The Raines Delay is a phenonemon in which a player who is eligible for the Hall of Fame does not get voted in, despite the uproar of sabermetrically inclined bloggers and sports writers. The old school Hall of Fame voters, like The George Will, are too busy watching Ken Burns’ Baseball and charting batting averages into their ledgers in pencil to realize the value of these on base wizards and strikeout masters.
The Raines Delay refers to the requisite time that it takes for the sabermetricians to gain ground. Typically this time period corresponds to the time it takes the traditional thinkers to forget how un-Hall of Fame-like the player in question seemed during his actual career.
Examples:
- Burt Blyleven
- Edgar Martinez
- Tim Raines
Some Delays are more painful than others.
Visit The Raines Delay on the RBI wiki
I was going to say that you were tempting fate by mentioning Blyleven by implying that the amount of time in question was in fact finite. Then I realized Raines hadn’t been inducted either. Oh well, the pun is too good to let go.
I think of The Raines Delay as that purgatory in which Blyleven et. al are currently floating.
That photograph is hideous.
That outfit has to be 40 years old.