Rock Solid by Tim Raines
My Life in Baseball's Fast Lane
Tim Raines—with co-writer Alan Maimon—wrote his memoir, Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball’s Fast Lane, timed to his Baseball Hall of Fame induction and published by Triumph Books in 2017. His Montreal Expos teammate and fellow Hall of Fame outfielder, Andre Dawson, penned the forward. Sportswriter Jonah Keri penned the introduction. Keri was among the sportswriters who championed Raines’ election into Cooperstown. First appearing on the ballot in 2008, Raines was elected on the 10th ballot in 2017 with 86% of the vote. Except for a brief dip during the 2014 jam-packed ballot, his vote gradually climbed every year.
Raines uses his very first chapter to open up about his cocaine troubles very early in his career. He got in with a bad group of people and if not for Expos leadership and teammates like Dawson, it’s unlikely he would be in the Hall of Fame, let alone have the career that he did. Too many ballplayers were dealing with cocaine in the early 80s—Raines would later testify in a grand jury trial about what happened. The Expos sent him to a facility to get clean and he played to his best ability in contributing during the rest of the decade.
Raines played in two strike-shortened seasons. He reflects on both of them. If not for MLB changing the rules in 1981, it’s possible that he could have gotten his first World Series ring then. Although let’s face it, it was very tough to beat Fernando Valenzuela and the Los Angeles Dodgers that year. Cut to over a decade later and the Chicago White Sox were playing their best baseball. Reigning MVP Frank Thomas had a good chance at winning the AL Triple Crown but baseball stopped in August and by mid-September, both the season and the playoffs were cancelled. I’ll have more on this in a moment.
But back to his career with the Expos, getting clean, and spending more time with his family, Raines developed yet another addiction. One that dated back to his childhood and didn’t have any harmful effects unless too much screentime can cause that. Raines started watching soap operas after sleeping in late and before he needed to report to the ballpark. Mind you, this was the 1980s so neither TiVo or DVR existed at the time. He did his best to watch daily as such. I’m not going to lie in that I was not expecting a baseball player to discuss soap operas in a memoir on their life and career. Honestly!
Having played for the Chicago White Sox in the early 1990s also meant having to deal with the avalanche of media that came onto the scene just to cover Michael Jordan’s transition to baseball. It ultimately did not go well for Jordan but Raines shares his thoughts and memories from the short time that Jordan was a baseball player. Jordan’s brief baseball career made for an “interesting” spring training and Raines “enjoyed the crazy atmosphere that broke out.” He expands on his thoughts:
Michael’s experiment intrigued me. No one doubted his athletic prowess, but I and a lot of other people wondered whether he could make the transition from one sport to another. Every baseball player will tell you that hitting a baseball consistently well is the most difficult act in sports. Michael could run, obviously. And I figured he could master tracking down balls in the outfield. But could he hit? That’s what I was anxious to see.
Aside from an exhibition game between the White Sox and Chicago Cubs, Jordan never suited up during the regular season for the White Sox. He spent his time with the Birmingham Barons, even buying the club a new $350,000 bus because the other one didn’t meet his standards. And then, of course, the strike happened and derailed the MLB season, cutting it short in August. Raines has plenty to say about the strike and the what if’s of 1994, of course. A few seasons before, he tried leaving as a free agent but the owners colluded and he had no choice but to re-sign with the Expos.
There’s no telling what would have happened had the season actually continued—quite possibly a World Series matchup between the White Sox and Expos—but Raines finally got to experience his first World Series championship during the 1996 season after being traded during the offseason. Compared to his time with the Expos and White Sox, playing for New York was a different animal in and of itself. The press covers the time differently. Raines stayed through the end of his contract in 1997 before signing another one-year deal with the Yankees for 1998. He got to be there for not only Derek Jeter’s rookie season but for Mariano Rivera’s breakout year. Everything just came together for the Yankees to win it all over the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees won it all again in 1998 but Raines didn’t play in their series against the San Diego Padres. In discussing his time with the Yankees, he also opens up on MLB’s steroids problem during the 1990s.
Another thing that happened during the 1998 season was seeing son Tim Raines Jr. get drafted by the Baltimore Orioles. The elder Raines just happened to be in Baltimore for the press conference because the Yankees were playing a series at Camden Yards. “I hope I can stay up here long enough to play with him.” Oh, did he ever. But before that could happen, where was a brief stint with the Oakland A’s in 1999. While he never played with Rickey Henderson, he always heard people talking about him and the stolen base king in the same sentence and the talk continued even when Raines signed with Henderson’s former Oakland team. Unfortunately, the 1999 season coincided with Raines being diagnosed with Lupus. After getting healthy, a trip to independent baseball in hopes of making Team USA’s Olympic Gold Medal team in 2000, and finally, a return to the Montreal Expos in 2001 for what would become his penultimate MLB season.
Both father and son played against each other during a 2001 spring training game. They were batting in opposite lineups during a AAA game in August 2001 when Raines was on a rehab assignment. Later that season, Raines Jr. was called up by the Orioles and his father was on hand to watch his MLB debut as a spectator. Neither team were contending for the playoffs so Expos GM Jim Beattie called in a favor with Orioles GM Syd Thrift—it didn’t hurt that the Orioles needed help in the outfield. But in playing together, they became the second father-son teammates since Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. played together for the Seatle Mariners over a decade earlier.
After a final season with the Florida Marlins in 2002, Raines hung up his cleats as a ballplayer. He later joined the coaching staff of former White Sox teammate Ozzie Guillen for two seasons, including their World Series championship season in 2005. There were ups and downs but all in all, it was quite the ride for Raines during a career that spanned four different decades (1979-2002).
Rock Solid offers incredible insight into a career that could have ended almost as soon as it started. I can’t recommend it enough!