It’s Today that I am writing this . . . and today is Sunday, March 10th, and yesterday was “Tim Raines Day”.
I awoke this morning with a dozen flashbacks of great moments that had happened just the day before. So many memories of laughs, smiles, handshakes, hugs, old friendships rekindled, and new friendships forged, filled my consciousness as I awoke. I took my time getting out of bed this morning, as I was recalling some of the many great conversations I had had the previous evening. I had talked to classmates of Tim Raines and heard about many of his high school exploits. I talked to his family members, all of whom showed that same small town humbleness that Tim still displays. I talked to local leaders who praised Tim’s generosity through his charitable efforts over the last several decades. I talked to baseball fans, who were quick to share their favorite Tim Raines memory, even if it was his Jheri-Curl he sported in the mid-80’s. Then I recalled one specific conversation that had me stirring a little quicker than I was preferring to be stirred this morning. The person in this particular recollection was Perla, and she is the owner and editor of My Sanford Magazine (who I am writing this for). Her words were “You have until tomorrow night to get your story in by deadline”. That “tomorrow night” she was referring to is now, right now. . . . A day after Tim Raines Day.
Where do I even begin?
I thought about doing a piece about all of the work it took to put on such a day. But thought that people wouldn’t really want to hear about 1.5 years of back-and-forths between myself and anyone I could find that had a direct connection to Tim Raines. I put my amateur reporter skills to use and dug up some of his old high school buddies and had them put in a word for me to Tim. I found friends of mine who went to school with his sons, and tasked them to put in a word with his sons . . . and for the sons to then put in a word with Tim for me. I even tried to put in my own word with Tim. But nobody wants to hear about that.
I also don’t think the readers would want to hear about how I began nagging our Mayor and a couple of City Commissioners around the same time in the late summer of ’17. Tim Raines had just been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame that July, and I had just gone up to cover it (see MySanford Winter 2017). With myself being an impatient type, I wanted to put together an event as soon as possible and hit the ground running when I returned from Cooperstown, NY.
The thought of waiting any more than a couple of months to have Tim come home for a day in his honor was not something I would even entertain the thought of . . . Turns out, days like yesterday take some time to put together. But nobody cares to hear about all of that.
I’ll spare you the minutia of 15 months of planning and skip right to the results of that planning and what did actually happen yesterday.
Youth Baseball Opening Day with Tim Raines at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium.
Youth Baseball Opening Day is basically when the Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Little League teams get to put on their new uniforms for the first time, and then parade around the field in front of friends and family. It’s a very enjoyable spectacle as kids of all ages exhibit their pride and excitement of donning their teams colors for the first time. Once Tim was able to give us a date of March 9th, The City of Sanford-Parks & Recreation Department were kind enough to schedule this event to coincide with a day for Mr. Raines. Weather-wise, it was a beautiful day, a little on the warm side, but still a pretty stellar day. The grounds crew at the old ballpark had the field in absolutely perfect shape for the proceedings. On the field were painted logos added by the crew, one of the Babe Ruth Little League, and the other, A large baseball with “TR” and “30” included along with the red stitching.
There was a 9 am reception in the Buddy Lake Room (Perhaps we will do a story on him sometime?) for Tim, his family and friends. It was a wonderful sight to see as Tim was greeted by friends from his recent, and not-so-recent past. It was actually hard to differentiate between the two as each old friend was greeted and treated by Tim as if the time away, and baseball superstardom, had not changed him over the last 40 years.
At 10 am, it was time for the Little League parade. The group of sponsors, dignitaries, Tim, and some of his family and friends were seated out on the infield between third base and the pitchers mound. Thirty teams, led by their coaches, entered the field down by the first base dugout. As they were announced, each team made their way around the backstop behind home plate before turning toward the outfield as they passed third base. Perhaps “parade” isn’t the proper word, as there was no sashaying or waving to the crowd. These kids were laser-focused in their duty to get from point A to point B and pretty much ran to take their place along the outfield grass, just at the edge of the infield clay.
