LAS VEGAS — Harold Baines was a fine baseball player who played for a very long time — a right fielder-turned-designated hitter who earned six all-star appearances, led the American League in slugging in 1984 and amassed 384 home runs and 2,866 hits over 22 seasons.
If you’re into advanced analytics, his wins above replacement (Baseball-Reference version) of 38.7 ranks tied for 545th all-time and puts him in the same neighborhood as contemporaries such as Paul O’Neill, Jesse Barfield and Kent Hrbek — all of them also fine ballplayers.
Next July, though, Baines will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor typically reserved for the greatest of the great.