When I was growing into my love of baseball in the early 1980's, Tim Raines was an amazing athlete to watch preform. With blazing speed around the bases, he was so exciting to watch play the game, but something else caught my eye. When he was on the field, he seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously. There seemed to be an energy about him. His smile was infectious and the players around him looked like they were having fun at a game instead of working for a living. Baseball is just a game, for Pete's sake and he was playing it with the enthusiasm of a child. He worked hard for it, but when it was time to go out and play, he played. And he played with passion and ferver, but he played to have fun at the same time. I loved to get up in the summer and look through the box scores to see what he did the night before ( way before the 'net ).
It's amazing what time does for the perspective of what athletes did in their prime, (" He hit that ball 600 feet. He struck out every guy he faced ") but what I remember about Tim was that he always had a smile for the fans, teammates, opposition, umpires, field crew and anyone else that looked his way. You never forget how a person treated you the first time you meet them. That never changes in my mind. That has made a huge impact on my life as an adult. I still remember driving with my folks to Atlanta to see Tim play in the spring of 1986. I still have a really bad 8" x 10" of my ugly mug and Tim standing down on near the warm up mounds of the old Fulton County Stadium. I was so nervous, I could hardly stand still. This was the first time I was ever someone I revered so much and he looked at me and asked if I would like a picture. He stood right there and posed as my dad took the picture. To this day, I don't know if I've ever been quite as high as I was that night.
I always try to approach everyone that I meet with a positive outlook and a smile the way Tim did and I assume still does to this day.
He is and always will be my favorite player, but NOT for what he did between the lines, but for everything else he did.
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Posted June 21, 2004.
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