This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
The stolen base has become a lost art in the game of baseball – case in point, during the 2019 MLB season, teams averaged 226 home runs, but only 76 stolen bases; in contrast, going back to the heydays of speed in the 1970s and 1980s, there were individual PLAYERS stealing 76 bases in a season! While Rickey Henderson is widely regarded as the greatest base-stealer ever (he is the only player with more than 1,000 career stolen bases and is nearly 500 ahead of #2), two other prolific speedsters from this era were Lou Brock and Tim Raines. One was previously the career record-holder for stolen bases and the other was overshadowed in his prime by Henderson, but likewise incredible on the basepaths – with similar career profiles and statistics, both can stake a claim to being the second-best base-stealer of the modern era, thus the question is:
Who was better – Lou Brock or Tim Raines?
The Beginning
Though they were both natives of the south, Brock and Raines had very different early career trajectories – the former was relatively unheralded as a prospect and took some time to establish himself at the major league level, while the latter was off and running in his rookie season.
Born in Arkansas and raised in Louisiana, Brock idolized the Brooklyn Dodgers as a child, but did not start playing organized baseball until high school. Upon attending in-state Southern University (a historically black university) and struggling academically, he tried out for the baseball team in an effort to secure an athletic scholarship – despite initial struggles, he gradually improved and helped the team win the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA; considered a notch below NCAA) baseball championship as a junior and signed as an amateur free agent with the Chicago Cubs in 1960. Following a September call-up in 1961, Brock’s first full season with the Cubs came in 1962 – he hit .263 with 9 home runs, 35 runs batted in, 73 runs scored, 16 stolen bases, a .319 on-base percentage, and a .412 slugging percentage, good for a 92 OPS+ (which measures on-base percentage plus slugging vs. a league-wide average set at 100).
Meanwhile, Raines grew up in Florida as one of seven children and starred in baseball, football, and track and field in high school; though he was heavily recruited for football, he was also selected in the fifth round of the 1977 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos and opted for baseball (two of his brothers also played minor league baseball). After a few years in the minor leagues and a few cups of coffee at the major league level, Raines had his first full MLB season during the strike-shortened 1981 season and did not disappoint: with a .304 batting average, 5 home runs, 37 runs batted in, 61 runs scored, a league-high and rookie-record 71 stolen bases, a .391 on-base percentage, and a .438 slugging percentage (135 OPS+) over just 88 games played, he not only finished second for NL Rookie of the Year to pitching sensation Fernando Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but also earned the first of seven straight All-Star selections (who knows how many bases he would have stolen that year over a full 162-game schedule?).
Career Comparison
During their respective primes, Brock and Raines were among the best leadoff hitters in the game, not only annual threats to hit .300, but also steal well over 50 bases per season and/or lead the league in stolen bases.
After three-and-half solid, but unspectacular seasons with the Cubs, Brock was traded during the 1964 season to the St. Louis Cardinals in a six-player deal centered around Cardinals pitcher Ernie Broglio; in St. Louis, a lightbulb went off as he hit .348 for the remainder of the year (a career-high .315 for the full season) with 111 total runs scored and a then-career high 33 stolen bases on the season to finish 10th for NL MVP. From then on, Brock was unleashed, hitting .288 in 1965 with 16 home runs, 69 runs batted in, 107 runs scored, 63 stolen bases, a .345 on-base percentage, and a .445 slugging percentage (114 OPS+). Over the next four seasons (1966 to 1969), he led the league in stolen bases each year (with a high of 74 swipes in 1966) and had consecutive top-10 MVP finishes:
- 1967: .299 batting average with career-high 21 home runs and 76 runs batted in, a league-leading 113 runs scored, 52 stolen bases, a .327 on-base percentage, and a career-best .472 slugging percentage (128 OPS+); first of six All-Star selections and placed seventh for MVP
- 1968: .279 batting average with league highs of 46 doubles and 14 triples, plus 6 home runs, 51 runs batted in, 92 runs scored, 62 stolen bases, a .328 on-base percentage, and a .418 slugging percentage (124 OPS+); placed sixth for MVP
As the 1970s rolled around, Brock would enter his prime – after dipping to “only” 51 stolen bases in 1970, he would win four more stolen base titles in a row (making it eight out of nine years) with four All-Star selections over the next five years. Notably, in 1971, he batted .313 with 7 home runs, 61 runs batted in, a league-leading and career-high 126 runs scored, 64 stolen bases, a career-best .385 on-base percentage, and a .425 slugging percentage, good for a 126 OPS+. Following a 1973 campaign that saw him steal 70 bases and finish sixth for MVP once again, Brock had a memorable 1974 season in which he hit .306 with 3 home runs, 48 runs batted in, 105 runs scored, a then modern-day record 118 stolen bases (breaking Maury Wills’ previous single-season high of 104 stolen bases), a .368 on-base percentage, and a .381 slugging percentage (110 OPS+), finishing second for the NL MVP to Steve Garvey.