Once the teams were in a wall formation, creating a colorful backdrop of spotless uniforms, the ceremony shifted it’s focus to our local hero. There were a handful of speakers from local officials to persons from Tim’s past on hand, most notable being Mayor Jeff Triplett. Mr. Mayor made the proclamation that March 9th, 2019, would now be known as “Tim Raines Day”. It was also proclaimed that the entire property encapsulating the ballpark, the ballfields, and future potential adjacent parks would now be under the new moniker of “Tim Raines Sports Park”. Tim was presented with a key to city and then took to the microphone himself. He addressed the crowd in the grandstands as he spoke about his life in Sanford. Near finishing up his speech, he turned his attention to the 350+ kids in uniforms out in the field. He spoke of his days playing on the very field they were all now standing on and the importance of dedication, hard work, and following dreams. He then threw out a ceremonial first pitch, signifying the official start of the new little league season. That was to conclude the festivities on the field, but Tim then wandered out toward the kids in the grass and wound up spending another hour mingling and chatting with people on the field
A night at The Museum with Tim Raines.
Later in the evening (last night!) we had organized an intimate gathering for Tim and his family to see the display dedicated to him and his career. Tims Wife and two daughters had yet to visit our great local Museum and he had previously expressed an interest in bringing them there. The dedicated and passionate museum staff had also put together a new collection of Raines artifacts in the lobby for the reception. With his parents, his son, and his sons-son in attendance, there were four generations of Raines in the room, in what turned out to be a truly great family gathering. There was an unveiling of a framed photo taken of Tim earlier in the day, to be included in his display to represent the dedication of “Tim Raines Sports Park”.
Later in the Evening, Post Events.
How often do you get to hang out with a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer? Unless you are also in the Hall of Fame yourself, the answer is going to most likely be “not often”. Now, it is very well documented that I have been dreaming of a Tim Raines Day for Sanford for over two years now. When I dream, I tend to have two versions of a dream . . . One version that is realistic and attainable, and one version where I push the “dream” element a little further, usually not so attainable.
Yesterdays events at the stadium and at the museum were the “attainable dreams” portion of the program. What I have to admit to here and now is that I had, what I filed away as an “unattainable dream”, an ulterior motive that was border-line selfish in motivation . . . I wanted to have a beer with Tim Raines. But not just any beer, I wanted a BOOT of beer, one to be shared with him, and his friends and family, at The Willow Tree Café. I don’t know why I decided that was to be my personal goal for my time with him . . . I mean of course besides my obvious love of Baseball, Beer, and The Willow Tree?
I didn’t push too hard for it during his visit, as I knew he had a pretty full agenda during his time here, and that we were already dominating a full day of it. All throughout this event process my role was mostly behind-the-scenes. I was pretty much the only person involved with planning this day that was NOT a family member, a city official, or a friend of his . . . my role was to help make this day happen and make the day a success, however I might be able to. And I would have been perfectly and 100% just as happy “settling” for “just” that.
BUT, come on . . . with the Museum event winding down at 8, Tim Raines standing a few feet away, and the boot of beer just a couple of blocks away, I could see the puzzle pieces needing to be put together. Tim himself had just spoke about hard work, dedication, and pursuing dreams earlier in the day, it would have been a slap in his face for me NOT to make this happen.
Well, it happened . . . or this would be the worst story ever.
After the boot made the rounds, I was fortunate enough to sit across from Mr. Raines for dinner and fantastic conversation. All of my personal goals for this project were met, and thoroughly exceeded, and I could not be happier with it all. My only hope is that Tim and his family are even remotely as pleased with his visit here as I am. I also hope we will see them all again very soon.
One final note. I have a massive amount of respect and admiration for our Parks & Recreation group at City Hall, The Sanford Museum, as well as the entire staff over at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium. They really took this idea and ran with it and went above and beyond to make it special. Also, thanks to the City Commission for pushing it through in the first place.
Yesterday was a great day.
Mike Smith runs a couple of businesses in downtown Sanford, is the proud owner of a Sanford Historic Home, is on the Sanford Museum Board, and is better known around town as “Maggies Dad”. He also claims to have the largest baseball memorabilia collection the city . . . and dares you to challenge him otherwise.