They say there’s no cheering in the press box, but sometimes, it can be absolutely awesome to watch sportswriters celebrate an accomplishment for one of their heroes. That’s certainly the case with CBS/Sports Illustrated writer and Nerdist podcast host Jonah Keri, who’s long been the foremost advocate for Tim Raines’ case for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Raines was officially selected for that honor Wednesday in his final year on the ballot, and fortunately, there was a camera ready to record Keri’s reaction (language warning):
It’s great to see how excited Keri is here (in a Raines jersey, no less), and his reaction’s valuable to watch considering that he’s been ardently supporting Raines’ case throughout his entire time on the ballot. Keri also wrote an excellent piece for CBS about his personal connections to Raines and the Expos, titled “Why Tim Raines making the Hall of Fame means so much to a kid from Montreal,” and it included some thoughts on why Raines’ case mattered to him:
For me, sports are a proxy for the people I love, and loved.
My favorite team bit the dust 13 years ago. That same team traded away my favorite player, who went on to play for five different teams after his first run with the Expos. For all of their charm, being a sports fan can be so fickle, it can feel like rooting for laundry.
But those old memories never fade. More than the Expos or even Raines himself, being a fan was about sitting beside my Papas, watching those first games when I wasn’t yet old enough to fully understand what I was seeing.
That’s why, when Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson called Raines’ name today, I, a 42-year-old man of relatively sane mind, jumped around and yelled like a damn lunatic. It’s why I thumbed through so many old albums, and cried like a damn baby whenever I thought about those very first baseball games.
Keri literally wrote the book on Raines and the Expos, and he’s been the leading advocate for Raines’ case for years, arguing it in every conceivable forum. This induction has a lot to do with Keri as well as Raines himself, and it’s cool to see his reaction as he officially found out the news.
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