Though he never again reached those highs, Brock remained a productive player for another half-decade or so, including two more seasons with 50+ stolen bases. During the 1977 season, he achieved a career milestone in surpassing Ty Cobb’s modern-day record of 892 stolen bases; a couple of years later, in his final season in 1979 at age 40, he still managed to hit .304 and steal 21 bases while becoming just the 14th player in MLB history to reach 3,000 career hits. Upon retiring, Brock was the all-time stolen base king with 938 career stolen bases.
A generation later, Raines would build upon his superlative rookie season with seven straight All-Star campaigns (inclusive of the 1981 season), seven straight years with 50+ stolen bases, and four consecutive stolen base crowns. However, after stealing 78 bases in 1982, he entered rehab for drug abuse (specifically cocaine) and would later testify in the infamous “Pittsburgh drug trials” alongside the likes of Dave Parker. Nevertheless, Raines bounced back with a monster 1983 season, hitting .298 with 11 home runs, a career-high 71 runs batted in, a league-high and career-best 133 runs scored, a career-high 90 stolen bases, a .393 on-base percentage, and a .429 slugging percentage (129 OPS+) to finish fifth for NL MVP. Though 1984 was the last time he paced the league in stolen bases (with 75), he still had back-to-back 70+ steal seasons in 1985 and 1986; moreover, with a career-high .334 batting average in 1986, Raines won the batting title and added 9 home runs, 62 runs batted in, 91 runs scored, a league-high .413 on-base percentage, and a .476 slugging percentage (145 OPS+) for a sixth-place MVP finish and his only Silver Slugger. As a free agent coming off this 1986 season, owner collusion resulted in no teams trying to sign Raines and he ultimately returned to the Expos (he was later award collusion damages in 1992); despite the slight, he was almost as good that year, hitting .330 overall (including for the cycle in an August game) with a career-high 18 home runs, 68 runs batted in, a league-leading 123 runs scored, 50 stolen bases, and career-highs of a .429 on-base percentage and a .526 slugging percentage for a 149 OPS+ and a seventh-place showing for MVP.
Following a couple more solid seasons in Montreal to close out the decade, Raines was traded ahead of the 1991 season to the Chicago White Sox. In his first season in the Windy City, he batted a career-low .268, but still had 5 home runs, 50 runs batted in, 102 runs scored, 51 stolen bases (his last time reaching the 50-stolen base mark), a .359 on-base percentage, and a .345 slugging percentage (98 OPS+). During five years with the White Sox, Raines remained a solid top-of-the-order hitter, but his baserunning totals fell from 45 stolen bases in 1992 to 21 swiped bags in 1993 and would go down each year thereafter.
In 1996, Raines was traded to the New York Yankees, where he dealt with nagging injuries and settled into a platoon role, reaching the career milestone of 800 stolen bases in 1998. Again a free agent in 1999, he signed with the Oakland Athletics, but was diagnosed with lupus midseason and missed the rest of the year to recover. Upon returning to MLB in 2001, he rejoined the Expos and also played for the Baltimore Orioles; of particular note, while with the Expos Triple-A affiliate Ottawa Lynx, he and his join son Tim Jr. became the first father-son duo to play against each other in a professional base game and later in the year with Baltimore, they were just the second father-son combo to play for the same major league team (the first was Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. with the Seattle Mariners). One of a handful of players to suit up in four different decades, Raines played sparingly in one final season with the Florida Marlins and retired at age 42 in 2002 with the fourth-most career stolen bases in the modern era behind Henderson, Brock, and Cobb (fifth if you include Billy Hamilton from the 19th century, NOT to be confused with the contemporary speedster Billy Hamilton).
Even though Raines played 23 MLB seasons to Brock’s 19, the latter actually appeared in 100+ more games and had close to 1,500 additional at-bats. As a result, Brock accumulated more career hits, runs scored, and stolen bases; on the other hand, Raines had better power and run production and walked more with higher averages across the board (batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS+). It is Brock who compiled more “great” seasons – more .300+ seasons (8x vs. 6x), seasons with 100+ runs scored (7x vs. 6x), and 50+ stolen base seasons (12x vs. 8x; also led league in stolen bases 7x vs. 4x for Raines), yet Raines is the one with more All-Star selections (7 to 6) and a batting title. Surprisingly, there is a large gap in their career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) despite relatively similar career profiles – in this particular advanced metric, Raines has a substantial advantage at 69.4 vs. 45.4. Perhaps even more surprisingly, Brock was a first ballot Hall of Famer in 1985, whereas Raines had to wait until his very last year on the ballot in 2017 to finally get the “call to the Hall”.
Regular Season Statistics
| Lou Brock | Player | Tim Raines |
| 19 (1961-1979) | Seasons | 23 (1979-1999, 2001-2002) |
| 2,616 | Games Played | 2,502 |
| 10,332 | At-Bats | 8,872 |
| 3,023 | Hits | 2,605 |
| 1,610 | Runs | 1,571 |
| 149 | Home Runs | 170 |
| 900 | Runs Batted In | 980 |
| 761 | Walks | 1,330 |
| 938 | Stolen Bases | 808 |
| .293 | Batting Average | .294 |
| .343 | On-Base Percentage | .385 |
| .410 | Slugging Percentage | .425 |
| 109 | OPS+ | 123 |
| 45.4 | Wins Above Replacement | 69.4 |
| 6x | All-Star Games | 7x |
| – | MVP | – |
| 2x | World Series Titles | 2x |
| 1x ML POY | Other Awards | 1x Silver Slugger, 1x Batting Title |
| 1985 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2017 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
One of the biggest differences between Brock and Raines is postseason play – Brock is arguably one of the greatest playoff performers in baseball history, while Raines won his World Series rings primarily in a reserve role.
