, in this time pseudo-scientific notions of eugenics (google it) plagued the minds of all nations of the globe. Eugenics made race into a backward science and made an arbitrary hierarchy of who was better than who by what they looked like. For example German eugenics purported that Jews were inferior and exterminated them. American eugenics held that people of darker skin tones were not as intelligent, physically capable, and advanced as those with light skin tones. Sadly, most people thought this way in that time. The U.S. Government set up laws (called Jim Crow laws) outlawing people with darker skin tones from advancing in society, and even weirder crazier things like not using the same fountain as light skinned people. This mental narrow mindedness was even in the heads of the law makers of the country. Obviously this is a problem to say the least, having heads of state who govern in this fashion is unspeakably dangerous.

Luckily science is dogged at all times by a great little thing called proof. Science is also dogged by a great little thing called mathematics. What if on a mass scale with everyone watching, eugenics was put to the test? That is exactly what happened in 1947. America's past time is baseball and the invention of radio and television meant everyone in the nation could listen or watch the test in progress. Jackie was given the chance to display his abilities by Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers and he could single handedly destroy a backward mindset of entire nation if he succeeded.

Let's say Jackie hit .197 and made 10 errors in his first 20 games and was sent down to the minors and never came back. This was a totally possible thing that could have happened in the test. Sadly, this result would have set the civil rights movement back a few decades. The millions of Americans watching this would have had used this data to further convince themselves that eugenics was correct.

Fortunately this was not the case. Jackie Robinson hit .297, with 125 runs scored and lead the leauge in stolen bases in his rookie season of 1947. Two seasons later in 1949 he led the league with a .342 batting average and was awarded the MVP that season. He was the most valuable player to his team and everyone knew it...there was no denying that Jackie was the most valuable human in baseball in 1949, and that is a huge blow to American eugenics and probably convinced millions of narrow minded fellows and ladies that the way they thought was wrong. Jackie through a series of events was given the burden of disproving American eugenics and despite all the death threats, hardships, violence from opposing players...despite everything being stacked against him he managed to gloriously succeed.

I think everyone knows that Jackie was a Montreal Royal (Brooklyn IL league farm club) in 1946 prior to his tenure with the Dodgers. Jackie hit .349 that season and won us the championship. The Montreal fans embraced him and loved him and that makes me proud to tell people that I was born here. When baseball universally retired his number 24 on all teams I went to Olympic Stadium the night Rachel Robinson was there on behalf of her deceased husband and she thanked Montreal on behalf of her husband and it really made me feel connected personally to one of the most significant events in the history of North America and the world.

Written by Deric Brazill

for radio transmission 5

Gotta keep expos on the minds of the sports fans.

I think this era that we are currently living in (2010 and beyond) is a crucial moment in the future of baseball in Montreal. I mean major league baseball has been gone for over 5 years now, there's sports fans coming up who have no idea that the Expos even existed you know? All the new kids these days, they don't know about it.

I think what should be done now is keep interest in the Expos alive, on the minds of this generation and following ones so that at some point....when the montreal economy gets better or some big Rich Guy with a lot of dough like Bronfman comes on the scene again at point in the next 25 years or whatever...the memory and the interest in the entity that was the Expos is still on people's minds, and the want or need to have the team return is still there in generations to come.

So I mean you gotta keep talkin' Expos even though there gone, cause if no one talks about it no one in the next generations will care at all. They'll care about soccer these kids, with the running, or the UFC with all the punching and mongoloid brutality. the great experience of baseball will be lost, the intricate tactical underpinning and grace of a game like baseball will be dissolved from the montreal sports atmosphere.

What I think should be done now by those who lived in the Expos era...is even exagerate the history into legend, to keep the spirit alive. When I tell kids about Timmy Raines, I talk about him like he was larger than life you know. Make them really want Major League Baseball here again. When I tell the younger generation about Dawson I talk about him like I'm talking about a Greek God or something...like Poiseidon or something eh.
-----------------------------------------
Andre Dawson
-----------------------------------------

-NICKNAME-

This data was retrieved from Warren Cromartie's great book "Slugging it Out in Japan"

The Old Cro says the name was derived and evolved from Dawson's original nickname which was the Cobra! He said, even as a rookie Dawson didn't take guff from nobody even veterans on the team like Tony Perez or Pete Rose....but he wasn't a violent guy though...he did it all with stares and the look in his eyes. He'd like hunch his shoulders up like a COBRA and HAWK you down with his eyes. It was a predatory style nickname for an intense guy. Dawson was a well respected dude, a real stoic and silent leader type.

A little proof here illustrate how intense Dawson was:

When the Expos played the Astros in the Eighties, they would sometimes run into a guy named Nolan Ryan. Nolan Ryan used to be pretty intense himself and he had this thing where if you'd hit a homerun off the great Nolan Ryan, he'd walk to third base and wait for the you on your homerun trot to round third and then GLARE at you to show his internal discontent over losing the pitcher-battle duel....but there was one guy he would never do it to.....he would never do it to Andre Dawson. Andre would just Hawk him down.

I think Nolan Ryan avoided it for same reason the Americans and Russians avoided using nuclear arms in the Cold War. Just Imagine the Electrons of Nolan Ryan's intensity bouncing off the Protons of Dawson's intensity during that staredown and ultimately culminating in an inevitable nuclear explosion.

Being Disrespected by the cops

It wasn't all roses for the Hawk in Montreal you know. In 1981 after getting to the post-season for the first and only time, Andre Dawson and Jerry White were mistaken for criminals in front of the Eaton Center downtown....

