tim raines is in my hall of famer collection

i've got your st. patrick's day green here, in the form of this card that represents tim raines in my hall of famer collection:

that's a 2018 topps tribute tribute autographs green parallel card, numbered 26/95.  here's the back:

raines came along at a point in my fandom where i was perhaps more interested in speedsters than sluggers.  i gave stolen bases a lot of thought early on in my fandom, mainly because davey lopes was the most recent dodger to lead the league in a category that topps deemed worthy of printing a league leader card (i am thinking of the 1977 topps stolen bases card with lopes and then future dodger bill north). i also became interested in following ron leflore and his exploits on the basepaths after after reading "one in a million" and seeing the movie with levar burton on tv in 1978.  a couple seasons later, rickey henderson had become a favorite of mine, and that's when raines became a regular in montreal.

leflore had led the national league with 97 steals for the expos in 1980, and raines continued montreal's dominance in that category with 71 steals in the strike-shortened 1981 season.  now, i was a little tempered in my interest in raines because i wanted a different rookie (hola, fernando!) in 1981 to win the rookie of the year award, and it all worked out in the end.

as fate would have it, fernando valenzuela and tim raines faced off in the postseason that year. raines got two hits off of fernando in the expos' game 2 win (although fernando did pick him off once), and then had another hit off of el toro in game 5. raines scored the expos' only run in game 5, which was, of course, the game in which rick monday hit a 9th inning home run off of steve rogers and caused a playground celebration at my elementary school.

after that season, i continued to follow raines mainly through the box scores and baseball cards. while raines didn't play in the expos game i saw in 1986, i did get to see him play in person once on may 18, 1988.  my high school baseball team had a playoff game in the l.a. area, and after the game our coach took us to dodger stadium.  we would have played in chavez ravine had we made it to the section finals, but we lost in the second round. anyway, the dodgers happened to be playing the expos that night, and we sat in the left field pavilion.

i don't really recall what raines did (he was 1 for 3 with a walk according to baseball reference). i mostly remember that orel hershiser was pitching (he and the dodgers lost 3-0), i was disappointed that kirk gibson wasn't playing (this was my first visit to dodger stadium in 1988, gibson's first year with the club), and pedro guerrero moved from third base to left field late in the game, and my teammates and i yelled at him until he turned around and waved. bleacher creature behavior, but we were teenagers and didn't know any better.  that was the only game of the season in which guerrero appeared in left field for the dodgers, by the way.

i somewhat lost touch with raines' status after he left montreal and went to the american league in the early 1990's, but he came around again in to view when he joined the yankees in time for their late-90's renaissance.

here's my hall of famer collection as its been documented so far:

babe ruth - 2003 topps tribute world series edition world series tribute relic 351/425

honus wagner - 2001 topps tribute relic

tris speaker - 2011 topps tribute dual relic green parallel 53/75

george sisler - 2004 topps tribute hall of fame tribute relic

dizzy dean - 2001 topps tribute relic

bob feller - 2001 topps archives

jackie robinson - 2004 topps clubhouse collection clubhouse relic

yogi berra - 1998 donruss signatures significant signatures 1640/2000

roberto clemente - 2005 donruss greats hall of fame souvenirs relic

warren spahn - 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures

mickey mantle - 2000 upper deck legends legendary game jerseys relic

willie mays - 1997 topps willie mays reprints autograph

al kaline - 2001 fleer greats of the game autographs

duke snider - 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography hall of famers 144/250

bob gibson - 2001 fleer greats of the game autographs

hank aaron - 2004 topps originals 1979 topps all-time record holders rbi 03/32

frank robinson - 1995 upper deck autographs

harmon killebrew - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures

pee wee reese - 2001 topps tribute relics

jim hunter - 1998 donruss signature series significant signatures 0736/2000

willie stargell - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures

gaylord perry - 2003 topps finest finest moments autographs

rollie fingers - 2018 topps archives signature series 1978 topps buyback 1/3

reggie jackson - 2018 topps tier one tier one talent autographs 19/60

steve carlton - 2018 topps five star career year autographs

mike schmidt - 2002 topps archives autoproof 1980 topps buyback 048/147

don sutton - 2001 fleer greats of the game

tony perez - 2004 fleer national pastime 2002 fleer greats authentic autograph buyback 30/59

dave winfield - 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography hall of famers 121/350

gary carter - 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph collection

dennis eckersley - 2017 topps archives signature series 1984 topps buyback 47/99

paul molitor - 2016 topps museum collection archival autographs 021/125

bruce sutter - 2003 topps all-time fan favorites

jim rice - 2005 upper deck past time pennants past time signatures

andre dawson - 2000 fleer greats of the game autographs

tim raines - 2018 topps tribute tribute autographs green parallel 26/95

alan trammell - 2001 fleer greats of the game autographs

roy halladay - 2017 topps archives signature series 2004 topps buyback 15/23

pete rose* - 2018 panini flawless legendary signatures 15/25

barry bonds* - 2001 bowman heritage autographs

you can find the full list of hall of famers (and some not - yet) that i aim to include in this collection at my want list site.

*not currently a member of the hall of fame