In the pre-expansion era when the AL and NL pennant winners met directly in the World Series, Brock made three World Series appearances (all going the distance to seven games) and hit .300+ each and every time, setting records for career World Series batting average (.391) and stolen bases (14):
- 1964: beat Mickey Mantle and the Yankees; hit .300 (9 hits in 30 at-bats) with 1 home run, 5 runs batted in, and 2 runs scored
- 1967: defeated AL Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski and the Boston Red Sox; hit .414 (12 hits in 29 at-bats) with 1 home run, 3 runs batted in, 8 runs scored, and 7 stolen bases
- 1968: lost to Al Kaline and the Detroit Tigers; hit .464 (13 hits in 28 at-bats) with 2 home runs, 5 runs batted in, 6 runs scored, and 7 stolen bases
In contrast, while Raines made five career playoff trips across three teams, he only played in one postseason series in his prime with the Expos (despite loaded teams that included Hall of Fame teammates like Gary Carter and Andre Dawson), a 1981 five-game NLCS loss to the aforementioned Valenzuela and the Dodgers in which he batted a mere .238. Individually his best postseason was a 1993 ALCS trip with the White Sox in which he hit .444 (12 hits in 27 at-bats); team-wise, Raines won two World Series titles in three years with the Yankees (1996 and 1998), but he was mainly a role player in the twilight of his career and batted sub-.300 in every series he played with New York.
Playoff Statistics
| Lou Brock | Player | Tim Raines |
| 21 | Games Played | 34 |
| 87 | At-Bats | 126 |
| 34 | Hits | 34 |
| 16 | Runs | 18 |
| 4 | Home Runs | 1 |
| 13 | Runs Batted In | 6 |
| 5 | Walks | 14 |
| 14 | Stolen Bases | 3 |
| .391 | Batting Average | .270 |
| .424 | On-Base Percentage | .340 |
| .655 | Slugging Percentage | .349 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; Brock took a few years of seasoning before hitting his career peak and was relatively effective even in his later years, whereas Raines was a star from Day 1 for a decade plus before transitioning to a reserve role. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Lou Brock | Player | Tim Raines |
| 1964-1971, 1973-1974 | Decade of Dominance | 1981-1987, 1989, 1991-1992 |
| 1,566 | Games Played | 1,444 |
| 6,501 | At-Bats | 5,559 |
| 1,939 | Hits | 1,675 |
| 1,069 | Runs | 999 |
| 114 | Home Runs | 87 |
| 576 | Runs Batted In | 546 |
| 504 | Walks | 810 |
| 650 | Stolen Bases | 641 |
| .298 | Batting Average | .301 |
| .351 | On-Base Percentage | .390 |
| .429 | Slugging Percentage | .430 |
| 39.0 | Wins Above Replacement | 51.8 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Even over their respective decades of dominance, Brock played more games and had more at-bats, thus leading to better counting statistics, though the stolen base numbers are nearly identical; again, Raines reigns supreme in the ratio categories and produced substantially more WAR over the 10-year span.
My Thoughts
In today’s power-driven game, speedsters like Lou Brock and Tim Raines seem like relics of a bygone era of baseball; nevertheless, as two of the greatest base-stealers in baseball history, their careers are worth reflecting upon and comparing. In some ways, Brock is perhaps slightly overrated – yes, he had 3,000+ career hits, was at one point the all-time stolen base leader, and was outstanding in the playoffs, but as a measure of overall value, his career WAR is relatively low for a Hall of Famer, in particular for a first-ballot selection. On the other hand, despite comparable numbers, Raines is probably underrated, especially since he overlapped and played in the shadow of the incomparable Rickey Henderson, who could do everything Raines did, but better. That being said, I do believe Raines compares favorably vs. Brock: while Raines’ counting numbers are slightly lower, they would essentially be equivalent when you adjust for career length and his ratio numbers are slightly better; most notably, Raines accumulated nearly 50% more career WAR than Brock, speaking to his superior overall “value” as a player. It does bear acknowledging that Brock vastly outperformed Raines in postseason play, but the sample size is small enough that I do not think it overcomes the latter’s regular season superiority.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Tim Raines
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
More Good Stuff
- Watch: Get tickets to see the St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, or any other MLB team in action
- Wear: Buy sports apparel for the Cardinals, Nationals, or any other MLB team
- Collect: Buy unique sports memorabilia for Lou Brock, Tim Raines, or your favorite MLB player(s) or team(s)
- Play: Show off your baseball knowledge by playing daily fantasy baseball
- Build: Start your own sports website/blog
Previous
H2H 108: Paul Coffey vs. Denis Potvin
