Former White Sox player
Harold Baines was announced as one of two players composing the 2019 Major League Baseball Hall-of-Fame class. Baines joins
Lee Smith in next year's class.
The White Sox blitzed social media all week to drum up support for Baines and Bob Nightengale of
USA Today added that Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was instrumental in getting Baines into the Hall.
The numbers are pretty staggering. Baines had a long career centered around consistency. He retired with a .289/.356/.465 slash line spread over 22 seasons. He was a six-time all-star, three of which came while playing for the White Sox.
In his first nine seasons from 1980-1988, Baines batted .286 with 173 home runs and 763 runs batted in. He logged a .797 OPS with a 115 OPS+ over that time period as well. Baines led the league in slugging in 1984 (.541), a year where he batted .304 with 29 homers and 94 RBI.
Despite a fairly illustrious career, Baines himself was shocked to receive the news.
And as pointed out earlier by Nightengale, it seems Reinsdorf had something to do with getting Baines a bust.
Depending on how one evaluates a career Baines falls all over the spectrum for consideration. Some will argue that he was never an MVP, and with only six all-star seasons over a 22-year career, there is room to shrug off a hall nod - not to mention a 38.7 career WAR, but I digress.
As a rejoinder, you'll find those that say thins about Baines.
We can't Monday-morning quarterback his election. Let's congratulate him on a career worthy enough to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
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