{"id":72436,"date":"2007-08-01T03:39:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-01T03:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vip.local\/2007\/08\/01\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/"},"modified":"2007-08-01T03:39:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-01T03:39:00","slug":"11ripken-gwynn-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Ripken, Gwynn&#8230;now what?!?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>I grew up a fan of Tim Raines. I mean\u2026<strong>SOMEONE<\/strong> south of Thunder Bay had to be a fan of the Expos, right?<\/p>\n<p>Why not me?!?<\/p>\n<p>I always kinda thought that Raines was one of the best out there. Along with Rickey Henderson, there were <strong>REALLY<\/strong> only two guys you would want to lead off for you.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.usatodaysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/95\/2016\/09\/77c51-timraines.jpg\"><img alt=\"Ripken, Gwynn...now what?!?\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"215\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.usatodaysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/95\/2016\/09\/77c51-timraines.jpg?w=300\" width=\"245\" border=\"0\"><\/a>But here\u2019s the rub, there is <strong>NO WAY<\/strong> that Tim Raines goes into the Hall of Fame <strong>BEFORE<\/strong> Henderson and when you compare his stats to some of the game\u2019s other premier base stealers and\/or lead off men\u2026was he THAT good?<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s line \u2018em up.<\/p>\n<p>Rickey Henderson. No contest\u2026read my previous post.<\/p>\n<p>Lou Brock. Brock was \u201cRickey\u201d before Rickey was \u201cRickey\u201d. 3000-plus hits and 938 steals gets you into the Hall of Fame no questions asked. Matter of fact\u2026when Brock was inducted into the Hall, Henderson was the active leader with only 500 steals. The point is\u2026Brock was pretty dominant and still only mustered 80% of the vote. Raines will have a hard time trying to best that first time out.<\/p>\n<p>Vince Coleman. Vince was a <strong>FAR <\/strong>better base stealer than Raines, but injuries and the inability to get on base (not good for a leadoff guy) rendered him useless. Still, Coleman ended up with 752 steals compared to Raines\u2019 808. Coleman having almost the same amount of steals in about <strong>HALF<\/strong> the games played as Raines means Rock <strong>WASN\u2019T<\/strong> as great on the base paths as once remembered. OR\u2026there was at least another person better.<\/p>\n<p>Kenny Lofton. This is where it gets fun. Ask <strong>ANYONE <\/strong>if Kenny Lofton is a Hall of Famer and they would say (without hesitation) \u201cno\u201d. <a href=\"http:\/\/cincinnati.reds.mlb.com\/mlb\/photo\/photogallery\/cin_OD\/20.jpg\"><img alt=\"Ripken, Gwynn...now what?!?\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"160\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/cincinnati.reds.mlb.com\/mlb\/photo\/photogallery\/cin_OD\/20.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/span><br \/><span><br \/>And they\u2019d <strong>PROBABLY<\/strong> be right&#8230;for now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HOWEVER<\/strong>\u2026compare his stats to Raines and you\u2019ve got one compelling argument against Raines. Raines only has 2605 hits (FYI\u2026Lofton will surpass that) in 2502 games, but carries a .294 career average. Raines was dominant for a six to seven year span\u2026that is about it. Lofton has been solid since his rookie year in 1992.<\/p>\n<p>I could go on and on about Raines and his inclusion in the Hall\u2026fact is, he won\u2019t make it in first ballot (good news for fellow great Expo Andre Dawson or former Red Sox Jim Rice) and might not make it in on his second ballot (Rickey Henderson will best him that year). He had a history of drug use <strong>AND<\/strong> was only dominant for half a decade. And during that time, he wasn\u2019t even the face of his franchise (Dawson and Gary Carter were)\u2026so it is a hard, hard argument to make that he is an early ballot shoe-in.<\/p>\n<p>So, a year from now\u2026who will we have just inducted into Cooperstown if \u201cRock\u201d doesn\u2019t make it in? There are <strong>NO<\/strong> other first ballot guys, but a slew of guys that <strong>SHOULD <\/strong>be there.<\/p>\n<p>My guess\u2026Rice and \u201cGoose\u201d Gossage, but if I had my way, Dawson gets welcomed as well. However, I think it is a 1970s Boston-New York affair next year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ballhype.com\/post\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"22\" alt=\"Ballhype: hype it up!\" src=\"http:\/\/images.ballhype.com\/img\/hype\/button_96x22.png\" width=\"96\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up a fan of Tim Raines. I mean\u2026SOMEONE south of Thunder Bay had to be a fan of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2607199],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.2 (Yoast SEO v23.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ripken, Gwynn...now what?!? - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ripken, Gwynn&#8230;now what?!?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-01T03:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.usatodaysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/95\/2016\/09\/77c51-timraines.jpg?w=300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"Ripken, Gwynn&#8230;now what?!?\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-01T03:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-08-01T03:39:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/\"},\"wordCount\":519,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/wp.usatodaysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/95\/2016\/09\/77c51-timraines.jpg?w=300\",\"articleSection\":[\"Hall of Very Good\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2007\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/11ripken-gwynn-now-what\/\",\"name\":\"Ripken, Gwynn...now what?!? 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