Here's a quote from Dawson's book:

"As we walked along, three men approached us from behind. Each had a gun. Two men came up behind Jerry and me, put their guns to our heads, and forced us, face first, against a wall. I was shocked and scared. I began to panic..." -A. Dawson & T. Bird, Biography (page 49)

To sum it up, the police said they matched the description of of two robbery suspects, threw them up against a wall and threatened to kill them if they moved, then opened their wallets and saw who they were and let them go. That's not good to treat the Hawk like that.

Collusion of 87

The owners got together and agreed that they would not sign any player for more than the contract he had at that time. So players who were deserving of a raise were being given contract offers of significantly less than what they warranted, and when they tested the free agent market for better offers it was the same thing. The owners agreed not to give any player any good contract. So Dawson's there in 87 going "why am i being offered 250,000 dollars when the highest paid guy in the league who was Mike Schmidt was getting over 2 million." The players didn't know about the collusion, the expos front office justified the offer by telling Dawson he was washed up and wouldn't get any more anywhere else. so Dawson getting this 250,000 chump change offer took it as a real insult.

-ERIC SHOW-

He was one of the most respected hitters in the league. Guys used to throw at him all the time. He lead the league in being hit by pitches 3 times. The worst was the psycho Eric Show of the Padres who was a nut case (he died of a overdose in the nineties)...he was nuts...he was in a branch off group of the KKK called like the John Birch Male Christian League Society or some crazy thing, and he hit Dawson in the left cheek bone with a pitch which resulted in a bench clearing brawl which at least showcased the wrestling talents of the great Rick Sutcliffe.

How good was Timmy Raines though?

     How good was Tim Raines? That depends a lot on who you ask I guess. If you ask someone from New York they’ll tell he was a great forth outfielder/DH and a key factor in bringing the up and coming Yankees over the hump to win their first World Series of many. If you ask a guy from Chicago, he’ll tell you Raines was a great leadoff hitter who set the table for the south side sluggers (Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, and Ellis Burks). All of that is of course true but what if you asked someone from Montreal? It seems much of what happened in Montreal in the eighties has been lost to the baseball world, in fact in ten or fifteen years the Montreal Expos will probably be lost from the collective mind of baseball fans all together. I however, am a guy from Montreal, and I know how good Tim Raines was.

     Where to begin? Well, the first memory I have of the Rock was when I was about four years old and was attending a game at Olympic Stadium with my family. I was having trouble seeing what was going on because I was short and such, but all of sudden everyone stood up and went crazy. I asked my father and older sister what had happened and they told me Tim Raines just homered. Of course I was familiar with this “Tim Raines” character already, I had baseball cards and the like, I was no idiot you know. Angered for missing what just happened, I asked where he hit it, as to which my father pointed to a Cocoa-Cola sign in left-center field, and I was dumbfounded. How could a human-man hit a ball that far? I was used to hitting homers into the neighbors yard at this point in my life, from home plate to that Cocoa-Cola sign must’ve been 100,000 of my backyards taped together…a long freaking way man. At this point I was convinced this “Tim Raines” was not a mere man at all but rather some sort of human god born from the heavens and suns. I was not scared of him however for I knew he would use these strengths adorned to him for the benefit of the Montreal Expos and not for personal gain. After this moment I followed the career of Tim Raines somewhat more closely than that of his fellow Expo brethren, he became my “favorite player” if you will.

     At the school yard in my youth talks of how good Tim Raines was and what he was capable of doing were rampant. I recall one of my friends asking me, “Who would win-in-a-fight, Tim Raines or Superman?” I found the question a bit stupid, Tim Raines of course. “Has Tim Raines ever been to the moon?” Well obviously, he probably has a summer cottage there. “I heard Tim Raines hit for two cycles in one game, drove to the Forum and proceeded to single-handedly defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 18-0 while scoring six hat-tricks, is that true?” Yes, though I believe it was 22-0. All the questions just bread more questions, how good was this guy?

     In Shea Stadium, circa 1987, Tim Raines shocked us all once again. After missing the first month of the season due to the owners free agent boycott The Rock returned with a vengeance. The game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 13th, Tim Raines came to the plate already seven-for-seven with 2 doubles, 3 triples, 2 singles, 6 stolen bases, and three runs scored. The opposing Mets reliever Jesse Orosco (then a robust 36 year-old) served up a pitch no one would ever forget. Tim Raines hit the pitch out of Shea Stadium…and clear out of New York State. The box score read 7-3, but it should have read Grand Slam outta The City to 3.

     That year, 1987, proved to be Tim Raines best season as an Expo. Rock finished the season with a .434 batting average, 78 homeruns, 7,000 RBIs, and 390 stolen bases despite not even playing in April. When asked what his numbers could have been if he played the complete season Raines replied, “I never hit well in April anyway.” Statisticians predict that had Tim Raines played the complete 1987 season and the collusion never happened he would have hit a remarkable .575 while knocking in close to eight billion runners. Wow…

     In 1990, news of Tim Raines finally made it to the United States, and in turn the Americans greatest player challenged Montreal’s greatest player to a base-stealing contest. Rickey Henderson, the Greatest That Ever Lived, challenged Tim Raines to a base stealing contest in an exhibition game between the Oakland A’s and the Expos prior to the 1990 season. It was down to the wire, Henderson and Raines both had a dozen stolen bases by the ninth inning…Raines however on the last out made it a bakers by stealing home off of Dennis Eckersley and Terry Steinbach. Henderson, admitting defeat, sulked from the bench and proclaimed himself “The Worst of All Time” then proceeded to play Bobby Bonilla at cards or something. Tim Raines had done it, he became the first player in history to steal 13 bases in one game, though it was an exhibition game and was never recorded in the record books, it happened, believe me…

    So how good was Tim Raines? It depends who you ask.