Interesting Debate

Not much happening in the world of sports that is really captivating today. I don't really feel like joining in, nor criticizing the NFL's handling of Chris Henry's pointless death as a "tragedy". The Colts victory of Jacksonville tonight was interesting, yet expected. The Chicago Bulls beat a New York Knicks team that I STILL have no idea how they managed to avoid being named the worst NBA team of the decade according to Sports Illustrated.

SI DID however provide some food for thought today. Joe Posnanski wrote an article debating the Hall Of Fame candidacy of one Tim Raines, and I must say he makes a pretty good case. While admittedly a fan of Tim Raines in general as a player, I hadn't really taken a long, hard look at his numbers when stacked up against the rest of the field. Posnanski did that for us today, and I start to see why the SABR nerds hold Raines in such high esteem. For those that don't remember, in his prime with Les Expo in the 1980's he was indeed Rickey Henderson's equivalent in the National League. Total Baseball had him ranked as one of the top 5 best players in the game from 1983-1987. He went on to have a very lengthy and productive career. .294 career lifetime batting average, .385 OBP, 1571 career runs scored, 808 career stolen bases plus had the highest success stolen base percentage of any basestealer including "Don't Worry Rickey, you're still the best" Henderson, makes for a very interesting debate. If Lou Brock, and Rickey are in, it makes you wonder if Raines has a place in Cooperstown considering he was, in many ways, equal or better than both of them.

The only issue I would have with this, is there are two other players that have similar careers as Raines, and they are Kenny Lofton and Johnny Damon. If Raines gets in, they have to logically be let in too don't they?